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Courtesy of Adam Galica
Photos of Jews who died during World War II adorn one of the few remaining buildings on Prozna Street in this picture taken during October of 2011 in Poland's Muranow district.
Marianna Sowinska
Journalist Beata Chomatowska's new book, "Stacja Muranow," recounts the history of Muranow, a district in Warsaw where thousands of Jews were buried underneath the ruins of World War II.
When Polish journalist Beata Chomatowska walks the streets of Muranow, she can’t stop thinking about the horrible things that happened there.
“It’s a daily trauma,” she said.
Present-day Muranow, a district of Warsaw, Poland, is built on rubble and the remains of Jews who perished there during World War II, but many residents are ignorant of the area’s past.
So Chomatowska started a website to educate them called “Stacja Muranow,” which means “Muranow Stop.” And in October she published a book by the same name, chronicling the haunted past of the former Jewish ghetto.
“It’s a metaphor for Poland after the war, which largely erased the memory of its Jews,” said Chomatowska, 35, who is not Jewish but has long been fascinated by the history of Jews in Poland. A native of Krakow, she moved to Muranow in 2005 to start working at Rzeczpospolita (The Republic), a leading Polish newspaper, and was shocked by the silence and emptiness of her new neighborhood.
“How do people live in houses made of ghetto bricks?” she asked. “The houses looked artificial and so did the hills. It was scary.”
During World War II, the Germans packed 400,000 Jews into the 1.3 square-mile area that became known as the Warsaw Ghetto, where Muranow is located.
Some 300,000 Jews were deported to the killing center at Treblinka. The final deportation, on April 19, 1943, became the prearranged signal for an armed uprising against German forces. After the Jewish resistance was crushed on May 16, 1943, most of the remaining Jews were sent to death camps and the Germans razed the ghetto. Thousands were buried in the ruins. Many hid in cellars and were killed when the buildings were flattened.
Poland’s post-war communist rulers, who were faced with the challenge of building housing for its many citizens left homeless by the war, found the rubble of the ghetto too extensive to clear. Buildings were constructed on the ruins using bricks from the ghetto. Built on this rubble, the street levels are uneven and often hilly.
Handout
The ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto right after World War II.
Communist rulers touted Muranow as a utopia for workers and purposefully erased its Jewish history, leaving subsequent generations in the dark. In her book, Chomatowska tells the stories of some of the Jewish dead and laments the fact that most of today’s Muranow residents know little of the neighborhood’s history.
That is starting to change. Thirty residents have joined Chomatowska’s Muranow education project, meeting in an unfurnished office with no hint of the past. She’s particularly proud of one of the murals painted by members of the group in the entry way of an apartment building. It features prominent Jews who lived in Muranow before the war, such as the creator of Esperanto, Ludwik Zamenhoff, who hoped his universal language would unite people of different cultures.
Restoring memories of the Holocaust
In her book, which is in Polish, Chomatowska tells the stories of former Muranow residents such as Jakub Wisnia, a Warsaw Ghetto fighter who survived the Holocaust.
After researching Wisnia’s life, she described what he saw in August 1942 when Jews were being herded into trains destined for the Treblinka death camp.
One passage reads: “The streets of the ghetto were hell. Women wept. Children held their mothers tightly, and the men clenched their teeth nervously, looking for a moment when they could escape. Anyone who stepped out of line was beaten unconscious, or shot.”
Wisnia fought alongside fellow Jews during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising until the Germans arrested him and sentenced him to death. The Polish underground rescued him, and in August 1944, he joined Poles, Jews and non-Jews, in their abortive revolt against German rule. He avoided arrest by hiding in the city’s rubble for 108 days. He lived into his 80s, and was buried in Warsaw’s Jewish Cemetery in 1983.
‘Haunted’ by Muranow
The area’s tragic past have led to claims of ghosts and feelings of dread. For example, Audrey Mallet, a French researcher who wrote a paper on Muranow, said some current inhabitants fear that Jews will come back and kill them.
Holocaust historian Barbara Engelking moved out of Muranow because she said she was haunted by its past.
“It was not like living in a graveyard,” she said during an interview with NBC News at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw in October 2011. “It was like living with ghosts, and my research made them real.”
Muranow residents should not be mired in the past, Chomatowska says, but it should inform their view of the present.
Her book, centered on the oblivion surrounding Muranow, is about “how people forget,” she said. “And how the place doesn’t let them forget.”
To learn more about the book Stacja Muranow, please visit the publisher’s website: www.czarne.com.pl
Don Snyder, a veteran NBC News producer for more than 25 years, is a special correspondent for NBCNews.com.
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I very much admire her efforts to bring the history of this place back. The Polish community in Poland was almost completely eradicated during the war and forgotten after it as if it had never existed. The hundreds of thousands who died both in the Uprising & the death camps should be remembered, future generations should never forget the tragedy so it can never be repeated. I'm not sure I'd have the courage to live there either - the knowledge of its history would haunt me, but kudos to those who are trying to.
Never be repeated?
Cambodia
Croatia
Africa
What happened there?
Did you hear any Jewish leaders speaking out for those atrocities?
Vindicator, you got an unhealthy obsession against Mexico. I can tell you are one of those angry Mitt Romney supporters. Is funny how you all can be identified easily, and your prejudice and bigotry makes you stick out like a sore thumb.
And Israel doesn't hear the echoes of the Warsaw Ghetto in Gaza and the West Bank?
Gaza is the modern equivalent of the Warsaw Ghetto. No death camps, but the oppression is the same.
AAJJ, ED, yeah echoes like in cool Motor Cycles buzzing around with their"buddies" in tow, wearing nice clothes, and shoes, looking well fed, some could even afford to lose a few pounds. They live better then you. Don't be fooled, by the use of their sisters, and Mothers as Human shields. Yeah Ed, you should have such oppression
A good book to read that factually tells the other side of the story is, "The Israeli Holocaust Against the Palestinians" by Hoffman and Lieberman, avail @ Amazon--remember there are TWO sides to every story.
No one "Invaded" your country, and they aren't stealing immigration. Greedy American business owners have turned them into slaves. You can argue that point if you want to, but they are doing jobs that many Americans didn't and don't want, and for wages Americans wouldn't work for. And before you start the resource whine, those agencies need only police themselves better and the problem would end.
Vindicator111111
Mexico declared war against Germany during World War 2 and never sent a single soldier to fight them.
You are wrong.
However, only the already modernized Mexican Air Force was to actually engage in combat. Mexican pilots received additional training in the United States and in 1945 fought valiantly in the air war in the Phillipines. Only one squadron, Number 201, actually saw combat. Nicknamed "The Aztec Eagles," they flew P-47 Thunderbolt fighters and offered close ground support for U.S. and Philipino ground forces as they struggled to liberate the islands from the Japanese. Decorated by the United States, Mexico and the Phillipines, its 31 pilots and approximately 150 ground support personnel were the only Mexican military force to serve outside of Mexico. Of the squadron's 31 pilots, 5 were killed in action. Its personnel, both pilots and ground support elements certainly deserve to be regarded as heros by both Mexico and the United States.
Also unrecognized, untold numbers of Mexicans, particularly those with relatives in the U.S., flocked across the border and served in all branches of the U.S. military. How many of them were killed is unknown. For those who chose to become U.S. citizens, citizenship was automatic. However, over the years, many returned to Mexico despite their new citizenship.
How about the Armenian genocide during WWI?
.
Thank you, AAJJ and ED. I was beginning to think that I was the only person who could see the similarities.
Now, Steve N, how about a non-political work on the situation in Gaza. Try "I shall not hate: a Gaza doctor's journey".
Funny you should say that. Ever hear of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
I'll bet not. Look it up, learn some history, then attempt an educated discussion. People might take you more seriously then.
Starbuck -- I posted almost EXACTLY the same thing to Vindicator a while back. He or she obviously didn't pay attention then either.
It has been repeated many times but no one cares since they are not Jews being killed. Since WW2 the Jews have squandered all their sympathy capital on the Zionist conceit.
You can't seriously compare the Palestinians in Gaza to the Warsaw Jews. The Gaza Palestinians fire rockets at civilians and then hide behind their own civilians for protection. They are cowards and back shooting murderers.
Hamas are the new Nazis and cruel masters. They cut off the hands and heads of their own brothers and dragged their bodies through the streets for all the world to see. Everyone in Gaza are s-hit terrified of them. This is who the ass-wipes on MSNBC choose to defend! Palestinians have their own personal charity and they receive tons of money from Europe and America but common people today are as dumb as rocks and don't do any research.
i am not really sure anybody can comment on Gaza or Westbank...unless you live there....for outsiders it is very difficult to make any comment....you would hope there would be peace....but not a chance....we as a human race say "never again"....but two world wars...most parts of the world are considered hot zones...its in our nature...too bad
Vindicator, it is obvious that you are so bigoted toward Mexico that it would make no difference what anyone said as you, as you would still find a reason to demean or diminish! I have an undergraduate degree in World History specializing in WWII and I can guarantee that I know a lot more about the subject than you do! However small Mexico's contribution may have been, whether you like it or not, was greatly appreciated by the U.S. and Philippine forces on the ground. They had an excellent working relationship with their USAAF counterparts and an excellent fighting record!
And by the way, Starbuck49 is absolutely correct and your assertion that the U.S. military took only American citizens into the military is what is pure BS! The fact is that many people from Europe emigrated to the U.S. to escape the AXIS powers when their homelands were overrun did in fact join the U.S. military to strike back at the NAZI's and the Fascist Italians. Many Jewish men from the occupied countries joined as well to help assure the liberation of their homelands. And sorry to disappoint you again, but many Mexican citizens living in the U.S. did in fact join up to obtain U.S. citizenship! So if you want to throw the c#*p you''ve been trying to spew, at least make sure it is accurate c#*p!
Yesterday's oppressed becomes today's oppressor.
PSALMS
44:22
22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted
as sheep for the slaughter.
ROMANS
8:36
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed
all the day long; we are accounted as sheep
for the slaughter.
As a person of faith I suggest you acquaint yourself with the story of Our Lady of Fatima, all of these horrors were "foretold" in 1917 to the three shepherd children by," A Lady more brilliant than the sun," (their words, not mine). All of this misery could have been avoided if people only listened.
There is an excellent book on the subject, "Our Lady of Fatima", by William Thomas Walsh, in addition to a new movie on the subject, "The 13th Day", both avail @ Amazon. This story puts everything in clear perspective for it is only a repeat of the messages of the prophets, if people live virtuous lives then peace will prevail, if not God will punish--when will we ever learn!!!!!
Read the book and/or see the movie if you don't know the story already, you will be completely amazed.
WGAF
Hey Steve I know this story inside and out.Everything back in 1917, that was translated by those kids from the Lady as the kids would call her,,was right on target.
The story will send shivers down your spine! What happened with the sun and how over 2000 people witnessed it,was in itself amazing!
Hey boomer,anyone with a rational brain would give a Flip.That's who!
Good work but its a subject that is hardly anything new. The ghetto was the central setting of the film Schindler's List and chronicles at least most of what the jews of the ghetto had to go through. I would have thought that the film had been seen world wide by now considering it came out in 1993.
They made a film about Pearl Harbor back in the early 60's. I would have thought that everyone would have seen it by now, and it's hardly anything new, so there's no need to keep bringing it up again. Right?
There's always new things to learn, and a new Generation to teach.
Good article. That whole place looks 100 times scarier than a "haunted house". I could never set foot in Poland for all the Ghosts & bad vibes. In fact I am not even thrilled about going to the continent of Europe at all because nearly every inch of soil has its own ghosts of Jews who died in the Inquisition, pogroms, crusades etc. Not to mention all the women killed as witches. Bad juju.
Looks like you have agreat deal of baggage to work through. Hope you can do it in your lifetime--and hope you see history in all it's totality--many great achievements and incredible cultures have come out of Europe--don't let the negative outweigh the positive--if you put them in the balance, the scales tip overwhelmingly to the positive.
shadow2000 - Visiting Europe scares you, but living in the US with the ghosts of the First People who were victims of an equally horrific and more complete genocide doesn't bother you? Please drop the woo.
Don't go to Alexandria, Virginia. There are stories of ghosts in the cellars of the old row houses. It is reported that one can hear the moaning of the slaves chained in the cellars. Talk about genocide.
Bad energy, ghosts, whatever you want to call it, is palpable almost everywhere you go. Ever visited Gettysburg?
There is "bad juju" over the entire world. Unfortunately, it's known as human nature. For some reason we just can't stop killing ourselves over and over again.
How tragic, whenever I hear of these tragic stories of the WWII I can never stop thinking of Our Lady of Fatima, who predicted to the three shepherd children the horrors of WWII in "1917", what would come to pass if people did not live virtuous lives. How unbearably tragic--people don't listen.
If she really wanted to prevent the war, she should have told specifics to prevent it, rather than making a generic statement that would inevitably be fulfilled in some way or another >.>
"The Zookeepers Wife" is a book everyone interested in the tradegy of Poland and the Warsaw Ghetto should read.
So is "Mila 18"
Yes. Zookeepers Wife is pretty fascinating as true from a Polish perspective.
Funny how someone is trying to compare the Warsaw Ghetto with the Gaza strip. The Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto were not lobing missles into neighboring Poland and they were not setting off suicide bombers in city buses. If the Palestineans could learn how to live in peace, there would be no need for border crossings and walls to be erected. The only reason the Israeli's build the wall around Gaza was because of the suicide bombers. The sad part is that most Palestineans want to live in peace. It's radical factions that won't be happy until Isreal is destroyed are the reasons why the Gaza strip is an improverished "ghetto."
Lloyd S-3714865 - How is it remotely "funny?" The Jewish people stuffed into ghettos like Warsaw didn't have the resources to "lob missles", nor send off suicide bombers. They did, however, have a series of revolts which resulted in their slaughter, and "liquidation". Why do you blame Palestineans rather than find it worrying that the oppressed became the oppressors? Why don't you find it worrying that the US is supplying Egypt and Israel with billions of dollars of aid to build illegal settlements and supply them with weapons? Both the Israeli people and the Palestinean people want peace. Their governments who stand to profit on the other hand...
Gaza? Warsaw Ghetto? Israel provides tons of support to those living in Gaza, that is why the Palestinians want the blockade to end. Israel left Gaza with an industry of greenhouses. What did the Gazans do? They trashed it so there were no jobs. There are no Israeli soldiers in Gaza, Israel is not shipping Gazans off to death camps. Gazan's held elections and then Hamas didn't like the results so they took over. It is amazing that anybody can own a computer and read is so unknowledgeable about either present day Gaza/Israel or what the Germans under Nazi rule did to the Warsaw Ghetto. I suggest the person equating Gaza with the Warsaw Ghetto, go online to the National Holocaust Museum.
You have to go back and reread your history. It wasn't called the Warsaw Ghetto UPRISING for nothing. It was a reference to the fact that the people imprisoned in the Ghetto fought back, and yes, that included lobbing any missile that they could find/create at their torturers.
Today's missiles are simply more advanced than were those of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
I find it interesting that many who are so opposed to illegal immigration don't realize that's how many Jews got to (then) Palestine after WWII. They went ILLEGALLY. Sure, good reason, but if you're a stickler ... hopefully you get the point.
To get past that, the Zionists fought the British who had control of Palestine.
Then Palestine was "partitioned" and many people who were living there, and whose families had lived there for centuries, were kicked out.
I find it somewhat, and sadly, ironic that a Jewish person born in NYC has the "right of return" to live in Israel and yet a Palestinian whose family lived there for a century or two, had a home and business, lost all and cannot come back.
Does anyone wonder why the Palestinians are bitter?
Of course this does not condone violence, and of course I recognize that the treatment of Jews throughout history has been horrific. But where does it stop?
the irony of warsaw/gaza is significant
Yes, it is nice to remember history, but not to falsify it. The woman remembers Jewish history ,but not Polish history which I know a lot better than she.I lived only a block from there and have seen the destruction myself.I lived through German occupation, the bombings, the extermination of Polish population by the Germans and then the Soviet under Jewish leadership of Jakub Berman. "Communist rulers.... purposely erased its Jewish history " what b.s. ! The Communist rulers were Jews sent by Stalin who were too busy exterminating Polish patriots who fought Germans and who were being hunted down like dogs by the Jewish Communist mafia with Stalin's blessing. This women so concerned with Jewish propaganda forgets the suffering of her own people ( if she is Polish at all ) that she has no clue what actually happened. I find this article disgusting because I have seen the suffering first hand and remember freezing and being hungry within 500 ft. of the picture. The Jewish whining about being victims and forgetting their part in bloody extermination of Poles is beyond my comprehention. All this Jewish propaganda is to try to justify killings of Palestinians , for which there is no excuse. One crime does not justify another.
Joe; it's kind and thoughtful that you've offered your firsthand account of what happened with respect to the article everyone's commenting on; without that same first-hand knowledge...much appreciated....as well as your comment ending, which I was always taught by my Mother.
You are just a Jew-hater brainwashed by the Vatican agents, i.e. Polish priests. Six million Jews were exterminated, while most people turned the other way. Polish right-wingers had orders to deliver Jews to Gestapo. Many Jews who were hid by Poles, risked being mudered/axed by them.
Joe, I appreciate your efforts to "even out the story"
However, I find it ironic that you end with "one crime does not justify another" ... yet you seem to be OK with the killing of the Jews because, according to you, they tried to "exterminate the Poles".
There is no good reason or justification for ANY of this.
annoyed1-You are just a Jew-hater brainwashed by the Vatican agents, i.e. Polish priests. Six million Jews were exterminated, while most people turned the other way. Polish right-wingers had orders to deliver Jews to Gestapo. Many Jews who were hid by Poles, risked being mudered/axed by them.
Three million ethnic Poles were murdered by the Nazis during the war.Along side three million of their fellow Jewish citizens. And while,there was in Poland,and other European nations antisemitism. Poles saved more Jews than any other people on a personal level,and many were killed because of it. There are by far more Polish people recognized as "righteous gentiles" than any other group. And the Poles had one of the lowest rates of Nazi supporters of any of the occupied countries.
After the war,a vast number of the Communist leadership,and secret police killers that imposed Communist rule in Poland were Polish Jews. One of the ironic tragedies of that time was the Communist Jewish-Poles attacks,imprisonment,and killing of the wartime Polish underground members.Some of which had involved in saving Jews from the Nazis.That is a historical fact,not able to be refuted. The reason of course is that in Poland,and other European Countries,Communism was attractive to many Jews because its ideology was based on equality of ethnic groups. Something that at that time and place Jews believed was a protection against ethnic hatred aimed at them. That attraction for most Jews lessened with the rise of Israel and the Soviet rise of antisemitism. But none the less,history is history,and needs to just be accepted as such.
The wretchedness of the Nazis might be obvious to NBC, but Morsi's power grab in Egypt goes unreported and the pathology of militant Islam in all its forms is a mystery. If certain Muslims had not allied themselves with the Nazis, Palestine would not have been partitioned. The Jews fought for self-protection in Europe and in the Near East, but NBC ignores the Nazis who pray five times daily.
What are you talking about? There's a headline about Morsi and his power grab right at the top of the page.
peikovian-The wretchedness of the Nazis might be obvious to NBC, but Morsi's power grab in Egypt goes unreported and the pathology of militant Islam in all its forms is a mystery. If certain Muslims had not allied themselves with the Nazis, Palestine would not have been partitioned. The Jews fought for self-protection in Europe and in the Near East, but NBC ignores the Nazis who pray five times daily.
That is absolute hogwash. Not a single statement that isn't a half-truth,or totally false.
Yes, the holocaust of the jews was a horrible time in history, but as wilman said above, what about Cambodia, Croatia, Sudan, Bangla Desh, as well as so many other countries where holocausts have occurred since WWII. You rarely hear about war crime trials, or the hunts for these criminals as was done with Nazis. Many of the holocaust survivors have said it's enough hunting Nazis, now go after the more recent war criminals. To put someone on trial now for WWII war crimes is a bigger crime than allowing these other criminals to be ignored.
"You rarely hear about war crime trials, or the hunts for these criminals..." Sorry, but if you never hear about them, it's only because you're not paying attention. From Pol Pot (Cambodia) through to the hunt for James Kony, these criminals are being hunted down, tried, CONVICTED, sentenced, and the sentences are carried out.
BTW, there is no statue of limitations, at any level, for murder. Those remaining WWII criminals are still being found, tried, convicted, etc. There age doesn't matter - their history does.
POOF!! Twice over!! There goes your argument.
You're right Pol Pot and James Kony were tried and convicted as were other leaders, but how about camp guards, those who did the killings. Those who took the pictures of the victims before their deaths (Cambodia). Or even those who blocked supply ships from entering harbors with food for starving South Africans. Those people are not being hunted down to the extent the Nazis are. As for putting a man on trial who has to be rolled into a courtroom in a wheelchair and who no longer has the mental capacity to comprehend it - sorry this is too much. Many holocaust victims have even said enough is enough.
Are you claiming that a news outlet can not report on one atrocity unless it reports on them all? That takes "fair and balanced" to an absurd level.
No, I'm saying that we're constantly reminded of the attempted annihilation of the jews during WWII so that it can never be repeated. Well, it has been repeated and will probably be repeated many times over, but those atrocities are not reported as often as the WWII holocaust has. Have you seen the pictures of poor Cambodian mothers holding their dead infants while they wait to be executed, or how about the thousands of skulls neatly stacked for all to see. When will someone hunt Cambodian prison wardens or guards?
The fact that other atrocities aren't being reported to your satisfaction shouldn't prevent an article such as this from being published.
In the Binding of Isaac, Jews believe there is an example of self-sacrifice, a willingness to kill and be killed at God's whim, and a God who does not require it. Christians reading the same story see a premonition of the sacrifice at Calvary, where God does require it. Muslims reading the same story claim the participants were Ibrahim and Ishmael, and attack Christians and Jews. Violence at the core of religious faith makes men insane.
Too many religions have the concept of blood sacrifice--of animals if not people. Buddhism is one exception.
There is no statute of limitations on horror.
“how people forget,” How true Beata!
Not to diminish the tragedy or suffering of any group, but there were more non-Jews killed in the holocaust than Jews (), but they didn't turn it into a perpetual PR issue.
The collective tragedy is far greater and more universal, and it must be remembered and learned from.
Sadly, it has never been learned from.
Agreed, almost.
There were 12 million victims of the Holocaust, half of whom were Jews. They must all be remembered.
All must be remembered. But, Jews certainly made up the largest single group and they, in particular, were targeted by the Nazi propaganda machine (i.e. the infamous "The Eternal Jew" film).
But, yes, we must remember that gays, gypsies, political opponents, intellectuals, and more were all victims of the Nazis.
Barry-All must be remembered. But, Jews certainly made up the largest single group and they, in particular, were targeted by the Nazi propaganda machine (i.e. the infamous "The Eternal Jew" film).
The thing that can never be forgotten is that unlike the other genocides of the modern age (except the Armenian one). The Jews were killed for being Jews alone. Not for political,economic,military,or even Religious reasons. But purely because the Nazis considered the Jews as a race,and wanted to exterminate them for who they were.
But as far as numbers go. Around 27 million Soviet citizens died during the Nazi horror in the Soviet Union. Two million of them were Jewish Soviets. But 25 million were non-Jewish citizens of all the Soviet Unions ethnic groups. Russians, Ukrainians,and Belorussians,made up the majority of the killed. That country,by far,suffered more than any nation in the war. And has never fully recovered from the losses and destruction.
We have hundreds of atrocities commited down through history on numerous peoples. What this any more different than any of the others. Yes it IS part of history..and this is where it belongs. The war ended over half a century ago why do we have to be reminded of this as though it occured only yesterday. Stop torturing yourself over and over with painful memories. get over it ..the rest of the world has moved on.
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905
I think that even those who can remember the past are condemned to repeat it, sad to say.
That's great if you remember, Robert. But, this woman is addressing her efforts to those residents of Warsaw who are ignorant about that particular aspect of their past.
When we forget the victims of Nazism, they will truly have been exterminated and the Nazis will have won.
Wish the jews could quit whining about the war. dredging up the past will not prevent it from happening again. people are just funny that way.
If 2/3 of the people of Missouri were executed, the survivors would remember, and be carrying guns.
Kind of a dumb comment, Warren. For heaven's sake, you make it sound like Jews lost the Super Bowl. Having one's whole family gassed to death or otherwise executed does more than make one want to "whine"...
There were more people killed of several ethnicities, but none in proportion to what the Jews of Europe suffered, when 2/3 of their people were killed. Hatred for these Jews had been taught for more than 1,500 years in the churches of Europe. The police states of Europe and Russia received the thoughts of Karl Marx, whose ancestors where Jewish but Marx was raised Christian and was an atheist as an adult; his own ideas were based on the Christian thinkers Kant, Fichte, Hegel, et al... this new philosophy is violent mysticism, no better than the Dark Ages, but as always we focus on the Jews and not on ourselves.
Excuse me, but I have heard that PROPORTIONALLY, it was the Gypsies who suffered most.
peikovian-There were more people killed of several ethnicities, but none in proportion to what the Jews of Europe suffered, when 2/3 of their people were killed. Hatred for these Jews had been taught for more than 1,500 years in the churches of Europe. The police states of Europe and Russia received the thoughts of Karl Marx, whose ancestors where Jewish but Marx was raised Christian and was an atheist as an adult; his own ideas were based on the Christian thinkers Kant, Fichte, Hegel, et al... this new philosophy is violent mysticism, no better than the Dark Ages, but as always we focus on the Jews and not on ourselves.
You seem to want to rewrite history to fit how you want it to be. While I am very sympathetic to the history of Jewish suffering throughout history. It isn't right to massage history. Nor does it excuse Israels actions today.
1st,while Karl Marx rejected his Jewish roots. The ideology he helped found and form,had an enormous attraction for Jews. Anywhere from 25%-50% of the early Communist movement's leadership was Jewish. Including very many of the secret police killers in Russia.And after Communism took over Eastern Europe,in those countries:
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union
"Jews played a prominent role in the Communist Party from its inception: it came into being as the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party (RSDWP) in 1903, becoming the Russian Communist Party (of Bolsheviks; RCP[b]) in 1918, the All-Union Communist Party (of Bolsheviks; AUCP[b]) in 1925, and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1952."
"Most important, they were highly overrepresented in the Bolshevik leadership. Significant figures included Iurii Kamenev, Maksim Litvinov, Karl Radek, Iakov Sverdlov, Leon Trotsky, and Grigorii Zinov’ev. This was so blatant that anti-Bolsheviks frequently associated the party with Jews in order to contaminate the party’s public image."
"At the party congress held in August 1917, a total of 29 out of 171 delegates were Jews, the second most represented ethnic group after the Russians; moreover, 6 of 17 Central Committee members were Jews."
And in Eastern Europe.
These reports here concern Poland.But they mirror other reports from Hungary, Czechoslovakia,etc :
"Notably, the party had strong Jewish representation at higher levels. Out of fifteen leaders of the KPP central administration in 1936, eight were Jews. Jews constituted 53% of the "active members" of the KPP, 75% of its "publication apparatus," 90% of the "international department for help to revolutionaries" and 100% of the "technical apparatus" of the Home Secretariat. In Polish court proceedings against communists between 1927 and 1936, 90% of the accused were Jews. In terms of membership, before its dissolution in 1938, 25% of KPP members were Jews; most urban KPP members were Jews—a substantial number, given an 8.7% Jewish minority in prewar Poland."
"Throughout the whole interwar period, Jews constituted a very important segment of the Communist movement. According to Polish sources and to Western estimates, the proportion of Jews in the KPP [the Communist Party of Poland] was never lower than 22 percent. In the larger cities, the percentage of Jews in the KPP often exceeded 50 percent and in smaller cities, frequently over 60 percent. Given this background, a respondent's statement that "in small cities like ours, almost all Communists were Jews," does not appear to be a gross exaggeration."
" Among them were a number of Jewish communists who played a highly visible role in the unpopular communist government and its security apparatus. Hilary Minc, the third in command in Bolesław Bierut's political triumvirate of Stalinist leaders, became the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Industry, Industry and Commerce, and the Economic Affairs. He was personally assigned by Stalin first to Industry and than to Transportation ministries of Poland. His wife, Julia, became the Editor-in-Chief of the monopolized Polish Press Agency. MinisterJakub Berman – Stalin's right hand in Poland until 1953 – held the Political propaganda and Ideology portfolios. He was responsible for the largest and most notorious secret police in the history of the People's Republic of Poland, the Ministry of Public Security (UB) employing 33,200 permanent security officers, one for every 800 Polish citizens."
"He describes cases in which Jews cooperated with the Polish secret police, denouncing Poles and members of the Home Army. Chodakiewicz noted that some 3,500 to 6,500 Poles died in late 1940s because of Jewish denunciations or were killed by Jews themselves."
During Stalinism, the preferred Soviet policy was to keep sensitive posts in the hands of non-Poles. As a result "all or nearly all of the directors (of the widely despised Ministry of Public Security of Poland) were Jewish" as noted by Polish journalist Teresa Torańska among others. A recent study by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance showed that out of 450 people in director positions in the Ministry between 1944 and 1954, 167 (37.1%) were of Jewish ethnicity, while Jews made up only 1% of the post-war Polish population.
Among the notable Jewish officials of the Polish secret police and security services were Minister Jakub Berman, Joseph Stalin's right hand in the PRL; Vice-minister Roman Romkowski (head ofMBP), Dir. Julia Brystiger (5th Dept.), Dir. Anatol Fejgin (10th Dept. or the notorious Special Bureau), deputy Dir. Józef Światło (10th Dept.), Col. Józef Różański among others. Światło – "a torture master" – defected to the West in 1953, while Romkowski and Różański would find themselves among the Jewish scapegoats for Polish Stalinism in the political upheavals following Stalin's death, both sentenced to 15 years in prison on 11 November 1957 for gross violations of human rights law and abuse of power.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BBydokomuna
2nd,the Armenian genocide matched and even outdid in proportions those killed by the Nazis among the Jewish population in Europe:
" According to the documents, the number of Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire before 1915 stood at 1,256,000. The number plunged to 284,157 two years later in 1917."
how many times are we going to see this same story with the same picture. seems like their is a news story about the jews every week, written by the same and placed on msnbc, too shame us all into forking over our blood and TAX money.
The church has repented of the Jew-hatred you cling-to.
Story will never end. The Jews will not be able to whine about the 6 million dead which by the way happened.
But by harping at it they are able to extort money or other concessions from it They convenient forget that 25 million Russians died during WW2 and that with the extermination of 6 million jews also another 6 million gypsies and other people the Germans deemed undesirables.
Israel stop whining about the Holocaust you where not the only one that suffered. You just got the biggest mouth and ex-torsion racket going, kind of a Jewish mafia.
The sad part is that you bitch about the German concentration camps yet you gladly apply what you have learned from the Germans to tha Gaza strip
There's a difference between cynical and depraved. Perhaps a name change is in order.
AIPAC fan or on their payroll?
We must never forget! because the Spirit of that Beast, keeps trying to pop up around the world, EVEN TODAY!
Wow...spooky, eerie, and unfortunately MAN has a way of repeating insanity/genocides. I recall reading German sharpshooters getting decorated for confirmed kills when buildings were set on fire, Jews leaping to their death rather than burn up, and if/when the sharpshooter "bagged" a falling Jew, killing him/her before they hit the pavement...they got a nice little decoration on their uniform. SICK, madness, insanity.
The Warsaw Ghetto uprising was the beginning of the "fighting" Jew. They tied up 2 DIVISIONS in Warsaw...fighting a hopeless cause. Puts my problems into perspective...
Someone hasn't heard of Masada.
There's an excellent historical novel on the Jewish ghetto and the uprising called Mila 18 by Leon Uris. It is a very disturbing read, but well worth it.
Oh, this article brought immediate tears to my eyes of the terrible racial policies perpetrated by Nazi Germany and of the senseless slaughter and cruel suffering on non-combatant Polish jews. I was born in 1943 when this was occuring and am deeply affected by books, movies and commentaries of their horrific plight and terrible demise.
These perpetrators eventually were liquidated themselves by unrelenting Allied bombing of Germany in World War II.
Bravo! for Polish journalist Beata Chomatowska
Prayers to the lost souls, sigh.
Remember the fails of National Socialism. When it happens here, what country will keep publishing the crimes over and over and over and over.
"National Socialism" had nothing whatsoever to do with socialism. The "party line" was that socialism was evil. There is no similarity here, except for the so-called thoughts in puny minds.
A photo essay on present-day Gaza would be more appropriate. One has to question the placement of this story at this time.
That's exactly what I was thinking. This story is interesting and all, but it seems like in this moment, news headlines ought to be looking critically at what Israel is doing right now, not focusing on what happened in Poland in WWII... and instead MSNBC puts this right up top. It does make one wonder.
Having had Jewish doctors treat my uncle for 52 years after he came back from WW2, yes, when I read your emails, I also have to wonder. Maybe my uncle didn't shoot enough Nazis.
Peikovian,
That makes no sense. Are you seriously arguing that if a person wants to look critically at Israel's choices as a nation, then they certainly must be a Nazi? What absurdity.
Israelis don't attack Muslims worldwide for the crime of being Muslim. Nazis and Jihadis do attack Jews worldwide for the crime of being Jews. That is as clear a distinction as can be made between a republic and a group of psychopaths. When people "question Israel's choices," surrounded in a neighborhood of kings, warlords, generals, presidents-for-life, mystic tribal leaders, all of them police states, then yes, I question the nature of that question.
Unfortunate truth is that this area (the Middle East) has been subject to imperial invasions for
millennia. Roman invasion had an impact lasting till this very day. Ancient Hebrews (Jews) were dispersed throughout the world after destruction of Israel. Some wandered to Poland - actually were invited by the Polish king, Kazimir the Great , with hope of westernizing the country. The Vatican – an extension of the Roman imperial ambition instituted persecution of Jews for two millennia, culminated
by the Holocaust. In meantime, a new Arab empire was formed headed by the Saudis.
Similarly to Vatican, its ambition is to completely control the Middle East and beyond. They imposed Arab language and Muslim religion on the entire area. And that’s why we have “Palestinian” problem, even though Palestine as a country has never existed. It was a geographic area named so by victorious
Romans after the destruction of Israel. The oil fields further complicate the political situation there. It would actually be beneficial to Gaz Strippians to move back to Jordan, where they came from, otherwise there will never be peace in the Middle East.