Anti-Polish sentiment

File:Egzekucja Polakow przy murze wieziennym Leszno pazdziernik 1939.jpg

Germans execute Poles against a prison wall, Leszno, Poland, October 1939.

Anti-Polonism (alternatively spelled antipolonism; also, Polonophobia) is a term denoting hostility toward Poles as a nation or as a cultural community, which can range from individual hatred to institutionalized violent persecution. Anti-Polonism has been prominent in some countries during certain periods in history. It has manifested itself in individual behaviors as well as in institutionalized prejudice and persecution. It is often associated with a Polish "black legend" and a belief that almost any evil or folly may be laid at the doorstep of the Poles.

German concentration camp badge, which Polish inmates were required to wear.

It should be noted that the term anti-Polonism has not found wide currency in the English language. It does not appear in major English-language dictionaries, and LexisNexis shows it to have been used rarely in English-language dailies or magazines within the past 10 years. It has, however, appeared in some scholarly works ([1]). To the extent that people believe that Poles, Polonia and Poland continue to be treated as objects of ridicule, discrimination and exploitation, "anti-Polonism" and the kindred term "Polonophobia" may enter more widespread use.

Hostility toward Poles—analogously to other ethnic phobias—has been used as a tool by demagogues seeking their own personal, or their own ethnic group's, aggrandizement at the expense of a disparaged, demonized or dehumanized people.

File:Przed wyjazdem na roboty przymusowe.jpg

Poles awaiting deportation to slave labor in Germany during WW II.

Forms of hostility toward Poles have included:

• Racist hostility, a variety of xenophobia;
• cultural hostility: a strong dislike for Poles and Polish-speaking persons;
• organized persecution of Poles as an ethnic or cultural group, often based on a belief that Polish culture or interests are a threat to one's own national aspirations.

Timeline

Organized persecution of ethnic Poles (to 1918)

File:Egzekucja 15 mieszkancow Kornika 20 10 1939.jpg

German soldiers executing 15 inhabitants of Kórnik, in western Poland, October 20, 1939.

Antipolonism as organized persecution of, and prejudice against, 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. Prussian officials encouraged the view that the Poles were culturally inferior and in need of Prussian tutelage. Frederick the Great nourished a particular hatred and contempt for Poles that reflected the antipolonism in the Prussia of his time. He spoke of the Poles as "slovenly Polish trash," "the Iroquois of Europe" and "a barbarous people sunk in ignorance and stupidity." The consequences were that nobility of Polish origin were obliged to pay higher taxes than nobility of German heritage, the Polish language 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 Prussian and later under German rule, and to Russification in the areas that had been annexed by Imperial Russia. Antipolish sentiments were fanned in both Russia and Germany.

In Russia, being a Pole was in itself culpable, and authorities sometimes employed antipolish riots as a matter of policy. Polish culture and religion was seen as a threat to Russian imperial ambitions, and officials often acted to disrupt Polish culture. Later, with the emergance of Panslavist ideology, Russian writers saw the Poles as betraying their "Slavic family" because of Polish efforts to regain independence from the Russian Empire (the latter being viewed by Russian Panslavists as the natural leader of the Slavic nations). Prejudice and hostility toward Poles are present in many of Russia's cultural works of the time. Russia used deportations, Russification, mass murder, and confiscation of Polish nobles' property to undermine Polish culture and society. The fact that Poles were overwhelmingly of Catholic and not Orthodox faith, likewise gave impetus to persecution.

In Prussia, and later in Germany, similar persecution was the order of the day. Poles were forbidden to build homes, and their properties were targeted for forced buy-outs, financed by the Prussian and German governments. 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).

Organized persecution of ethnic Poles (1918-1939)

File:Katyn3.jpg

Mass graves of murdered Polish military officers at Katyń 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. During the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-21, many Polish prisoners of war were summarily executed by the Red Army.

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.

File:Wolyn1943.jpg

Four Polish children bound to a tree with barbed wire at the village of Łobozowa (Tarnopol County), part of large-scale massacres of Poles in Volhynia (in prewar southeastern Poland) by Ukrainians in 1943.

Genocide against Poles (1939-1945)

Hostility toward Poles reached a particular peak during World War II, when all of Polish society was an object of German genocidal policies. Poland lost approximately a third of its population. Millions of Poles died in German concentration camps such as Auschwitz, where Poles were the second most numerous victims after the Jews.

The Soviet occupation of Polish territories during World War II was also extremely brutal. Polish prisoners of war were executed in the infamous Katyn Massacre and at other sites, and thousands of Polish intelligentsia, including academics and priests, were sent to forced-labor camps, GuLags.

With the conclusion of the Second World War, Nazi atrocities perforce ended. Soviet atrocities, however, continued. 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 trials (as in the case of Witold Pilecki, organizer of Auschwitz resistance).

Persistent prejudice against Poles (1945 to present)

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Against "Polish [concentration] camps"

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"Whether figures, gasoline, bombs or bread, we bring Poland death." Painted on German Ju-52 transport-plane fuselage during the Polish Defence War of 1939.

Continued mass-media references to World War II-era "Polish death camps" and "Polish concentration camps" are often cited as examples of anti-Polonism. (The afore-mentioned camps were in fact German concentration camps set up and run by Germans, on occupied Polish territory, whose victims included millions of Poles.) Those who object to this usage argue that the phrase is intended to place responsibility for these camps on the Poles, rather than simply being a neutral description of their location. 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."[2]

Robert Hurst of CTV News in Canada, however, has 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 or an apology.[3]

Also cited as examples of anti-Polonism are other phrases relating to Poland during World War II, such as "Nazi Poland."[4] Additionally cited are persistent German canards, dating back to World War II and meant to illustrate Polish stupidity or incompetence. 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. "Milder" forms of hostility toward Poles have included disparaging "Polish jokes."

File:Akcja policyjna przeciw Polakom Krzesiny 23 11 1941.jpg

German police action against Poles in Krzesiny on November 23, 1941.

"No Poles allowed": sign, in German, outside [Woodrow] Wilson Park, Poznań, Poland, 1941.

Anti-Polonism in Belarus

There are no commonly known manifestations of anti-Polonism among ordinary citizens of Belarus. However, Polish-minority rights are increasingly being abused by the totalitarian regime of Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus, where some half a million Poles live. The Belarus authorities claim that their pro-western Polish neighbors are intent on destabilizing the Belarus regime, and attempt to portray the Polish minority as a fifth column.[5] In May and June 2005, the Belarus government closed down a Polish-language newspaper and replaced the democratically elected leadership of a local Polish organization, the Union of Poles in Belarus (UPB), with persons of the Belarus government's choice.

Anti-Polonism in Germany

Antipolish sentiments persist in Germany. Poland is accused by some groups of having caused World War II. Rudi Pawelka the president of the Preußische Treuhand and the Territorial Association of Silesia in his speech made in Nuremberg blamed the outburst of the war on, in his opinion, acts of aggression committed by Poles during the period 1918-1938. German courts have not only forbidden divorced Polish-speaking parents to teach their children Polish, but also voiced objections to raising them in Polish culture, claiming that to do so would be harmful to their development.[6], [7]. In addition they have been cases were Polish workers have been ordered by their employers to talk in German during their private time outside of work. German media frequently portray Poland as an underdeveloped country where criminality is the principal occupation of the populace. The German press has coined a derogatory saying, "Heute gestohlen, morgen in Polen" ("Stolen today, tomorrow in Poland"), suggesting that Poland is a land of thieves, especially car thieves.

Another example of anti-Polish bias in the German media is the "Harald Schmidt Show." The highlights of this extremely popular program are insulting "jokes" about Poles, Polish culture and Poland. Harald Schmidt, who exploits antipolish views and stereotypes that a few decades earlier accompanied German crimes of genocide against the Polish people, such as supposed inferior intellect or natural criminality of Poles, has received the Bambi viewers' choice award, the Grimme Award, the Golden Camera, and the Golden Lion as best show host.

Florian Illies, a former journalist with the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and best-selling author, also cashes in on a clear anti-Polish bias, with jokes on the Polish language and cleaners. Incidentally, Illies actively supported a motion to reanimate name the name of "Preußen" (Prussia) for a new German federal state to be formed by a merger of the capital Berlin with Brandenburg; hostility towards Poland had been one of the political cornerstones of historical Prussia [8].

Also, German left-wing media show an anti-Polish bias. When Poland declared it would take over a zone of occupation in Iraq, the left-wing German daily taz commented that Poland was a had "self-pleasingly assumed the role of a great power", which it was only "by the grace of America", and that it was an "old dream" of the Poles to "belong to the winners for once".

German constitution grants German citizenship to Polish-born persons if their ancestors were Germans citizens living on German territory as of 1937. In addition radical German organisations expressing anti-Polish views(blaming Poles for WWII), are visited on regular basis by leading CDU and CSU politicians [9]

Anti-Polonism in France Poles are also blamed for unemployment in France after EU expansion (despite the fact that it brought more jobs to French people). Antipolish sentiment has grown in that country ( due to Poland's close relationship with United States. The fact that Poland remains both an US ally as well as a deeply religious nation, has led to enforcing of negative and antipolish views in several layers of European politics. Josep Borrell the President of European Parliament has been reported to express antipolish remarks several times, accusing Poland of "taking orders from USA". Another example of antipolonism sentiments are comments from Martin Schulz a member of European Parliament who demanded to silence polish representatives calling them "hooligans" (during the WWII the term "polnische Banditen" was commonly used by German propaganda) during European Parliament session on 27.10.2004. Shortly after the Polish EU accession, when the Polish government expressed its solidarity with the American war on terror, French president Jacques Chirac remarked they had missed "a good opportunity to remain silent", ignoring the fact that Poland had traditionally been a loyal ally to France.

Anti-Polonism in Russia

Soviet propaganda that showed Polish Home Army accused of collaboration with Nazi Germany is present in Russian media.Polish contribution towards Allied effort in WW2 is disputed.Russian policy makers have justified Molotov-Ribbentrop pact as well as claimed that Partitions of Poland were just and restored Russian territory.

Anti-Polonism in France

Poles are also blamed for unemployment in France after EU expansion (despite the fact that it brought more jobs to French people). Antipolish sentiment has grown in that country (disputed — see talk page) due to Poland's close relationship with United States. The fact that Poland remains both an US ally as well as a deeply religious nation, has led to enforcing of negative and antipolish views in several layers of European politics. Josep Borrell the President of European Parliament has been reported to express antipolish remarks several times, accusing Poland of "taking orders from USA". Another example of antipolonism sentiments are comments from Martin Schulz a member of European Parliament who demanded to silence polish representatives calling them "hooligans" (during the WWII the term "polnische Banditen" was commonly used by German propaganda) during European Parliament session on 27.10.2004. Shortly after the Polish EU accession, when the Polish government expressed its solidarity with the American war on terror, French president Jacques Chirac remarked they had missed "a good opportunity to remain silent", ignoring the fact that Poland had traditionally been a loyal ally to France.

Quotes

• "Poland is much closer to Berlin than one thinks. [...] But in Berlin, nobody is showing off with Poland, on the contrary. It is Berlin's dirty little secret that Poland is, so to speak, a terminus of its urban train system. ... Poland does not have an attractive ring for Germans ... Poland is not really an established destination for tourists. It begins with the place names; they are so unwieldy, as if a toddler had dropped his chubby hands on the keyboard, in the bottom-left corner, near YXC [on German keyboards, Z and Y are reversed]. With the country's name, it is not much better. Poland. That sounds as cold as North and South pole put together. And didn't Lech Walesa always have a puff of moisture in front of his mouth, when he was speaking to the workers in the dockyards of Danzig (sic!) ... (Poland is) so close that all car thieves could come here by public transport. And here we have that word which is officially not allowed to occur in a story about Poland: car thieves. ... We Berliners are simply afraid that our things, and finally we ourselves, could disappear in the East. This, it seems, would be a step in the wrong direction, running contrary to a law of nature, according to which people always strive westward. You go west to find a better life. The South is where we spend out vacations. But the East swallows you, you disappear in this vast openness, which becomes poorer and poorer, and dustier and dustier, and finally icy, before it dissolves in the Pacific Ocean." Quote from the renowned liberal daily Die Zeit, edited by Marion Gräfin Dönhoff, a prominent expellee, and former chancellor Helmut Schmidt, a First Lieutenant in the Nazi Wehrmacht. [10]

• "Poland’s existence is intolerable and incompatible with the essential conditions of Germany’s life. Poland must go and will go — as a result of her own internal weaknesses and of action by Russia — with our aid. For Russia, Poland is even less tolerable than it is for us; Russia will never put up with Poland's existence. With Poland, one of the strongest pillars of the Versailles System will fall. To attain this goal must be one of the firmest aiming points of German politics, because it is attainable. Attainable only by means of, or with the help of, Russia. [...] The restoration of the border between Germany and Russia is the precondition for regaining strength of both sides. Germany and Russia within the borders of 1914 should be the basis for an agreement between us [...]." — Hans von Seeckt, Chief of the Troop Office of the German Army,responsible for shaping German foreign policy, writing after the Treaty of Rapallo (1922).

• "I have issued the command — and I'll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by firing squad — that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly I have placed my Totenkopf Units in readiness — for the present only in the East — with orders to them to send to death, mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish race and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" — Adolf Hitler.

• "All Poles will disappear from the world.... It is essential that the great German people should consider it their major task to destroy all Poles." Heinrich Himmler.

• "[Poles are] cattle in human form." Johann Georg Forster, 18th-century Prussian writer.
• "[Poles are] more animals than human beings." Joseph Goebbels, German propaganda minister.

• "Heute gestohlen, morgen in Polen" ("Stolen today, tommorow in Poland") — modern German saying

• "[Poland is] an historic failure, which has won her freedom not by her own exertions, but by the blood of others." David Lloyd-George.

• "[Poles] suck [anti-Semitism] with their mothers' milk. This is something that is deeply imbued in their tradition, their mentality. Like their loathing of Russia. The two things are not connected, of course. But that, too, is something very deep, like their hatred of Am Yisrael. Today, though, there are elements [in Poland] that are cleansed of this anti-Semitism." Yitzhak Shamir.

• Poland: "the monstrous bastard of the Treaty of Versailles." Vyacheslav Molotov.

• "A hen is not a bird, Poland is not foreign." — 18th-century Russian saying, justifying the Partitions of Poland.

• "Driving through Brandenburg, one can delight in direction signs showing, instead of Stettin, strange words that look as if some software had replaced the German name with many c's and z's to make it look Polish: something like Szczetzctczin. [...] The obsession to call all places which once were German - that is mostly places in Poland and the Czech Republic - exclusively by their Polish or Czech names, and to use the former German name, if at all, only in brackets, is a wonderful spawn of the German guilty conscience." Author Florian Illies in a best-selling book.

See also

File:Wieszanie 3 Polakow Kutno 9 6 1941.jpg

Hanging of 3 Poles by Germans in Kutno on June 9, 1941.

• Anglophobia
• Anti-Catholicism
• Anti-Semitism
• Anti-Slavism
• Lebensraum
• List of Polish Martyrdom sites
• Massacre of Lwów professors
• Nur für Deutsche
• Racism
• Western betrayal
• Xenophobia
• Polonization

Specific articles

Alfons Flisykowski • Armenian quote • Außerordentliche Befriedungsaktion • Auschwitz cross • Auschwitz Trial • Consequences of German Nazism • Drang nach Osten • Drzymała car • General Government • Generalplan Ost • German camps in occupied Poland during World War II • Hans Frank • World War II • Mikhail Katkov • Katyn Massacre • Koniuchy Massacre • Kulturkampf • Lebensborn • List of Polish Martyrdom sites • List of Soviet Union prison sites that detained Poles • Massacre of Lwów professors • Massacre of Praga • Massacres of Poles in Volhynia • Master race • Maus (graphic novel) • Mein Kampf • Massacre of Wola • Myths from Polish history • Nazism • Nur für Deutsche • Operation Tannenberg • Paneriai • Pawiak • Piaśnica • Polish operation of the NKVD • Racial purity • Racial segregation • Salomon Morel • Settlement Commission • Sonderaktion Krakau • The Painted Bird (novel) • Trial of the Sixteen • Trojan donkey • Untermensch • Western betrayal • You forgot Poland • Łapanka

Bibliography

• Lukas, Richard C. and Norman Davies (foreword) Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation 1939-1944, (2001, c1996)
• Lukas, Richard C.: Forgotten Survivors: Polish Christians Remember The Nazi Occupation
• Lukas, Richard C.: Did the Children Cry: Hitler's War Against Jewish and Polish Children, 1939-1945
• Mikołaj Teres: Ethnic Cleansing of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, Alliance of the Polish Eastern Provinces, Toronto, 1993, ISBN 0969802005.
• Ryszard Torzecki: Polacy i Ukraińcy; Sprawa ukraińska w czasie II wojny światowej na terenie II Rzeczypospolitej; Warsaw, 1993.
• Wiktor Poliszczuk: Bitter Truth. Legal and Political Assessment of the OUN and UPA, Toronto-Warsaw-Kiev, 1995.
• Władysław & Ewa Siemaszko: Ludobojstwo na ludności polskiej Wołynia 1939-1945 (eng: The Genocide Carried Out by Ukrainian Nationalists on the Polish Population of the Volhynia Region 1939-1945., Warsaw, 2000.
• Filip Ozarowski: Wolyn Aflame, Publishing House WICI, 1977, ISBN 0965548813.
• Tadeusz Piotrowski: Genocide and Rescue in Wolyn: Recollections of the Ukrainian Nationalist, Ethnic Cleansing Campaign Against the Poles During World War II, McFarland & Company, 2000, ISBN 0786407735.
• Tadeusz Piotrowski: Vengeance of the Swallows: Memoir of a Polish Family's Ordeal Under Soviet Aggression, Ukrainian Ethnic Cleansing and Nazi Enslavement, and Their Emigration to America, McFarland & Company, 1995, ISBN 0786400013.
• Dr. Bronislaw Kusnierz: Stalin and the Poles, Hollis & Carter, 1949.
• Dr. Dariusz Łukasiewicz: Czarna legenda Polski: Obraz Polski i Polaków w Prusach 1772-1815 (The black legend of Poland: the image of Poland and Poles in Prussia between 1772-1815) Wydawnictwo Poznanskiego Towarzystwa Przyjaciól Nauk, 1995. Vol. 51 of the history and social sciences series.ISBN 83-7063-148-7. Paper. In Polish with English and German summaries.

External links

• The Civic Identity of Russifying Officials in the Empire’s Northwestern Region after 1863
• The Crystallization of Ethnic Identity in the Process of Mass Ethnophobias in the Russian Empire DOC format
• The Forgotten Holocaust (mass deportations of Poles to the Soviet Union during WWII) article
• A Forgotten Odyssey (mass deportations of Poles to the Soviet Union during WWII) website
• Incorrect terminology used for naming Germany's Nazis concentration camps - Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs report
• The Institute of National Remembrance
• Linguistic imprecision? (anti-Polish bias in the English-language media)
• Non-Jewish Holocaust Victims - the 5 Million Others
• World Jewish Congress statement
• Alex Kurczaba, 'East Central Europe and Multiculturalism in the American Academy', The Sarmatian Review, 3/1998
• Interview with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Adam Daniel Rotfeld "We shall not let our country be libeled"
• "Takich obozow nie bylo" (Polish language)
• Kto pisze w USA nową historię Europy, Polski i II wojny światowej? (Polish language)