Next Mr McMillan-Scott makes the disgusting allegation that I tried to cover up an anti-Jewish atrocity. The facts are these: in 2001 a book came out that raised new questions about the involvement of local Poles in a horrific massacre of Jewish villagers in a place called Jedwabne in 1941, when the Nazis occupied my country. In 2001 I was the MP for the area. I have always said that we could not just blame the pogrom on the Nazis: shamefully, there were local Poles involved. I backed the Government’s establishment of an historians’ inquiry so that everything about this terrible episode in our history could be found out.The Guardian yesterday alleges that legitimate argument isn't the whole truth; again, apparently, in Kaminski's own words:
Like the Polish Prime Minister of the time, though, I did not think it right that our then President should apologise for the whole Polish nation. I argued that responsibility lay with those Poles who had committed that cruel crime. I thought his apology on Poland’s behalf might diminish the Nazis’ ultimate responsibility for the Holocaust. People may or may not agree, but I think it a legitimate argument to make.
Mr President should not take the guilt on the Polish nation, the whole nation that he should represent for what happened in Jedwabne and apologise in its name. I am ready to say the word: I am sorry but under two conditions. First of all I need to know what I am apologising for. I apologise for a handful of outcasts. Secondly I can do that if will know that someone from the Jewish side will apologise for what the Jews did during the Soviet occupation between 1939 and 1941. For the mass collaboration of the Jewish people with the Soviet occupier, for fighting Polish partisans in this area. And eventually for murdering Poles.Either Mr Kaminski's got selective memory or The Guardian is lying, I hope the Conservative Party's lawyers are presently at work trying to discover which.
And this must be surely one of the most bizarre stances imaginable for the leader of an anti-federalist grouping in the European Parliament:
...Kaminski has also called for his party to unite with others in support of the common agricultural policy (Cap), which the Tories regard as the epitome of EU waste.
Kaminski's views are expressed on his party's website. In an interview in May this year he stated: "President Kaczynski [the Polish president] has managed to negotiate such a shape of the Lisbon Treaty which guarantees Poland's sovereignty." He adds: "We must be allied with those EU countries that defend the Cap."
1 comment:
>> Secondly I can do that if will know that someone from the Jewish side will apologise for what the Jews did during the Soviet occupation between 1939 and 1941. For the mass collaboration of the Jewish people with the Soviet occupier, for fighting Polish partisans in this area. And eventually for murdering Poles.
Oh, screw you. This may be why you're being called an antisemitic bottomfeeder. There was no mass collaboration, not least because of lack of opportunity following the prompt killings and imprisonment of Jews, but those Jews who did side with the Soviets were doing so because of the history of antisemitism in Polish society.
Pesky Jews, always wanting something more than to stay alive?
As for the claim that recognizing Jedwabne would "diminish Nazi responsibility", words fail. They really do. The Germans were the planners, no doubt, but they could not have managed without the gleeful assistance of people who took the opportunity for a bit of Jew-murder (such as the grandfathers of certain British-Belarussian entertainers).
For the past 60 years, the narrative has *not* included non-Germans (and even only a handful of Germans were held directly responsible).
The whole of Eastern Europe escaped censure for the Shoah, and now this creep is crying foul when it can no longer be claimed - as successive Polish Governments did - that Jedwabne was carried out by the Germans.
Jedwabne was no rogue incident - along with the likes of Kielce in 1946 or the Moczar-campaign in the 1960s(i.e. after wars-end), it was part of Polish antisemitism. Yet, K dimisses the murderous actions of Polish Catholics and homes-in on a handful of Jews who behaved represensibly. The conclusion? He can excuse non-Jewish misbehaviour, but has a bee in his bonnet about Jewish misbehaviour.
That's a hallmark of antisemites.
Irena Sendler must be turning in her grave.
[1] See also Transnistria (Romania) or Topolcany (Slovakia), or those brave French Resistance fighters who attacked Jews trying to reclaim their property.
Post a Comment