From: avr@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (adam.v.reed)
Subject: Misreading Gutman and Krakowski's "Unequal Victims"
Organization: AT&T
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 03:33:17 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.jewish
Keywords: Estimating Effects of Polish Actions on Jews during Shoah

Krzysztof Kniaz, kkniaz@eniac.seas.upenn.edu, writes:
> I have in the 
> meantime consulted a major source to this problem, the book by Yisrael 
> Gutman and Shmuel Krakowski, "Unequal Victims. Poles and Jews During World 
> War II" (Holocaust Library, New York, 1986). I believe Adam will agree 
> that this source is credible, although its balance might be a subject 
> of discussion.
> 
> Anyway, Gutman and Krakowski make a distinction between Polish underground 
> fighting organized Jewish partisan units (Chapter 4: "The Polish 
> underground and the Jews in 1943-1944), and murders and other crimes 
> on Jewish fugitives committed mainly by the NSZ (units *not*recognizing the 
> authority of the London government) (Chapter 6: "Jewish fugitives outside 
> Warsaw"):

I have included NSZ in the category of "forces affiliated with
the government-in-exile" because (1) their political echelon was
initially represented in the Delegatura (see Gutman and Krakowski,
p. 107), and (2) because the government-in-exile did not see
their policy of exterminating Jews as an obstacle to either the
integration of NSZ units into the AK in the summer of 1943 (G&K
p.123) or to a formal alliance with the NSZ early the following
year.

> P. 216: "The largest numbers of such murders were perpetrated by the units 
> of National Armed Forces; but some groups of the Home Army also shared 
> this guilt. Obviously most of these units may have belonged to that part 
> of the National Armed Forces which joined the Home Army".

Here is a sample of AK action from February 1943, i.e. before it
was joined by any NSZ units (Yad V'Shem files, G&K p. 218):

  In the village of Lubliszki, at a distance of four kilometers
  from Ejszyszki, Lida county, Anna Bikiewicz sheltered fifteen
  Jews in a bunker. She was a very kindhearted and devout widow
  with four children, who every Sunday contributed to the church
  while praying for the survival of her Jewish charges. On
  February 21, 1943, her house was attacked by a Home Army unit.
  The Home Army men beat Bikiewicz savagely, demanding that she
  reveal where the Jews were hiding. She steadfastly refused to
  tell them anything. But the Home Army men, after searching the
  house discovered the bunker and murdered its inhabitants.
  (Only 10 out of 15 were there at that particular time.) Then,
  they tied Bikiewicz up and set fire to her house. She died in
  the flames.

> Gutman and Krakowski also give an estimate of the number of Jews killed by 
> the Poles or turned over to the Germans [mind you, the authors are not 
> politically correct and write `Germans' instead of `Nazis'] as over 3,000 
> authenticated cases (p. 238). Also, they give an estimate of the number 
> of Jews *rescued* by Polish gentiles as 2652 persons, i.e. approximately 
> the same (same page). Being real scholars, the authors remark that both 
> numbers are probably way too low. 

I am flabbergasted at seeing these numbers posted as though they
were totals of some kind. The only explanation I can think of is
that Krzysztof skimmed the book until he found some numbers, and
then posted them without reading the chapter they were in. To
use statistical terminology, these numbers are observed
frequencies in a sample, *not* population totals or even
population estimates. The sample consisted of documented reports
meeting extremely stringent criteria of completeness and
verifiability, imposed so that the data might reflect the
actual ratios of the *relative* incidence of measured events.
For the same reason, events were counted only if they occurred
in a specifically delimited part of Poland (see pp 204-205). The
part used for this survey did not include either Warsaw or Lodz,
the two largest centers of Jewish population, i.e. the areas
where the opportunities for either murder or rescue were
greatest.

The relative numbers found in this sample were as follows:
Krakowski (the author of Ch. 6) counted 2652 Jews rescued by 965
non-Jewish Poles, 80 of whom lost their own lives in consequence
of their actions. They also found, in the same sample, Polish
participation in German raids on Jewish fugitives in 172
localities, and murders of fugitive Jews by Polish underground
formations in 120 localities, together resulting in the death of
over 3000 Jews.

To get from these numbers to some kind of lower bound on the
corresponding population estimates, one would have to multiply
their *ratios* by what whole-population numbers are available.
As far as I know, the only whole-population enumeration ever
attempted is of the "Martyrs of Charity", in a book of the same
name by theologian Dr. Waclaw Zajaczkowski. Many of the listings
in his book can only be called apocryphal, but he also lists his
sources for each entry, so I went through his book and made my
own count. I consider 969 of the entries to be documented and
solid, and an additional 752 as less solid, but still probably
factual.

When multiplied by the ratios from Krakowski's sample, this
corresponds to an estimate of 32,000 to 58,000 Jews who survived
thanks to help from non-Jewish Poles. It also leads to a lower
bound of about 36,000 on the number of Jews killed by Poles,
including 21,000 killed by collaborators and 15,000 killed by
Polish underground formations. Note that these are *lower
bounds*. As Krakowski writes on page 237 of "Unequal Victims",

  Crimes such as murders, or informing, or turning Jews over to
  the Germans, were as a rule committed underhandedly. Seldom
  did the perpetrators want to have any witnesses. In very rare
  cases would a Jew who had accidentally witnessed a crime
  committed against other Jews be allowed to survive. Also, the
  Polish witnesses of crimes against the Jews were later seldom
  willing to testify, if their statements would have implicated
  their friends or neighbors. As for the perpetrators
  themselves, they obviously wouldn't reveal their own crimes
  either. To compound matters, those directly implicated in
  crimes can usually rely on the solidarity of the people from
  within the social environment in which they operate. Actually,
  it is the latter who are often most helpful in covering up the
  traces.

> To conclude this posting, let me once again turn to the article of 
> Istvan Deak "The Incomprehensible Holocaust". Deak writes: "It is another 
> question what benefit, if any, the Poles derived in the long run from 
> their unrelenting heroism." It appears they derived one Adam Reed calling 
> their government-in-exile a "supposedly anti-Nazi one". (sigh)

On the evidence of their actions, the NSZ, as well as some units
of the AK, were Polish Nazis, differing from German Nazis only
in their opinion on the specific identity of the Master Race
that, according to their ideology, was entitled to exterminate
all others as it wished. A government-in-exile that bestowed on
these Polish Nazis the legitimacy of affiliation with its
Delegatura, and later concluded with them a formal alliance and
integrated them into its ranks can't quite be called anti-Nazi.
Anti-German, certainly. But with respect to its reaction to the
murder of Jews by the NSZ and some other components of its own
Home Army, "supposedly anti-Nazi" seems entirely appropriate.

				Adam_V_Reed@ATT.com