"Anti-Semitism" And Communist Propaganda Operations In Poland - An Introduction

"One who controls information, controls the truth" ™

Was the holocaust a hoax? Were the concentration "death" camps a profitable invention of Zionist Jews?

Remarkably, that question continues to be asked. Psychologically, the possibilities of brutality and bloodshed, carried out on an industrial scale, shocks the senses. Further, the use of the holocaust by the USSR and its Warsaw Pact puppets to discredit democratic patriotic nationalist forces promotes wariness that one is being conned. The acceptance of some of this propaganda by some of the Western left alienates those in cultural and political opposition. Laws against "denial" feed theories of conspiracy. All this has contributed towards skepticism and disdain for Holocaust reports - especially by those pre-disposed towards a dislike of Jews and especially Israel.

However, failure to recognize the great and grave atrocities committed against the Jews (as well as Roma, homosexuals, Poles, Ukrainians, French, Czechs, Hungarians, and others) hurts the Communists and Communist sympathizers not at all, while hurting the victims of the Nazis a great deal. Those who survived Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, Treblinka and smaller concentration camps often lived with physical injuries and psychological torments for the rest of their lives.

One bright spot in this history is that the Jews were not as passive as they have been reputed to be. Most resisted, to the best of their ability, the efforts made to undermine their dignity even knowing the oncoming end, often singing hymns with their final breath. Others subtly sabotaged the work they were forced to do - a loose stitch here ready to run on a German uniform, spreading glue too thin there on a German boot; perhaps these might prove "the want of a nail" that would turn a battle. Still others rose up in resistance, fighting with limited weapons against guards and Waffen SS (Eng., "Armed SS") Panzergrenediers (Eng., Mechanized Infantry). The Jewish Resistance units, such as the ZOB (Pol., Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa - Eng., Jewish Combat Organization; Communist leaning) and ZZW (Zydowski Zwiazek Wojskowy - Eng., Jewish Military Union; Patriotic), while invariably defeated slowed down the Holocaust.

The ZZW, made up of soldiers regrouped from the AK (Pol., Armia Krajowa ; Eng., Home Army; Patriotic), formed an especially close working relationship with other AK units. When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, AK units and GL units (Pol., Gwardia Ludowa - Eng., People's Guard; Polish Communist: military) attacked Nazi sentries, and tried to smuggle weapons into the Ghetto. In his book entitled "The Warsaw Ghetto: The 45th Anniversary of the Uprising", published in London 1990, published by Interpress Publishers, Marek Edelman writes: "[As early as] at the end of December [1942] we received our first transport of weapons from the Home Army. It wasn't much - there were only ten pistols in the whole transport - but it enabled us to prepare for our first major action". In addition, Armia Krajowa distributed propaganda asking the population to support Jews and broadcast calls for Allied support. PKB (Panstwowy Korpus Bezpieczenstwa - Eng., National Security Corps; Polish Patriot: military) even infiltrated into the Warsaw Ghetto to fight alongside the Jewish resistance. In a coordinated raid the Zoska Battalion of AK rescued Jewish prisoners of Gesiowka, a death camp at a small converted military prison, seizing a Panther tank on August 5, 1944 and using it to shell and strafe SS emplacements and troops. More than 350 prisoners were saved and most joined the AK (pol. abr. Armia Krajowa - Home Army - Polish Patriot military). Heralded by the communist propaganda machine as Anti-Semitic, the NSZ's Holy Cross Brigade, liberated concentration camp in Holiszow, freeing 280 Jewish women destined for certain dead at the hands of the Nazis.

Ryszard Bialorus, nom de guerre "Jerzy", who commanded the Home Army "Zoska" Battalion reminisced: "We were surrounded by a crowd of excited people. We were showered with blessings and with a pleading chorus of voices asking us - 'Give us weapons! Give us uniforms!' 'We want to fight along with you.' As we found out, many of them were defenders of the Warsaw Ghetto. I looked at their happy faces and my thoughts returned to those horrific moments, when faced with the tragedy that befell our Jewish countrymen in the besieged Ghetto, we fell such hopelessness. We had only few Stens paid for with the lives of our friends, and all we could do then, as ordered by General "Grot", to give them to the heroic defenders of the [Warsaw] Ghetto. This time our consent to let them become part of our unit and providing them with uniforms was received with an incredible enthusiasm. How much happiness radiated from the faces of those whom so many times before the death starred into their eyes."

In the forward to his much need book entitled "Two Flags, Return to the Warsaw Ghetto", Marian Apfelbaum writes: "I am aware of the iconoclastic character of this book. After all, it amounts to accusing the extensive and venerable literature on the Warsaw ghetto insurrection of not only lying, but lying by omission. All I can ask is that the reader judge the contents of this book on its own merits, sparing no indulgence for the author because he was supposedly once a victim, but also sparing no indulgence for those who, because of now-obsolete ideologies, have distorted the truth since the time of the uprising itself, and deliberately persisted in its error ever since." See our history book recommendations.

During the unveiling of a commemorative plaque on 5 August 1994 one of the Jews freed form the Gesiowka concentration camp who traveled from Tel-Aviv for this occasion said: "The Germans stripped us of our human dignity, and stomped on our hopes. Poles gave us back our dignity, honor, and hope. If there is one thing I am proud of more than anything else in my life, is to be able to say - I was a Polish [Home Army] soldier!".

In order to save NSZ (Pol. Narodowe Sily Zbrojne; Eng., National Armed Forces, Polish Patriot) soldier Jerzy Zakulski, who was condemned to death by the communists, Maria Bernstein - a Jew who survived Nazi occupation because of his efforts - wrote to the communist court 1947:
"Jerzy Zakulski, formerly residing with his now deceased father Ludwik [Zakulski], at Ulica Swietej Kingi 7 (Emg., 7 Saint Kinga Street) in Krakow Pogorze, provided me with shelter in his apartment when I escaped with my 3-year old child during night from the Ghetto [...] After some time they managed to secure a safe place for us at the Zofia Strycharska's [his wife's family] place, where along with my child I survived in [the city of] Myslenice until the end of the war. I am furnishing this statement under oath, because I am grateful to them for saving my life while endangering their own lives. (-) Maria Bleszynska (formerly Bernstein)[...] Emil Stapor, Notary." Right: Jerzy Zakulski, nom de guerre "Rudolf", "Borejsza", "Czarny Mecenas", National Armed Forces [pol. Narodowe Sily Zbrojne] soldier who saved Jews. Among Zakulski’s Polish Secret police interrogators were Adam Humer, (real name Umer) famed for his sadism and cruelty. Zakulski’s interrogations were directly supervised by Col. Jozef Rozanski (real name Josek Goldberg), and Lt. Col. Maksymilian Litynski-Lifsches (real name: Maks Lifsches). In 1969, Litynski vel. Lifsches emigrated from Poland to Sweden.
Jerzy Zakulski, NSZ, Narodowe Sily Zbrojne Soldier, was arrested on 23 October 1946, and executed on July 31, 1947 by Polish secret police, the Urzad Bezpieczenstwa. Also see: Communist Agent Provocateur Operations In Poland, Active Measures and Propaganda Operations in Shaping the Negative Image of Poland’s Post-World War II Armed Resistance.

With the coming of the red army, the Soviet forces and the KRN (Krajowa Rada Narodowa - Eng., State National Council; Polish Communist: quasi-government in exile) grasped for power. Just as Patriotic groups were set aside and being dismantled among Poles, so too were the Jewish Patriotic resistance groups such as the ZZW. However, members of ZOB, as a Communist leaning organization, were elevated in political power and propagandized glory. Some of its fighters joined the UB (Urzad Bezpieczenstwa - Eng., Public Security; Polish Communist: secret police) and attained high office within the UBP (Urzad Bezpieczenstwa Publicznego - Eng., Ministry of Internal Security, precursor of SB; Polish Communist: government police ministry). This cadre has been advanced as indicative that "The Jews" controlled Polish secret police operations and were enemies of Polish freedom and democracy. That in turn is ventured on behalf of the premise that the Holocaust was a fraud. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Holocaust is attested not only by Jewish organizations, nor by Communist organizations, but by practically every Polish Patriotic force in play during the war and after - especially the Armia Krajowa and the Polish Government in Exile. ZWZ (Zwiazek Walki Zbrojnej; Eng., Association of Armed Struggle; Polish Patriot), for example was first on the scene to liberate Auschwitz (Pol. Oswiecim), a long standing objective.

A certain Jan T. Gross asserts that "Jews were aided only by a handful of Poles" and as a rule the "Poles where not willing to help Jews". While refuting such preposterous assertions is not necessary, as they cave under their own weight, we need only cite Marek Edelman, who said: "You only ought to imagine that 12,000 Jews survived in Warsaw [alone] until the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising [...] in order for these 12,000 Jews to survive, at least 100,000 individuals had to be involved [in hiding them]. There were 700,000 people living in Warsaw at that time, thus every 7th Pole had to be involved. This is a very large percentage [...] I think that there is no other city in Europe of which we can say that, particularly since the most extreme punishment was rendered [to those who hid Jews]." [1] "I gathered many testimonies about Poles who saved the Jews, and often think: Poles are different. They can be impetuous and unjust. But I don't know if from within any other nation [in the world] one would find so many romantics, those noble people, people with no blemish, these angels, who with such determination and disregard for their own lives were saving strangers." - writes Klara Mirska, a Jewish writer in 1980. Janka Altman, a young Jewish woman saved by Polish Underground wrote: "I don't know, if we, the Jews, faced with tragedy of another nation would have been capable of such dedication." [2]

Particularly telling is content of the "Biuletyn Informacyjny" of the Home Army BIP (Pol. Biuro Informacji i Propagandy; Eng., Bureau of Information and Propaganda) dated 25 February, 1943, pp. 6, 7. It reads: "The Jews Resist. The echoes of shots and explosions heard in the middle of January in the Warsaw Ghetto reverberated throughout the entire Poland. Polish society received with admiration this evidence of the determination and desire [of the Jews] to resist. The Germans are neither hiding their surprise, nor can believe it. At the same time, in other parts of Poland, along with the gloomy news about barbarity of the [Nazi] occupiers aimed at the Jewish population, we are receiving [encouraging] news about frequent acts of Jewish resistance.
		Above: "Biuletyn Informacyjny" of the Polish Home Army [pol. Armia Krajowa], Nr. 8 (163), 25 February, 1943, pp 6-7. Source: Private Collection of G. Dayton-Mohl. © G. Dayton-Mohl
During the first half of January the further liquidation of the Lwow Ghetto took place. Nearly 8,000 Jews were transported out. The German response to the armed resistance, and the losses they suffered, was to round up [Jewish] women and children into several buildings which were set ablaze. [Acts of] active resistance also took place during the liquidation of the ghettos in Sandomierz and Minsk Mazowiecki. In the Krynki near Bialystok [see Bialystok Ghetto Uprising], under similar circumstances 12 members of German military police were killed. One of the Jewish transports from the Bialystok ghetto escaped in its entirety - only the elderly and children arrived to their destination. During the recent days further liquidation of the Jews from the Zaglebie Dobrowskie region took place. This [Nazi] action was to encompass [the cities] of Sosnowiec, Chrzanow, and other localities. We have no further details at this point. In the ghetto in the capital city [of Warsaw, the Nazis] began to liquidate the so called "Szopy" [Eng., shops], that is the workshops, and encouraging the workers to volunteer for labor in the Lublin area. This action did not result in much success; there were no volunteers, and thus [the occupier] resorted to forced repatriation. A notable response of the Jewish workers was their first significant act of sabotage which took place in the Ghetto. During the night of 18 and 19 of this month, a warehouse storing furniture produced in the ghetto and ready to be sent to the III Reich, estimated to be worth several millions of [Polish] zloty, burned to the ground. All instances cited above prove that something had awaken in the Jewish population, and prompted them to resist, and to fight the murderous Germans. [News] From the Bialystok [Region]. "The predicament of [the Poles] throughout the territory of Poland afflicted by the occupier is equally difficult [...]"

Despicable as the Communist governments of Poland have been, amply loathsome in their own right and ultimately exceeding the Nazis in brutality, there actually was a time when their precursors fought on the side of the angels. Most of these had a dream of a powerful and benevolent state alleviating the ills of man; and were willing and eager to turn a deaf ear to the stories of Soviet cruelty and atrocities. Some saw the Soviets as liberators and were convinced that new brutalities directed by the Urzad Bezpieczenstwa, NKVD, and SMERSH were simply a matter of misguided over-reach or wise action based on superior intelligence sources. In the fog of war, there are many ways of acclimating to a power that does not specifically target oneself. Some Jews succumbed. So did some Atheists, Protestants and Catholics. Not a few of these came to regret the powerlessness that their nation had been reduced to, the powerlessness of the ideals they once had, and the powerlessness to which they had reduced themselves - all excepting for their power to do evil.

Malice became ordinary; torture, a days work; execution, a set of marks on a checklist. Each act was a duty discharged to collect wages. Done with sufficient efficiency and vigor, these acts would prove a step towards advancement - effecting, in Hannah Arendt's words, the Banality of Evil.

Their numbers, however, were vastly exceeded by the Polish Patriotic forces. These, including the Jewish Polish Patriots, proved far superior in recruitment, cooperation with each other on missions, and coordination with Rzeczpospolita Polska (Eng., Republic of Poland; Polish Patriot: constitutional government pre-war and in exile) and the Allies. Part of this is the spirit of bottom up enterprise inherent in those who do not depend on orders from a foreign dictatorial power and are accustomed to self-representation. Part of this a recognition of the circumstance famously stated by Benjamin Franklin "We had best all hang together, for we shall surely all hang separately." Most of this was a function of a people naturally inclined towards good will with their neighbors, friends and countrymen. Stalin had to concede that Russian fighters fought for "Mother Russia" and not the Soviet regime. Could it be doubted that likewise most Poles - Jew and Gentile alike - fought alongside each other for their homeland and rights as free citizens? Irena Sendler (1910-2008), Polish Home Army's "Zegota" member who saved 2,500 Jewish children will come to say: "[...] we who were rescuing children are not some kind of heroes. Indeed, that term irritates me greatly." It is likely that you would have never heard of Irena, had it not been for a "group of Protestant kids from rural Kansas, who discovered a Polish Catholic woman, who saved Jewish children."

"Zegota": Saving Jews

ZEGOTA-Council for Aid to Jews in Occupied Poland(1939-1945). ZEGOTA was the only government-sponsored (London-based Polish Government-in-Exile) social welfare agency established to rescue Jews in German-occupied EUROPE.

"In 1950, the historian Bernard Mark, writing in Warsaw, already embedded in the Soviet orbit, commented on the disturbing tendency to minimize the contribution of 'the other.' That of course, did not prevent him, a short time later, from falling into the same trap - though clearly given the political constraints under which he labored, his own politically tainted scholarship can be well understood as a product of its time and place. The narrative that ultimately did emerge - largely based on initial survivor accounts - acquired the status of sacred canon. To the general public, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is the story of Mordechai Anielewicz and his band of Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa [ZOB], Jewish Combat Organization, fighters resisting the Germans." An excerpt from the "Two Flags" by Marian Apfelbaum - The Untold Story of the Zydowski Zwiazek Wojskowy (abbr ZZW ; Eng. Jewish Military Union), a Jewish Patriot military formation during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, published Gefen Publishing House. Please see our History Book recommendations for further reading.

We see nothing in even the most cynical political considerations, let alone the far greater calling of truth and justice, to sustain suspicion of the Jews as henchmen of the Communists nor to cast doubt on the carnage of the Holocaust. It detracts from the valor of Jewish and Gentile Poles, who faced astounding odds, and yet survived, persevered and attained small but significant victories against the Nazis in stand up battle and degradation of the Wehrmacht capabilities through guerilla actions. The building of a free, just and proud Republic of Poland has no better basis than the veneration of the values and courage of Polish Patriots in the fight against the Nazis and Soviets alike.