פורום ארץ הצבי

Dear Michael:

My former colleague, Walter Traub, was born in Krakow after the war. Before the war, his father had been a law professor at Jagiellonian University. Unlikely that he was a victim of numerus clausus. The family moved to Toronto after the war, the father became a house painter, and Walter became a successful lawyer.

My father is also from Krakow. He spent the war partly in the Soviet occupation zone, and partly in Krakow (Plaszow KZ), and partly in Schindler’s factory in Czechoslovakia.

My father always spoke about “the Germans” (never about “the Nazis”). He never mentioned the Poles.

In his Steven Spielberg-sponsored taped interview on his experiences, my father mentioned pre-war anti-semitism in Poland, but using the same terms as I use describing the childish grassroots anti-semitism that I experienced growing, up on the streets of Montreal in the 50s, or that a New York Jew could describe.

I see no need to glorify “all” Poles, nor to demonize “all” Poles. Nations are not “progressive” or “reactionary”. The Nazi invasion and occupation brought out the worst in people, and the best in people. Most people sought only to survive.

Zionism teaches us that the whole world is a hell for Jews, that occupied Palestine is a paradise for Jews, and that the bloodthirsty Arabs (and Iranians) want to create a hell in Paradise.

Immigration figures show that most Jews believe otherwise.

Regards,