ATTN: Could Learn the FACTS

This video from ATTN: is full of inaccuracies and unjustifiable extrapolations which is very misleading.

“Poland could use a history lesson from Nelson Mandela.” Why? Was he an undeclared expert on the Holocaust?

https://www.facebook.com/attn/videos/1703940066308112/

Poland was invaded and brutally occupied by the two most murderous totalitarian regimes in human history. Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Nazi Germany was solely responsible for the Holocaust.

Don’t take my word for it, here’s USHMM.
“The German occupation of Poland was exceptionally brutal.”
“Between 1939 and 1945, at least 1.5 million Polish citizens were deported to German territory for forced labor. Hundreds of thousands were also imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps.

It is estimated that the Germans killed at least 1.9 million [2.9 million] non-Jewish Polish civilians during World War II. In addition, the Germans murdered at least 3 million Jewish citizens of Poland.”

https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005473

Soledad O’Brien: “In Poland, it is now a crime to say that Poland was complicit in the Holocaust”. A bit simplistic but as a matter of (irrefutable) fact Poland was NOT complicit in the Holocaust. Such a distortion is similar to saying Jews were complicit in the Holocaust.

“Poland new law makes it illegal to accuse the country of complicity in Nazi atrocities. But many believe Poland is whitewashing its role in the Holocaust”

“It’s been called out multiple times in the media”

So, is the suggestion that because people falsely believe something it is true. South Africa believed in apartheid but that does not make it correct. As a statement of fact, Poland did NOT have a role in the Holocaust, therefore, there is no role to whitewash.

Pinchas Goldschmidt: “We know of many stories of survivors from the Warsaw ghetto going into the woods and being killed by Polish partisans”

Many stories of ghetto survivors? This is either a complete fiction or a malicious exaggeration. It was the Polish underground resistance (Żegota) and people like Irena Sendler that were trying to save Jews from the ghetto. The ghetto was cleared by German troops by May 1943. I suggest the Rabbi reads Engelking’s account(s).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto

Dr. David Silberklang: “It distorts the truth of the Holocaust about the participation of Poles in the persecution and murder of Jews.”

Unfortunately, at the time, Dr. Silberklang doesn’t seem to be aware of what the law actually states (see below). Hopefully, after subsequently meeting the Polish delegation he now understands. Anyway, the full clip gives some much-needed context rather than just a misused sound-bite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0M2pBapuhc

“Polish authorities played an essential role in supporting the Nazi killing machine” FACT: There were no “Polish authorities” during the German occupation. Germany dismantled and imprisoned the Polish authorities very early in the WAR.

“Police and Railroad employees rounded up victims to send them to death camps”.  UNTRUE. It was the JEWISH ghetto police (on the orders of the Judenrat- Jewish Council) that initially rounded up Jews – within the ghettos – for transportation. The suggestion that railway workers were involved in round-ups is laughable. The role of the police is more complicated but generally, the police in GERMAN-OCCUPIED Poland were far less collaborative and complicit then the police forces in other German-occupied countries where they actively assisted the Germans in rounding up Jews. The French police overachieved their quota for deportations and the Paris police providing guards for a German concentration camp. Approx a third of the Polish police were executed by the Germans, there was a death penalty for not showing up for duty. The Germans had to use (Polish speaking) Ukrainian and Lithuanian volunteers, ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) and Polish criminals. The Polish underground had a death penalty for any collaborator or blackmailer of Jews.

Ringelblum, page 42 of “Polish-Jewish Relations”: “But in the course of time, many honest people were excluded from the [police] force and were replaced by Volksdeutsche, criminals and weak characters poisoned by anti-Semitic indoctrination”.

Was Charlize Theron – just – talking about Nelson Mandela and she was crudely edited into your silly video? I suppose the other SA celebrity, Oscar Pistorius, remains unavailable for interviews.

The Polish law may be crass but it is sympathetic to this internationally agreed definition of Holocaust Denial.

“Attempts to blur the responsibility for the establishment of concentration and death camps devised and operated by Nazi Germany by putting blame on other nations or ethnic groups.”

http://www.holocaustremembrance.com/working-definition-holocaust-denial-and-distortion

Yad Vashem: “There is no doubt that the term” Polish extermination camps “is a historic misrepresentation!” &

“The campaign geared to recruit USA Jewry against the Polish Holocaust law contains a number of historical inaccuracies as well as statements such as “Polish Holocaust” deemed unacceptable by Yad Vashem.”
https://www.yadvashem.org/press-release/27-january-2018-18-43.html  & https://twitter.com/yadvashem/status/966681111152742400

I will finish by asking a couple of questions.

1.  Why does Poland have the most people awarded RIGHTEOUS status by Yad Vashem and Israel even though it was the only German-occupied country where there was a German-mandated death penalty for any person AND their family who provided help to Jews?
   http://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/statistics.html

2. Given that Poland FOUGHT Nazi Germany longer than any other country, had the biggest (and least supported by the Allies) underground resistance and that Poland suffered the greatest destruction and lost the most citizens (6 million) added to the fact that Poland did not surrender to Germany and there were no volunteers to German service as SS or camp guards, in what way was Poland supposed to be complicit for the Holocaust bearing in mind Polish citizens rescued the most Jews during the most brutal of occupations?

The video should be removed since it is totally opposite to all notions of truth and reconciliation. As well as insulting Poland and factual history, it insults the memory of Nelson Mandela.

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What the law actually states:

“…after art. 55, the following art.55a and art. 55b are inserted:

“Art. 55a. 1. Whoever publicly and contrary to the facts attributes to the Polish Nation or to the Polish State responsibility or co-responsibility for the Nazi crimes committed by the German Third Reich, as specified in Article 6 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal – Annex to the Agreement for the prosecution and punishment of the major war criminals of the European Axis, executed in London on 8 August 1945 (Journal of Laws of 1947, item 367), or for any other offences constituting crimes against peace, humanity or war crimes, or otherwise grossly diminishes the responsibility of the actual perpetrators of these crimes, shall be liable to a fine or deprivation of liberty for up to 3 years. The judgment shall be communicated to the public.

2. If the perpetrator of the act specified in section 1 above acts unintentionally, they shall be liable to a fine or restriction of liberty.
3. An offense is not committed if the perpetrator of a prohibited act set out in sections 1 and 2 above acted within the framework of artistic or scientific activity.”
   https://www.ms.gov.pl/pl/informacje/news,10368,nowelizacja-ustawy-o-ipn–wersja-w-jezyku.html