Emphasizes that the Polish people, like the Jews, were victims of a German war of annihilation which nearly succeeded. While some Poles helped Jews, others helped the Germans to hunt them down. However, these were condemned by the Polish underground. Ch. 5 (pp. 121-151) argues that Polish failure to save the Jews was due not to antisemitism but rather to preoccupation with their own survival and lack of mutual social contacts. Contends that Polish antisemitism was mainly an expression of resentment against Jewish economic domination, matched by Jewish discrimination against Poles. Poles resented the Jewish welcome of the Soviets in 1939. Up to 1942, they believed that the Jews were relatively safe in the ghettos. also denies "exaggerated" accusations of antisemitism in the Anders Army. Ch. 6 (pp. 152-181) describes actions of the government-in-exile on behalf of the Jews; denies that the Home Army failed to help the Warsaw ghetto fighters.
Author(s): Richard C. Lukas
Edition: 2
Publisher: Hippocrene Books
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 378
City: New York
Tags: world war,world war 2,germany,poland,holocaust,atrocity
FOREWORD by Norman Davies
The German Occupation of Poland
The Polish Government and the Origins of the Uunderground
The Military Underground in Operation
Civilian Resistance and Collaboration
Poles and Jews
The Polish Government, the Home Army, and the Jews
The Warsaw Uprising
AFTERWORD 220
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Zegota: A Conspiracy of Good 287
They Were Killed for the Help They Gave
Righteous Among the Nations
Posters and Announcements
INDEX
Poland, 1939-1944
Major German Camps in Poland