From: s1137020@giaec.cc.monash.edu.au (Mariusz Prokopczyk)
Subject: Re: common Polish-German action (was: Nazi Cam
Organization: Monash University College Gippsland, Churchill, 3842, Australia
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 07:34:28 GMT

In article <1992Sep1.191749.25220@nntp.nta.no>
stoer@hal.nta.no (Stoer Mechthild FNT) writes:
>Ian Feldman in his first posting
>(proposing a common Polish-German-Jewish action)
>said he did not want to open new wounds
>but in fact opened them by hinting that
>maybe the German have something against a common action,
>and  maybe also the Poles.
>
>In his second posting he criticized John Reece's view
>that the Poles were in some way responsible for the Nazi camps
>but in the same text suggested that
>>  Perhaps the Poles collectively were too stoopid to see the larger
>>  opportunities that a nation-wide collaboration might have brought
>>  with it.
>
>That text called Mariusz Prokopczyk to the arms,
>who besides criticizing Ian's offending sentence
>could not refrain from hinting
>that maybe the Poles had a reason to be antisemitic...
>  >From seeing the hatred to Poles expressed by many Jewish authors
>  >writing here, I am slowly getting the picture why there were so many
>  >antysemitic reactions in polish society
>and (no comment)
>  >If I would not believe that there
>  >are also Jews with more human face and much better brain then yours
>  >I would be inclined to say that those Poles were really naive by risking
>  >their lives for ... sorry I will not say, it would offend those thinking
>  >Jews.
>
>Is there a need to spit all this poison?

I do not quite understand about what poison you think, Mechthild ?
The comment in second part was clearly directed against Ian and his
views expressed in his articles. I believe they were antipolish, and
hence the reason of my reaction.

>I still believe that Ian honestly wanted to defend
>the Polish people against unjust insults
>(like "Polish camps" and John Reece's offenses)

I don't.

>but later on insulted them himself,
>and that Mariusz got awfully carried away by his feelings,
>although he started out his first letter agreeing with Ian.

I have never agreed with Ian on this issue, except for some of the
specified there ideas. I did not find a single statement openly
supporting without reservation the action of Polish organization
in his articles. I honestly believe that his first article was designed
to start fighting between Poles and Germans and hence the reason for
crossposting it to German group. Also I believe now that those
supposedly "better" ideas as specified by him were specified there
only to mislead Poles that any action as proposed by Polish Canadian
Congress is not worth of support unless something better is not devised.
As those ideas at present are more a "dream-like" (at least between
Polish and Jewish organizations judging from what is happening here,
and I doubt if Germans would really care much about it) the goal of
his article was for me clearly antipolish. In my comment to his first
article I withhold any open critics of Ian, hoping that he will
understand my position and will pledge that support to clarify
the situation. Instead I saw even more open attempt to provoke Poles,
and hence my reaction.

>To return to the issue at the beginning of this Polish-Jewish discussion,
>I want to mention that I wholeheartedly support
>the action against the wording: "Polish camps".
>They should be called what they were: "Nazi camps" or "Nazi-German camps".
>(I'm German by the way.)
>
>Mechthild Stoer
>Mechthild.Stoer@nta.no  or stoer@sc.zib-berlin.de

Hope the above wiil explain at least a bit my position in regard to Ian.
Thank you for your support for the action against the wording "Polish camps".
Sometimes I wonder how one sentence could change the relations between
people, and how hard it can be for the other side to express it.

ragards

Mariusz

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