Date: Sat, 22 Aug 92 19:25:57 +0200
From: ianf@random.se (Ian Feldman)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.polish,soc.culture.german
Followup-To: soc.culture.polish
Apparently-To: rnews@sunet.se
X-Mailer: Fernmail 1.2b2
Organization: random design -- "Opinions, cheaply"
Summary: disowning the Nazi past; opening a can of worms
Subject: common Polish-German action (was: Nazi Camps)


 +-------------------------------------------------+
 | This article concerns the Germans, as much as   |
 | it does the Poles, therefore it has been cross- |
 | posted to the soc.culture.german forum as well  |
 +-------------------------------------------------+


 A common Polish-German action?
-------------------------------
  In soc.culture.polish <swietor@infopol.com> (Maria Swietorzecki)
  writes on Fri, 21 Aug 1992 15:36:12 GMT in regard to common media
  practice of referring to Nazi Camps in Poland as "Polish [Death]
  Camps" and the Canadian Polish Congress' attempts to set the
  record straight:

> Please support the Canadian Polish Congress efforts in the
> preservation of historicals facts.
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Maria,
  I am not sure that any _preservation_ of the historical facts will
  do any good in the long run.  What's at issue here is, after all,
  not associating the blame for the Nazi camps in Poland with the
  word "German" BUT educating the public that they were "Nazi camps"
  rather than "German" or "Polish" ones. 

  You are, of course, entirely right (as is the Canadian Polish
  Congress) in pointing out the semantic dangers of inexact and thus
  automatically misleading references to (responsibility for) such
  camps in wartime Poland.  Every time they're called "Polish camps"
  in the media, or even named as having been in Poland out of their
  proper administrative context, it feels like yet another small
  victory for the by now long-gone Nazi Reich regime. Clearly, this
  is NOT a laughing matter.

  However, pointing that out POST FACTUM to editors of the media
  at fault is hardly the right approach.  For one, the damage has
  already been done and cannot easily be undone.  Not many people
  read, or even notice, a reluctantly-placed retraction on p. 24,
  tucked right next to a 'NoRoach Formula' ad.

  For another the very method employed --protest letters to editors,
  newspaper proprietors etc-- after the event is a very PASSIVE one
  and thus hardly earning the respect of the very people it seeks to
  educate in those matters.  What the Polish Canadian Congress (and
  other similarly-minded bodies) perhaps ought to do is to change
  the tactics and work more towards PREVENTION of such unfortunate
  references occuring rather than REDRESSING the damage each time it
  has happened. 

  Prevention is best achieved by raising the question TIME AND TIME
  AGAIN in the schools of journalism, by advance direct mail to the
  individuals in the media, by occassional (media) events together
  with other organizations and by other methods.  It's a lot of work
  but, knowing that the alternative is in effect letting the dark
  spirits escape with lots of small victories --those extermination
  camps weren't put in Poland for nothing--, somebody has to do it.


 A different approach
---------------------
  One thing that has been nagging me for some time, is the post-
  reunification German attitude in those matters, if one can
  generalize so broadly (probably not, as it cannot be done about
  any other "national" attitude).  Now that at long last the Germans
  do not have to be nice to anybody in order to regain their state
  there are clearly-observable rises in German ethnic arrogance and
  nationalism. 

  Still, the undiluted logic tells me that the German people have as
  much at stake in dissolving the bond between the words 'German'
  and 'Nazi", in disowning the Nazi regime and its institutions in
  wartime Poland, as do the Poles in preventing being associated
  with those camps themselves. 

  Yet the undisputed fact that the Nazis were Germans, too, means
  that German national bodies at home and abroad probably feel
  emotionally prevented from raising their voice when the camps are
  merely being called "German" rather than "German Nazi" ones.
  Perhaps there are individuals and/ or organizations that do ask
  the media to observe that distinction but I very much doubt it. In
  any event I've yet to run accross any such item, German-ancestry
  individuals making sure that _German_ DOES NOT IN ITSELF EQUAL
  _Nazi_.

  Being far, far removed from NA politic scene (and, gee, am I glad
  for that!) my experiences and insights in those matters might not
  account for much.  Still, taken as purely-intellectual excercise,
  I wonder if any Polish- OR German-national bodies in diaspora EVER
  made an attempt to address those issues together, by ACTING
  TOGETHER in/ towards the very press that so often is at fault. 
  When calling the camps "Polish" the editors are merely trying to
  be accurate in geographical terms, isn't that right and, besides,
  they're not _accusing_ the Poles of having been in charge, are
  they? [rhetorical questions both]. 

  I am sure that, implausible though it may sound, a common German-
  Polish action or, better still, a German-Polish-Jewish one, would
  carry far greater impact in the minds of people than ever so glib
  and righteous appeals to hard-pressed media editors to observe
  what to them seems "a minor point."  Would any such common action
  be impossible to think of, because of still-open wartime wounds
  of the Poles?

  Hmmm...  perhaps the Poles, that like to think of themselves as
  more "churchy" and adhering to Christian values more than others,
  ought to study and then live up to the intentions of the 1966
  Polish Episcopate's letter to the German clergy, in which the
  Polish bishops forgave the German people for past injustices and
  asked to be forgiven for any of Polish own in return. 

  Of course, the popular Polish sentiment in regard to the latter is
  that because the Poles were victims and then made to suffer Vile
  Foreign Communism for 45 more years then this suffering automatical-
  ly ABSOLVES and CLEANS them as a whole from any past wrongdoings
  against Germans or any other nationalities among its minorities.


  Perhaps the Canadian Polish Congress ought to ask itself aloud
  just what IS the goal of its post-factum semantics-righting
  activities.  As long as they're mainly interested in substituting
  one national label that's associated with those camps with another,
  this effort is, to the best of my ability, misplaced and hardly
  JUST towards the German people as such.  Remember, the Germans
  have wronged but they are not the same people now as of half a
  century ago. 


--Ian Feldman / ianf@random.se /(ianf@dada.uucp)/ "It doesn't matter who
             / wins the election. The government will still be in power"

Newsgroups: soc.culture.polish