Anti-Polish sentiment
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The terms Polonophobia, anti-Polonism, antipolonism, anti-Polish sentiments refer to a broad spectrum of hostile attitudes toward Poles. They are used in historical or political contexts that take into account national tensions between Poles and other nations which lived or live in their close proximity.
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[edit] Use of the term
Anti-Polonism, or Polonophobia, has been used and studied in scholarly works by Polish, German, American, and Russian researchers [1][2]. The very term anti-Polonism was coined in Polish before 1919. It has been used, notably, by progressive Polish thinkers like Jan Józef Lipski [3] during the years of Solidarity in conjunction with the notion of antisemitism. It began to reappear among Polish nationalist circles in the 1990s and eventually, entered mainstream usage reflected by leading Polish newspapers like Gazeta Wyborcza [4]. The English spelling "antipolonism" (loanword from Polish: antypolonizm) is of limited yet well established usage. Even though the term does not appear in major English dictionaries — according to Google Book Search — it has been used in 39 books published in recent years.[5]
[edit] Description
Hostility towards Poles and Polish culture may be observed in the following main forms:
- organized persecution of Poles as an ethnic or cultural group, often based on the belief that Polish culture or interests are a threat to one's own national aspirations;
- racist anti-Polonism, a variety of xenophobia;
- cultural anti-Polonism: a prejudice against Poles and Polish-speaking persons;
- belittling the assistance given by some Polish people to Jews during World War II
One of the historic examples of Polonophobia was polakożerstwo (in English - devouring of Poles) — a term used in 19th century Poland to describe the anti-Polish politics of Otto von Bismarck [6]
Historic actions based on anti-Polonism ranged from felonious acts the goal of which was to suppress the Polish state to physical extermination of the Polish nation. The groups which are today most frequently accused of being hostile to Poles include German and Russian politicians or political parties, as well as certain Jewish groups (sometimes as part of an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory).[7][8]
During World War II when parts of Polish society were the object of German genocidal policies, German anti-polonism led to a campaign of mass extermination.[9] [10]
Polish-Americans were also discriminated against in the United States, according to '"No Irish Need Apply": A Myth of Victimization' by Richard Jensen, Retired Professor of History, University of Illinois, Chicago. "The data show the Irish were about in the same position as German immigrants, and much less liable to being boxed into a job niche than blacks, Italians, Poles or Jews."
Continued mass-media references to World War II-era "Polish death camps" and "Polish concentration camps" are often cited as examples of anti-Polonism ([11], [12], [13], [14]), although they usually stem from thoughtless English language usage rather than from malicious intentions. These terms in fact refer to German concentration camps set up and run by Germans, on occupied Polish territory, whose millions of victims included Poles. Those who object to this usage argue that these terms tend to shift responsibility for these camps onto the Poles, rather than simply describe their location in a neutral way. The American Jewish Committee stated in its January 30 2005 press release: "This is not a mere semantic matter. Historical integrity and accuracy hang in the balance.... Any misrepresentation of Poland's role in the Second World War, whether intentional or accidental, would be most regrettable and therefore should not be left unchallenged." [15]
After an April 30, 2004 CTV News news report referred to "the Polish camp in Treblinka", the Polish embassy lodged a complaint with CTV. Robert Hurst of CTV, however, contended that the expression, "Polish death camps," is common usage in news organizations, including those in the United States, and is not misleading, and declined to issue a correction.[16] The Polish Ambassador to Ottawa then complained to the National Specialty Services Panel of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, which ruled against CTV. It did not accept Hurst's arguments, stating that "“Polish” — similarly to such adjectives as “English”, “French” and “German” — had connotations that clearly extended beyond geographic context. Its use with reference to Nazi extermination camps was misleading and improper". CTV broadcast the decision during prime time. [17]. The Polish Ministry of Foreign affairs has stated: "That example of a successful campaign against the distortion of historic truth by the media — and in defense of the good name of Poland — will hopefully reduce the number of similar incidents in the future".
Also cited as examples of anti-Polonism are other phrases relating to Poland during World War II, such as "Nazi Poland." [18], or "Polish Nazis" [19] by Norwegian State Broadcasting Corporation, NRK [20]. Persistent German canards dating back to World War II survive and are meant to illustrate Poles as unintelligent or incompetent. Such stories include the false allegations that Polish cavalry "bravely but futilely" charged German tanks, and that the Polish Air Force was wiped out on the ground on the opening day of the war. Neither tale is true, as is discussed at Myths of the Polish September Campaign.
Other forms of hostility toward Poles popular during the Nazi era have included disparaging "Polish jokes", portraying them as inferior, stupid and dirty [21]. According to the same source, however, (The Mirth of Nations by Davies), these Polish jokes did not originate in Nazi Germany, but rather as an outgrowth of regional jokes told about neighboring populations, being rooted in 19th century class differences rather than specifically anti-Polish sentiment (p 176). Further, American versions of the Polish jokes are an unrelated "purely American phenomenon" that do not express the "historical Old World hatreds of the Germans for the Poles" (p. 177). However, their continued use in German society [22] has stirred protest from the Polish government [23]. Sociologists believe these jokes are used by Germans as a way to whitewash their view of history Germany, and particularly the terror regime established by German state in Poland, by presenting Poles as nations of thieves and criminals, thus giving German society a justification in the form of "If all Poles are stealing, our grandparents didn't do anything wrong, when they applied order to them"[24].
Anti-Polonism (analogously to other ethnic phobias) has been used as a tool by demagogues inside and outside Polish circles, seeking their own personal or their own ethnic group's aggrandizement at the expense of a disparaged, demonized or dehumanized people, either Poles themselves or other groups acussed of anti-Polonism.
[edit] Persecution of ethnic Poles (to 1918)
Persecution of Poles and their culture made its appearance in the 18th century, in Prussia, a rival of Poland in the European political arena. For instance Johann Georg Forster in his private letters dismissed the idea that the Poles were part of European culture, comparing them to primitive tribes and portraying Poland as an underdeveloped, uncivilized land awaiting the importation of Kultur from truly civilized countries. Such views were later repeated in the German ideas of Lebensraum and created stereotypes which Nazism would later exploit [25]. Racist texts published in the XVIII century were republished by German Reich after it conquered Poland, reflecting a trend among German scholars from the eighteenth into the twentieth century to perceive, in the difference between Germany and Poland, a boundary between civilization and barbarism, high German Kultur and "primitive Slavdom" [26]. Prussian officials encouraged the view that the Poles were culturally inferior and in need of Prussian tutelage.[27]
Frederick the Great nourished a particular hatred and contempt for Poles. He spoke of the Poles as "slovenly Polish trash," "the Iroquois of Europe" and "a barbarous people sunk in ignorance and stupidity" [28], [29]. The consequences were that nobility of Polish origin were obliged to pay higher taxes than that of German heritage, the Polish language was persecuted in Prussia, and Polish monasteries were viewed as "lairs of idleness" and their property often seized by Prussian authorities. The prevalent Catholicism among Poles was stigmatized.
When the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth lost the last vestiges of its independence in 1795 and remained partitioned for 123 years, ethnic Poles were subjected to Germanization under Prussian and later under German rule, and to Russification in the areas that had been annexed by Imperial Russia.
In Russia, being a Pole was in itself almost culpable, and authorities sometimes employed anti-Polish riots as a matter of policy [30]. Polish culture and religion was seen as a threat to Russian imperial ambitions, and officials often acted to disrupt Polish culture. [31] Later, with the emergence of Panslavist ideology, Russian writers saw the Poles as betraying their "Slavic family" [32] because of Polish efforts to regain independence from the Russian Empire (the latter being viewed by Russian Panslavists as the natural leader of the Slavic nations). Hostility towards Poles (often based on Polish historical damage caused to Ruthenia/Russia) are present in many of Russia's cultural works of the time. [33] Russia used deportations, murder and confiscation of Polish nobles' property [34] to undermine Polish culture and society [35]. The fact that Poles were overwhelmingly of Catholic and not Orthodox faith, likewise gave impetus to persecution, [36], which was seen as a historical revenge and a rollback policy of Polish Catholic expansionism of previous centuries.
In Prussia, and later in Germany, Poles were forbidden to build homes, and their properties were targeted for forced buy-outs, financed by the Prussian and German governments. Otto von Bismarck described Poles, as animals (wolves), that "one shoots if one can" and implemented several harsh laws aiming at discrimination of Poles. The Polish language was banned from use, and Polish children were tortured at school for speaking Polish (Września). Poles were also subject to forced deportations (Rugi Pruskie), and German government encouraged and financed settlement of ethnic Germans into Polish areas aiming at their Germanisation.
During the First World War, Imperial Germany planned to annex territories in the area of Congress Poland and perform ethnic cleansing of Polish and Jewish population followed by settlement of Ethnic Germans [37][38],[39]
[edit] Persecution of ethnic Poles (1918-1939)
After Poland regained its independence following the First World War as the Second Republic of Poland, the question of its borders was not settled. Poles were persecuted in the disputed territories, especially in Silesia, where this led to the Silesian Uprisings.
The aftermath of the Polish-Ukrainian War (1918-19), the Polish-Soviet War (1919-21) and the Treaty of Riga (1921), coupled with Soviet and Polish propaganda, led to growing tensions between Poles and Ukrainians in eastern Poland.
However, these tensions grew in the context of hundreds of years of oppression that Ukrainian peasantry suffered earlier under the Polish rule between the 1569 Union of Lublin, when Ukrainian territories formerly controlled by largely Ruthenized Grand Duchy of Lithuania were absorbed into Poland, until the Third Partition of Poland (1795). Colonization of Ukraine [40] by the Polish nobility, persecution[41] and even an attempted ban[42] of the Eastern Orthodox Church in the Polish controlled territories following the unsuccessful attempt to convert even the Ukrainian peasantry[43] [44] into the catholicism, pressures of Polonization of Ukrainian nobility and cultural elite soured the Ukrainian-Polish relationships long before the rising of Second Polish Republic.
Following Ukrainian attempt for self-determination in Galicia and Volhynia being crushed by the Polish forces [45] (1918-19) and an unsuccessful Polish invasion into central Ukraine (1920) aimed at installing a pro-Polish government of Symon Petlura in Kiev as part of a Polish-dominated "Federation", the 1921 Treaty of Riga gave to Poland much of the largely Ukrainian populated territories in Galicia, Volhynia, Podolia and Polesia. The nationalist policies in the inter-war Poland were directed towards the Polonization and cultural assimilation of ethnic minorities contrary to the international obligation Poland had to grant the autonomy to ethnic Ukrainian territories[46]. That time actions of Poland can best be characterized by the quote of Roman Dmowski a chief ideologue of the uniform Catholic single nation state: "Wherever we can multiply our forces and our civilizational efforts, absorbing other elements, no law can prohibit us from doing so, as such actions are our duty." Hence, it was no surprise that significant tensions between Poles and Ukrainians could only increase in such climate.
[edit] Second World War (1939-1945)
Hostility toward Poles reached a particular peak during World War II, when Poles became objects of Nazi genocidal policies. Poland lost approximately a third of its population. Millions of Poles, both Christian and Jewish, died in German concentration camps such as Auschwitz (in Poland).
Soviet policy in the non-Polish territories of Poland during World War II was ruthless, with elements of ethnic cleansing. The Soviets executed Polish prisoners of war in the Katyn Massacre and at other sites, and sent thousands of Polish intelligentsia, including academics and priests, to forced-labor camps ("Gulags").
With the conclusion of the Second World War, Nazi atrocities perforce ended. Soviet oppression continued, however. Soldiers of Poland's Home Army (Armia Krajowa) and returned veterans of the Polish Armed Forces that had served with the Western Allies were persecuted, sometimes imprisoned and often executed following staged trials (as in the case of Witold Pilecki, the organizer of Auschwitz resistance).
[edit] Misuse of the term
The term is widely used by right-wing and populist groups such as the League of Polish Families (Polish: Liga Polskich Rodzin) or Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland (Polish: Samoobrona Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej) which are represented in the Polish parliament. According to the book The Neighbors Respond by Antony Polonsky and Joanna Michlic, the term is also used in other contexts in Poland: "The term anti-polonism is sometimes used in a very broad and peculiar sense, not limited to arguments that can objectively be classified as anti-Polish – such as equating the Poles with the Nazis – but rather applied to any critical inquiry into the collective past. Moreover, anti-Polonism is equated with anti-Semitism." (see: pg. 6)
Extremist circles and some journalists, when they refer to anti-Polonism, incorporate conspiracy theories which link the historical persecution of the Polish nation with the incidents of present times. Such ideologists link authentic manifestations of historical prejudice or persecution against Poles to support nationalistic views.[citation needed]
Anti-Polonism is sometimes used as a slur by right-wing groups. For example, individuals of Polish ethnic background have been accused of being anti-Pole when they have investigated crimes such as the Jedwabne massacre. As discussed in the Times Literary Supplement:
Indeed, a significant proportion of Polish citizenry remains cocooned in myths of "traditional Polish tolerance" (largely true in the multi-ethnic Kingdom of Poland centuries ago, not much in evidence subsequently) and of Poland as "Christ among nations"-- a chosen people, singularly virtuous and ready to redeem the world in the name of "your and our freedom." For them, anything perceived as a slur on the good name of their country arouses passionate rebuttals and charges of malevolence and "anti-Polonism". In January 1994 a young correspondent of Gazeta Wyborcza, Michal Cichy, reported on the case of about 40 Jews killed by a group of Polish fighters during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. The article, which in no way implied that the insurgents at large committed such outrages, elicited an orgy of protests. A prominent historian, Tomasz Strzembosz, accused Cichy of practicing a "distinct type of racism," and charged his boss, Adam Michnik, of "cultivating a species of tolerance that is absolutely intolerant of antisemitism yet regards anti-Polonism and anti-goyism [sic] as something altogether natural." — Abraham Blumberg, Murder Most Foul, TLS, March 2 2001[48]
Jews are accused by some anti-semitic groups as being part of an anti-Polish conspiracy, (see Żydokomuna).
[edit] Related Quotations
- "You are standing opposite to the most dangerous, fanatic enemy of German existence, German honour and German reputation in the world: The Poles." Slogan of the German nationalistic Hakata movement[49]
- "Poles suck in anti-Semitism with their mothers' milk.[50] This is something that is deeply imbued in their tradition, their mentality. Like their loathing of Russia. The two things are not connected, of course. But that, too, is something very deep, like their hatred of Am Yisrael. Today, though, there are elements [in Poland] that are cleansed of this anti-Semitism." Former Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Shamir in an interview on September 8, 1989, Friday Jerusalem Post
- "So clobbeth the Poles so that they despair; they have my deepest sympathy for their situation, but, if we want to exist, we have no choice but to wipe them out ('ausrotten'); the wolf cannot help it that he was created by God the way he is, but one shoots him yet, if one can." Otto von Bismarck
- "Poland’s existence is intolerable and incompatible with the essential conditions of Germany’s life. Poland must go and will go — as a result of her own internal weaknesses and of action by Russia — with our aid. For Russia, Poland is even less tolerable than it is for us; Russia will never put up with Poland's existence. With Poland, one of the strongest pillars of the Versailles System will fall. To attain this goal must be one of the firmest aiming points of German politics, because it is attainable. Attainable only by means of, or with the help of, Russia. [...] The restoration of the border between Germany and Russia is the precondition for regaining strength of both sides. Germany and Russia within the borders of 1914 should be the basis for an agreement between us [...]." — Hans von Seeckt, Chief of the Troop Office of the German Army, responsible for shaping German foreign policy, writing after the Treaty of Rapallo (1922).
- "I have issued the command — and I'll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by firing squad — that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly I have placed my Totenkopf Units in readiness — for the present only in the East — with orders to them to send to death, mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish race and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" — Adolf Hitler. (the authenticity of this quote is disputed, see Armenian quote)
- "All Poles will disappear from the world.... It is essential that the great German people should consider it their major task to destroy all Poles." Heinrich Himmler.
- "[Poles are] cattle in human form." Johann Georg Forster, 18th-century Prussian writer.
- "Wouldn't it be wonderful to put all Poles in oven?" Dr. Hermann Voss, chief anatomist at the Reich University of Posen[51]
- "[Poles are] more animals than human beings." Joseph Goebbels, Nazi German propaganda minister.
- "Heute gestohlen, morgen in Polen." (German for "Stolen today, tomorrow in Poland.")[52]A German saying portraying Poles as a nation of thieves.
- "[Poland is] an historic failure, which has won her freedom not by her own exertions, but by the blood of others." David Lloyd-George, 1919, during Polish fight for independence of the newly freed country.
- "Poliakam, panam, sobakam sobachya smert!." [For Poles, landowners, for dogs — a dog's death!] - allegedly[53] a propaganda slogan of Soviets during Soviet aggression in 1939.
- "We have to overcome all signs of antijewishness, anti-judaism (dislike born out of wrong understanding of Church's teachings), antisemitism (hatred born out of national or racial prejudice), that happened or still exist among christians. We expect the same determination towards eradicating anti-polonism." Statement by Polish Roman Catholic Church Episcopate on August 25 2000 during the meeting on Jasna Gora monastery [54].
- "The conscience of the Polish nation would be sick and mortally wounded if we did not ask another question: even if now with weapons in hand did we not do at least as much as possible to help and save the Jews? Yet Poles are often wronged when, in the world, too far-reaching generalizations are drawn concerning the collaboration of some Poles in the tracking down of the Jews, or the blackmailing of them. Criminal and amoral social margins exist in every community, and among their victims at the time in Poland were not only Jews, but also general Grot Rowecki, and thousands of soldiers of the anti-Nazi conspiracy. We should reject irresponsible generalizations in this matter, just as we should reject generalizations that wrong other nations. Anti-Polonism is not morally any better than anti-Semitism or anti-Ukrainism." Jan Józef Lipski.
- "We have already formed displacement policies regarding the Polish population within Poland; the ultimate task is to wipe out the Poles and repopulate lands that rightfully belong to Germany" Adolf Hitler, April 13, 1941 speech
[edit] References
- ^ "Jacek Kurczewski, Joanna Tokarska-Bakir, and David Warszawski contributed a number of commentaries and essays on the Jedwabne massacre and its moral implications and on a wide variety of social and ethical problems raised by the event. Halina Bortnowska wrote a poem, “Psalm dla pielgrzymów do Jedwabnego” (Psalm for the pilgrims to Jedwabne), which appeared in Gazeta Wyborcza a month before the official commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the massacre. The nationalist press labelled this group of authors “flagellators” (biczownicy) who represent an anti-Polish position." Joanna Michlic, The Polish Debate about the Jedwabne Massacre
[edit] Bibliography
- Koźmian, Stanisław O działaniach i dziełach Bismarcka, "Przegląd Polski", Sept. 1875, pp. 356-388 and Oct. 1875, pp. 110-123,
- Lukas, Richard C. and Norman Davies (foreword) Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation 1939-1944, (2001, c1996)
- Lukas, Richard C.: Forgotten Survivors: Polish Christians Remember The Nazi Occupation
- Lukas, Richard C.: Did the Children Cry: Hitler's War Against Jewish and Polish Children, 1939-1945
- Mikołaj Teres: Ethnic Cleansing of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, Alliance of the Polish Eastern Provinces, Toronto, 1993, ISBN 0-9698020-0-5.
- Ryszard Torzecki: Polacy i Ukraińcy; Sprawa ukraińska w czasie II wojny światowej na terenie II Rzeczypospolitej; Warsaw, 1993.
- Wiktor Poliszczuk: Bitter Truth. Legal and Political Assessment of the OUN and UPA, Toronto-Warsaw-Kiev, 1995.
- Władysław & Ewa Siemaszko: Ludobojstwo na ludności polskiej Wołynia 1939-1945 (eng: The Genocide Carried Out by Ukrainian Nationalists on the Polish Population of the Volhynia Region 1939-1945., Warsaw, 2000.
- Filip Ozarowski: Wolyn Aflame, Publishing House WICI, 1977, ISBN 0-9655488-1-3.
- Tadeusz Piotrowski: Genocide and Rescue in Wolyn: Recollections of the Ukrainian Nationalist, Ethnic Cleansing Campaign Against the Poles During World War II, McFarland & Company, 2000, ISBN 0-7864-0773-5.
- Tadeusz Piotrowski: Vengeance of the Swallows: Memoir of a Polish Family's Ordeal Under Soviet Aggression, Ukrainian Ethnic Cleansing and Nazi Enslavement, and Their Emigration to America, McFarland & Company, 1995, ISBN 0-7864-0001-3.
- Dr. Bronislaw Kusnierz: Stalin and the Poles, Hollis & Carter, 1949.
- Dr. Dariusz Łukasiewicz: Czarna legenda Polski: Obraz Polski i Polaków w Prusach 1772-1815 (The black legend of Poland: the image of Poland and Poles in Prussia between 1772-1815) Wydawnictwo Poznanskiego Towarzystwa Przyjaciól Nauk, 1995. Vol. 51 of the history and social sciences series. ISBN 83-7063-148-7. Paper. In Polish with English and German summaries.
- Eduard v. Hartmanns Schlagwort vom "Ausrotten der Polen" : Antipolonismus und Antikatholizismus im Kaiserreich / Helmut Neubach.
- 'Erbfeindschaften': Antipolonismus, Preußen- und Deutschlandhaß, deutsche Ostforschung und polnische Westforschung, [w:] Deutschland und Polen im 20. Jahrhundert, red. U. A. J. Bechner, W. Borodziej, t. Maier, Hannover 2001
[edit] External links
- "No Irish need apply" A Myth of Victimization by Richard Jensen
- The Civic Identity of Russifying Officials in the Empire’s Northwestern Region after 1863
- The Crystallization of Ethnic Identity in the Process of Mass Ethnophobias in the Russian Empire DOC format
- Half of the Polish citizens killed in World War II were Non-Jews
- The Forgotten Holocaust (mass deportations of Poles to the Soviet Union during WWII) article
- A Forgotten Odyssey (mass deportations of Poles to the Soviet Union during WWII) website
- Incorrect terminology used for naming Germany's Nazis concentration camps - Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs report
- The Institute of National Remembrance
- Linguistic imprecision? (anti-Polish bias in the English-language media)
- Non-Jewish Holocaust Victims - the 5 Million Others
- World Jewish Congress statement
- Alex Kurczaba, 'East Central Europe and Multiculturalism in the American Academy', The Sarmatian Review, 3/1998
- Interview with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Adam Daniel Rotfeld "We shall not let our country be libeled"
- (Polish) "Takich obozow nie bylo"
- (Polish) Kto pisze w USA nową historię Europy, Polski i II wojny światowej?
- Polonia in Germany
- Religion, Nationality, or Politics: Catholicism in the Russian Empire, 1863-1905 pdf
- The German New Order in Poland
- A Polish Deportee Recalls Her Ordeal
