Information AboutPolonophobia |
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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 consider national tensions between Poles and other nations which lived or live in their close proximity. USE OF THE TERM Anti-Polonism, or Polonophobia, has been used and studied in scholarly works by Polish, German, American, and Russian researchers {Link without Title} {Link without Title} . The very term anti-Polonism was coined in Polish before has been used only twice in English-language dailies or magazines within the past 10 years. DESCRIPTION transport-plane fuselage during the Polish September Campaign 1939 .]] The historic counterpart of ''anti-Polonism'' is ''polakożerstwo'' (in English - ''the devouring of Poles'') — a term used in 19th Century to describe the anti-Polish politics of Otto Von Bismarck . Anti-Polonism may be observed in the following main forms:
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 anti-Polonism include Jewish groups (often as part of an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory) and German and Russian politicians or political parties. [http://www.nop.org.pl/ [http://www.europeannationalfront.com/?id=10] 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. {Link without Title} {Link without Title} 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 ( [http://www.auschwitz.org.pl/html/eng/aktualnosci/news_big.php?id=224 , [http://www.citinet.net/ak/polska_20_f2.html ), although they usually stem from thoughtless English language usage rather than from malicious intentions. These terms in fact refer to German Concentration Camp s set up and run by Germans, on occupied Polish territory, whose millions of victims included some 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 World Jewish Congress stated in January 2005: "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." [http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/nfo/article.cfm?id=3036] 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.[http://www.auschwitz.org.pl/html/eng/aktualnosci/news_big.php?id=669] 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. [http://www.mfa.gov.pl/Canadian,CTV,Television,censured,,for,inaccurate,and,unfair,reporting,in,referring,to,%E2%80%9EPolish,ghetto%E2%80%9D,and,,%E2%80%9EPolish,camp,of,Treblinka%E2%80%9D,2075.html]. 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." or "Polish Nazis" [http://www.maxveritas.com by Norwegian State Broadcasting Corporation, NRK [http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/utenriks/4418748.html]. 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 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 [http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=bmmpQofxEgcC&pg=PA82&lpg=PA82&dq=%22Polish+Jokes%22+germany&prev=http://books.google.com/books%3Fq%3D%2522Polish%2BJokes%2522%2Bgermany&sig=xvxnJYfO23mxoy2baBYYOj6ioJg has stirred protest from the Polish government [http://www.poloniaberlin.de/index.php?subaction=showcomments&id=1070967623&archive=&start_from=&ucat=&]. Anti-Polonism (analogously to other Ethnic Phobia s) has been used as a tool by Demagogue s 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. 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. This planted the seeds for German ideas of Lebensraum and created stereotypes which Nazism would later exploit Racist texts published in 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" [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=172484663549 . Prussian officials encouraged the view that the Poles were culturally inferior and in need of Prussian tutelage.[http://www.oslo2000.uio.no/program/papers/s18/s18-blackbourn.pdf] 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 Prussia n and later under German rule, and to Russification in the areas that had been annexed by Imperial Russia . execute Poles against a prison wall, Leszno , Poland , October 1939 .]] In 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. Russia used deportations, murder and confiscation of Polish nobles' property [http://www.stfrancis.edu/en/student/HeartofDark/Russian-occupied%20Poland.htm to undermine Polish culture and society The fact that Poles were overwhelmingly of Catholic and not Orthodox faith, likewise gave impetus to persecution, [http://www.yale.edu/ycias/europeanstudies/empire/Paper-Weeks.pdf , 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 . Persecution of ethnic Poles ( 1918 - 1939 ) Wood, near Smolensk in western Russia .]] 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 Propaganda , led to growing tensions between Poles and Ukrainians in eastern Poland. However, this tensions grew in the context of hundreds of years of oppression that Ukrainian peasantry suffered earlier under the Polish rule between the 1569 , pressures of Polonization of Ukrainian nobility and cultural elite soured the Ukrainian-Polish relationships long before the rising of Second Polish Republic . Following 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. 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 Camp s such as Auschwitz (in Poland). The Soviet occupation of Polish territories during World War II was also extremely brutal. Polish prisoners of war were executed in the Katyn Massacre and at other sites, and thousands of Polish Intelligentsia , including academics and priests, were sent to forced-labor camps ( Gulag s). With the conclusion of the Second World War, Nazi atrocities per force ended. Soviet atrocities 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, imprisoned and often executed following Staged Trial s (as in the case of Witold Pilecki , the organizer of Auschwitz resistance). MISUSE OF THE TERM The term is widely used by right-wing and populist groups such as the . Additionally, according to Antony Polonsky and Joanna Michlic in their book ''The Neighbors Respond'', 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." 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. Anti-Polonism is often 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 Jews are accused by some anti-semitic groups as being part of an anti-Polish conspiracy, (see '' Żydokomuna ''). RELATED QUOTES , in western Poland, October 20 , 1939 .]] REFERENCES |
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