Dear Poland: Your Holocaust law fools no one. No one forgets

[Troyfan]

Originally Posted by Dane_in_LA

Sadly, this is not the case. The rank and file of the Polish police, for instance, was simply the pre-war Polish police force with Germans inserted in leading roles. (This, by the way, was not so unusual in occupied countries. Someone still had to take care of pickpockets and whatnot, sounds silly but it's a real concern.)

It's not a matter of failing to revolt. It's a question of how zealous you are in sending off your neighbors to certain death. Many Polish officials were quite happy to do so.

As a nation - that was the Nazi intent, certainly. But after liberation, well - there the country was.

Can you discern the actions of people who self-identify as Poles, take orders from other Poles, and send other Poles (who happen to be Jewish) to their deaths from the actions of a country?

The Poles got the sticky end of the stick in WWII, no denying it. But there was a huge amount of anti-semitic sentiment (and discriminatory law, even) before the occupation, and a disturbingly high willingness to cooperate with the Nazis on that point.

Also, certainly, there was no lack of heroic resisters, either.

It's a messy and complicated and deeply tragic chapter of history. But FFS, legislation?

Eastern Europe has always been a hotbed of anti-Semitism. But it never had a Holocaust to participate in until the Nazis. Jews never had it easy in Eastern Europe. Any part of it. Or any or Europe for that matter.

Cops are people. Polish, German, American ( maybe not English). All will do as they are told. Remember the experiment in Psych 101 where the subject thinks he's administering higher and higher electricity jolts to a person and does it even when the victims starts screaming? The overwhelming inclination to comply with authority resides in us all.

Blame human nature. Any race would have done the same in the Poles position.

[tamajane]

Originally Posted by Sactown4

Poles, renowned worldwide as the dumbest of the dumb, are going to let their government leave them even less informed.

My father tells the most hilarious stories of growing up in Poland. The way he tormented these idiots probably did no favors to the other Jews in town after her left.

Well there you go. Maybe he wasn't the only bully. They aren't too dumb to figure out when they've had enough.

In a competition between the state of Germany, Sweden and Poland in twenty years, my bet is on Poland. At least they are not committing cultural suicide.

[Dane_in_LA]

Originally Posted by Troyfan

Blame human nature. Any race would have done the same in the Poles position.

Counterexamples exist, you know that, right?

Some occupied countries resisted as best they could under their different circumstances - my own home country used bureaucratic delaying actions for as along as that worked, then essentially rose in a massive act of civil disobedience. Admittedly, circumstances were different and luck played a colossal role, but the general mindset was one of "The Rosenbergs are nice people and if we can spit in the Nazi's eye by helping them, well - what do they need?"

[Troyfan]

Originally Posted by Dane_in_LA

Counterexamples exist, you know that, right?

Some occupied countries resisted as best they could under their different circumstances - my own home country used bureaucratic delaying actions for as along as that worked, then essentially rose in a massive act of civil disobedience. Admittedly, circumstances were different and luck played a colossal role, but the general mindset was one of "The Rosenbergs are nice people and if we can spit in the Nazi's eye by helping them, well - what do they need?"

Your country was a country. Poland wasn't. It was divided between Germany and the USSR. All the positions of authority in the German part were filled with Nazi sympathizers.

[prospectheightsresident]

A summary of what the video was getting out would've been helpful.