Can POLES and JEWS reconcile? 

I'm a Pole and I mostly agree with you with one exception - private Jewish property belongs to one family. If all family members did not survive holocaust then state takes over the property. Other people don't have claim to this property even if they are Jews. I think this law is the same in every country.

Michael - when I first saw the title of your video, I hesitated clicking on it because I thought it would make my heart heavy. Instead, you lifted it. As a Pole and a Catholic, I totally get what you say about mourning our common loss. Thank you for this insightful and compassionate understanding.

So, Michael. I will try to tell you where the problem is. Well, in Polish schools they don't teach that Poles primarily saved Jews. There was a time when it wasn't even a topic at all. The recent authorities added such elements to the education system, but these are still stage directions in the context of the entire WWII. Well, the narrative about WWII in Poland is that Poles were the first victims - as a country - of the Nazis, and that they fought against the Nazis throughout the war, because it was the 4th largest volunteer army in the West, because it was the largest partisan force in the history of mankind, with up to 1 million members, or the Polish army in Soviet service. So Poles fought the Nazis on all fronts. Then many Jews appear and begin to tell their perspective, which only includes the Holocaust. From this perspective, they start talking about Poles who collaborated with the Germans and sold Jews. Poles are starting to defend themselves that these are incidents What comes out of the collision of such narratives? Well, Poles are outraged because someone equates them with the French, Hungarians, Italians and even Germans. All the more so because Poland could have collaborated with Hitler and rejected such proposals. Some people simply shout at the Jews, while others - those who want good relations, not "war" - start to create a meta-narrative about Poles saving Jews, or try to put the events into context of WWII. However Jews do not have this context.

This is the tricky part, Michael. We need more education in Poland but mostly in Israel. David Grün (aka David Ben-Gurion) was the founder of Israel. He was a Jew, Polish Jew. He was born and raised in Płońsk. He was Polish with both Polish parents. A guy from Poland created the state of Israel. This is amazing, innit? The majority of Knesset members were speaking Polish at that time. Polish intelligence was assisting Israelis during the first years. We should teach that in Israeli schools instead of sending kids on Auschwitz tours only. Poland and Israel will be tied forever.

I don't think a full reconciliation will ever happen because most Poles and Jews don't live near each other. Hence opportunities for reconciliation aren't frequent. And the need to reconcile is less pressing. But I hope for the best.

What reconciliation of the Germans with the Jews? They did something to get away with not having to reconcile with the Poles and to shift the blame.

To be honest, many people just don't care anymore. I know people who dedicated their whole career and most of their life researching the history of Jews in Poland and trying to help with reconciliation, and now are just fed up with arrogance edging on hostility from Israeli officials and even part of academia. For me Jews will always be a part of Polish heritage and should always be welcomed here, but their resentment - though understandable - must be left behind..

Good point. We were taught about both our heroes and our villains, but apparently, heroes are easier to remember. Most people just wanted their own families to survive and didn't care about anyone else. It's a little-known fact (at least outside of Poland) that the punishment for helping a Jew in occupied Poland was the execution of all members of your household, so it wasn't just about protecting yourself.

What is there to reconcile about? Look at demographics of Europe pre-1939 and answer to yourself why there were so few J in countries other than Poland that had 3+ million. France had only 150k, why? Answer: Other countries kicked them out for centuries, while Poland was the only country in Europe that welcomed them for centuries. Poland was their ARK in Europe.

Overall, I agree with your points and the way you express them. However, I have one request: could you replace the term "Nazi" with "Germany"? For Poles, it didn't matter whether a German was a Nazi, a member of the NSDAP, or not. If he had a weapon, he was an enemy and a killer, and he was, above all, a German. It was an enemy nation, not an enemy ideology. Similarly, when we discuss Russia's war with Ukraine, we don't refer to it as the Putinists' war. It doesn't matter whether the Russian soldier supports Putin or not; as long as he has a gun and follows orders, he is a Russian killer. Just like the murderers were Germans, not the mythical "Nazis."

It may be difficult for individuals and nations, but we have to talk and think about these issues. Listening to your father’s perception of Poles, I realized that the enemies of Poles, Jews, and Polish Jews have won in a way. The level of ignorance and disinterest in what happened to once-neighbors was quite shocking. I don't blame your father-this was the reality he was raised in, I guess. Just as Jews may feel abandoned in the face of the Holocaust tragedy, Poles can feel abandoned too. From today's perspective, it looks like we were left to deal with our losses alone. If 6 million Polish citizens were killed during the war, with half being Jews and half Christians, what does that tell us? Were we the murderers or the victims? Perhaps it indicates that the US, as a major political and military power, bears some responsibility for not acting to save Jews before it was too late. I think you understand what I mean. From my side, I want to say that you are right-we need to mourn our loss together. This is probably the only way to deeply understand what happened and to move forward without the dark cloud of suspicion and blame hanging over us, Jews and Poles

I hope so. But for me better question is: what I can do to make jewish-polish relation better?

I don’t know what happened in a past between the Jews and Polish? I don’t believe that there was a problem My family grew up in Radun 90 % Jews lived there before the World War Two , not once I heard anything bad about Jews from my family parents grandparents. If it was a problem in a past ? They are all dead the Jews and the Poles. I support President Netanyahu, democratically elected by Israeli. I am a Fucken little tire of the narrative about poor Jews. I never met a poor Jews, they all doing Okey. Let’s talk about Jewish food which I love to eat, and I grow up on it.

I think that most Poles mourned the Jews a long time ago and moved on. There is a lot of sentiment and longing for the culture that was here but has passed away. Jews destroy these sentiments with their hatred of Poles. Personally, encountering this hatred was a great disappointment for me.

yes we both can reconcile, it is about time :)

This is true that some Polish people regret that we couldn’t do more. My both grandfathers fought in the 2nd World War, they tried their best to defend the country

In my humble opinion I think both sides need to acknowledge that Polish Christians and Polish Jews were the victims of German and Soviet aggression during WWII, this is not some sort of competition who lost more people, because ironically Poland lost over 3 Million Jewish Citizens and over 3 Million Christian Citizens, so neither side has a monopoly on loss or suffering. The Jewish World Diaspora needs to be educated as to the Polish experience during WWII, including that of Polish Jews and Polish Christians BECAUSE the German occupation of Poland was so different than that of France or Belgium or Holland for example. Secondly, the Jewish diaspora needs to understand that 1945 for Poland did not equate to liberation and self determination but rather 50 years of Soviet occupation, suppression and a Soviet imposed Government in which Poles had little to no say.

I think you gave a very fair assessment of people's attitudes during the war. Most people were scared to death for their lives. Heroes were few and far between. A lot of them did not survive the war. Both people who saved Jews and ratted them out were minority among non-Jewish population of Poland.

Important issue. I appreciate that you defended Polish people from the WW2 period and presented your view as objectively as you could. I agree with you.

I am happy. You have been a catalyst for me learning a lot. You also seem to have learned a lot yourself. After listening to You i have learned that many Jewish people outside of Poland have a shallow and hijacked by activists knowledge of WWII history. This was weird to me as in Poland we spend a lot of time learning about the topic. Some Poles helped Jews, most just fought to survive themselves. This shared suffering should have united us, sadly it did not since our paths split apart right after first by communism and later by Zionism. The biggest problem i feel is that Poles see themselves as fellow victims of Nazis, and Jewish people think of their suffering as special and unique. I feel like nobody says it aloud but lack of Polish reverence for Jewish suffering (since we internalized the same suffering) is seen as threatening or disrespectful. The selfish fear of diminishing the meaning of suffering by sharing it. It is wrong but (funny thing) predictably - highly unchristian of the Jews;) We can waste time getting angry over it, or we can accept it, move on and either ignore it or try to fix it. Id rather move on. I started talking to a Jewish guys online who lives in Israel. What was very interesting to me is that Ashkenazi western Jews might be the most influential but they are not the only ones and there are many sides to this. What is confusing to Poles is that we do not understand the concept of religion being the primary foundation of identity. To is nationality is primary and religion is auxiliary. I am happy to learn about Jews. I Just hope we get more Jews like You who will be happy to learn about Poland. Take care.

I recommend the movie WOŁYŃ to see how our history is complicated not only in regard to polish-jewish relations. Thank you Michael for trying to be objective.

Excellent, to the point analysis.

I sincerely hope we can. Jewish people weren’t just trespassing Poland, they lived here for over thousand of years. I do see that Israel foreign policy regarding Poland sparks antisemitism. I myself feel great dislike towards claims that Polish people participated in Holocaust and were equally brutal like Germans. We had pogroms on Jewish people in our history which is definitely a stain, we did not however organised and implemented genocide.

Yes, they can. There is no mystery or answer to be found in the hearts of Jews or Poles. Attitudes vary, and you know it well. But if good will persists -- like your videos -- both the Jews and Poles have it in their hearts to get over the memories of WW2 (and other memories that cannot be overlooked, like the history of post-war Poland under communism). As a non Jewish Pole who taught English to many Jewish-Canadain students, many with Polish roots, I can say with certainty that we always found common ground and understanding despite difficult conversations.

As an Israel and returning to poland as a jew. I get that all the time i am like, "Dude its was a fucking war, and nazies were ruthless. offcourse pre antisemities saw this as aprotnities but most of the people HAD TO SURVIVE". also in israeli school we dont learn that is was polish guilt. the reason why the stigma on poles is that holocaust survivors in israel felt betrayed by poles and poland, some had neighbours that stopped talking to them once it started some saw neighbours stealing their belongings when they were moved they saw many things and on the ground during the war from people that they taught were their friends, this is the core of this stigma about the poles.

Przede wszystkim nigdy nie należy wrzucać wszystkich Polaków do jednego worka. Podobnie z Żydami. Polacy są różni, Żydzi podobnie. Nie ma jednego modelu, typu, schematu Polaka czy Żyda.

Michael, as usual - a voice of reason! Thank you!

Thanks Michael for these videos. You doing more for polish-jewish community than anybody else in media. I think its very important, especially now when there is so much hate surrounding war. Only truth, education and willingness on both sides can help in communicating between us. We should be closer than any other nations due to our centuries long history, so sad its actually quite the opposite for this moment.

I urge you to read Arno Gruen's works, as they emphasize the crucial role of empathy, a prerequisite for reconciliation between Poles and Jews.

Dude, you live in an alternate reality. There is no polish-jewish issue in Poland. Source: myself being a Pole with Jewish ancestors, living in Poland almost all my 40+ year life. Sure, like in every country, there are some extremist / self-centered / uneducated groups who don't like minorities (Jews being just one of them), but they're a very small percentage. They also don't like Arabs, Asians, Ukrainians, Blacks, LGBT and everything else that's out of the ordinary. But most people don't give a damn. It's simply a non-existent issue. I'm not sure where you're getting your information from, but maybe it's time to put away that right-wing populist bullshit.

The thing with the internet is that you get a higher number of low IQ trolls than you do in real life or even bots, not all responses are from average thinking people. It's great what you are doing. We are all still dealing with a post World War traumas that need to be healed.

Thank you Michael for articulating the situation so well. I have long had this concept of the need to mourn what was lost by both Jews and Poles. i imbibed the losses or the war with my mother's milk, and I was lucky enough t know both Polish survivors of the warband Jewish Holocaust survivors here in Canada as I grew up and I could never put a a name on this pain of the loss of the rich Jewish culture in Poland until you articulated it in this video. We need to honour the Jews who died in the Holocaust and those Poles who did stick their necks out to save Jews and are honored at Yad Vashem and many more who who have been lost to memory because no wittnesses wer left to tell the story. Thank you so much for this video!

Reconcile what? Is there a problem Never knew about any problems

Michael youbare a wise man. This is very wise. Remember that Polish people also felt betrayed by Jews on Kresy and during the stalinism in 40s and 50s. I will gladly buy you a coffee. You are amazing for Poland. Like so many of the jews before the war.

You’re so dedicated to the reconciliation, my goodness I would love to talk to you in person. I am visiting from Vancouver and would make a trip to Kraków to talk about this things. I really admire you taking on such a huge subject.

It’s Israelis that need to educate themselves and apologize to Poland. Simple. Poland holds no hatred.

The people upset are Konfederacja voters, they are the most active bunch in Polish Internet hence the perception, a very small and very vocal minority. They don’t speak for the society only for themselves.

Such a question is probably unnecessary and pointless. After all, Poles and Jews have been born, cohabited and died on Polish soil for one thousand years. And this is still happening. Therefore, the question posed by the author contains the answer. Pozdrawiam

It is estimated that about 400 Poles were punished by death for helping Jews during WW2. Poland leads other countries in those statistics.

My own take-away from all of this, having studied central European and world history my whole life, closely, is that the worst we can do when faced with genuine enemies (who want to destroy or enslave all of us, regardless of our faith, ethnicity, etc.), is to fall into disunity. Poland and Czechoslovakia, had they not quarreled before WWII and instead worked together closely, could have prevented a world war. In the process, many Jewish and non-Jewish citizens would have avoided any persecution and would have been still alive, and the vicious regimes that started the war against the interwar central European democracies would have been defeated. Unfortunately, short-sightedness and cowardice prevailed, even in western European countries that should have shown more backbone, and the world headed to a catastrophe, the aftermath of which we are still living with today. Naked survival is worth absolutely nothing, unless we all protect our human dignity and the dignity of our fellow men. When faced with madmen calling for persecution and such, people need to be united against them, regardless of ethnicity, religion and other parts of one's identity. Thus, interwar Poland, all Poles, Jews, etc., as well as Polish and Czechoslovak and other democratic European citizens, should have shown unity and not let themselves be divided. Every enemy that knows it can't win easily tries to divide people, stoke arguments and hatread between them, along the lines of FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt). Why is contemporary Russia ardently trying to divide the unity of democratic countries or undermine democracy in many countries through their lackeys and stooges ? Because they know people will help Ukraine less than if they were united, and all the Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists and others in Ukraine will suffer as a result, with less support from the outside. Though they can't force Ukraine to become disunited - Ukraine has become too united in spirit for that (thankfully !) - the aggressors will still try to rob Ukrainians of unity and hope, because they know that is the only weapon that would allow them to win over Ukraine. 'Divide and conquer' is a very old and very toxic idea, and authoritarians and totalitarians love abusing it to rob entire countries and their peoples of their freedom and independence and human dignity. We must be all aware of this and stand in humane unity against such efforts to divide us as human beings. This is the most important lesson: When faced with aggressors, pay attention to how the aggressor wants to divide us as citizens, divide our unity, to make us enemies, to make us doubt our shared human dignity, and so on. When faced with aggressors, don't take the bait of their fearmongering and threats and appeals to 'identity', but instead stand with your fellow man and woman, united in the defence of everyone. When the whole of or most of society stand united, as mutually compassionate citizens, no aggressor can make us give in, no aggressor can make us disunited, divided in a manner where we can't help each other when we need to protect each other. Every single aggressor will try to convince people to become enemies, for Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists, etc., to fight, for Poles, Lithuanians, Jews, Ukrainians, Slovaks, Czechs, Roma, Hungarians, Rusyns, Kashubians, Lusatian Sorbs, Silesians, Moravians, etc. to argue and fight and lose understanding for each other... and then the enemy moves in, and overpowers us all, because of our lack of civic and civil unity. This is why we need to be united as citizens in our modern democracies. In Europe, in North America, wherever. Not united like fanatics, but united like people who care for each other, help each other, protect each other, and don't stoop to the hateful behaviour of those who are aggressors against us. Poland coiuld have done more reconcilliatory work many decades later, just like Germany, had Poland been allowed to be a democracy after WWII and not be under the yoke of a communist totalitarian regime. I mean, as late as the 1980s, general Jaruzelski declared martial law and wanted to run Poland like a military junta. Utterly unthinkable in the US, Canada or western Europe in the 1980s. The martial law in Poland happened because of a fear of Solidarnosc, all the while the average Pole had trouble buying anything in a nosediving communist economy (where you had severe problems buying bread or even sewing needles, nevermind all the rest). Poland working on reconcilliation is necessary not only in Poland, but other former East Block countries as well, my own included. And I can only hope such efforts intensify and we get the stench and trauma of totalitarianism out of our systems. Both as individuals from central Europe and the EU member states and NATO member states, and as societies from central Europe and the EU member states and NATO member states. We can't have a positive future unless we reckon with the past and learn from the mistakes of the past.

I agree with Michael. I would add that both narratives - the Polish one about saving Jews and the Jewish one about betraying Jews - are true, but at the same time, each of them shows only a fragment of a larger picture. As a result, anyone who draws their knowledge from only one narrative has a false image of what happened during the Holocaust in Poland, especially since even both narratives combined still do not describe everything that happened.

great video!

I applaud Your efforts; You're doing great. However, I'm afraid You have to seriously consider getting a WWII history degree in Poland and In Israel in order to seriously engage both sides. Right now, we're each happy in our narrative bunkers.

I'm a little bit yabadababoo as well 🤣

I sure hope we can :-)

There is a vocal antisemite fraction in polish society , as well as vocal anti-polish fraction bewtween jews. After the war Wroclaw had large jewish population and many of them came through my parents home. In 1968 there was a big antisemitic tremor organised by communist government, largerly ignored by majority, but damage was done. Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, well know polish politician in new post communist government, said that to save one jew group of 30-40 people were needed. Bartoszewski was one of the main, war time, undergrouind activist engaged in saving Warsaw jews. Visiting Jad Vashem 10 years ago I joined group of american students guided by museum guide and could not find any negative comments on Poles rather explaining facts as they were. In my opinion Polish catholic church is to blaim for 500 years of antisemitism and lack of tolerance of other religions.

Wisely said

Is the problem really there? The paths of our nations have diverged completely and will probably never converge again. We have no common or conflicting interests. Is it not time - like after a long and unhappy relationship - to finally forget?

Nations or prople? I think people are good. As far as nations one thing could bring us together, that which always cements people together - common interest. More integration, bussines and same foreign politics.

Michael, you need to invest in better microphone. It's hard to understand English with poor sound quality. Better sound will benefit your channel.

Michael, perhaps we should approach it from an angle of an individual rather than spanning nations. I think both nations lack proper education on the matter, that would solve lot of issues. I wrote this at the beginning of the video but upon watching the rest, we seem to agree on this.

Katolicki kościół nauczył nas że Żydzi to wybrany Naród przez Boga i Polacy wierzą i kochają Żydów, jak wszyscy wyganiali żydów Polska ofiarowała im miejsce zamieszkania na polskich ziemiach. Dzisiaj my wszyscy wiemy jak się Żydzi odwiedzczaja w USA, Israelu, i jak oni uczą historii swoich dzieci o Polsce PS Nikt mnie w Polskiej szkole nie uczył nienawiści do Israel

Robisz znakomitą robotę. W 100% się Tobą zgadzam, potrzeba oczyszczenia, odbycia wspólnej żałoby Polacy i Żydzi byli ofiarami tej samej wojny, terroru hitlerowskiego a potem kolejnego autorytaryzmu. Nie jest prawdą, że drogi Żydów i Polaków całkowicie się rozeszły. Tych kilkuset lat koegzystencji pod jednym niebem nie da się wyrzucić z pamięci, z mentalności, kultury. Tę wspólnotę można odbudować, nie odtworzyć.

So very sad to hear so many of these comments, evidencing intense anti-semitism that continues to exist, blame, hatred, lack of empathy, … towards a narrative that seeks reconciliation.

Every nations have own hagadah. At school teachers told us about szmalcowniks but they erased their names as a punishment. If you really want to know details about szmalcownik then you need search in libraries Internet etc.

I understand your journey, but there's enough interest to improve these relationships. The world has moved on.

Michael, i think you should walk wonderful path of Izery mountains. Just to see beautiful land of Karkonosze. But also to se real frozen hate and distrust. If you ready for long trekking let me know. I think this may open your eyes that hate towards Jews is artificial in Poland and there was bigger problem for reconciliation with some other People. Peace.

Nie sądzę aby Polacy chcieli mieć coś wspólnego z Izraelem. Wyznajemy inne wartości. My nie mordujemy tylko pomagamy mordowanym. Rozumiem dlaczego Niemcy i Izrael się przyjaźnią, oni są tacy sami. My jesteśmy inni.

Michael hejt w internecie jest oczywistą oczywistością. Każda osoba udostępniająca cokolwiek w internecie spotyka się z hejtem. Kolor skóry, wyznanie, narodowość, itp nie mają żadnego znaczenia. Dziwnym by było, gdyby Ciebie ten hejt omijał. Byłbyś mocno "podejrzanym typem". Więc ciesz się hejtem, bo on onzacza, że jesteś, że czujesz, że myślisz. Inaczej bez sensu byłoby Ciebie atakować ;)

why do Jews not like Poles? because the Poles were present when the Jews broke. their narratives about the war may be challenged by someone who was there. this is what ordinary human psychology tells them to do

I still don't get why people, react to reaction or view of single people and want to correct them. If someone have feeling about something or personal observation it isn't a general fact, but some people really want to impose their position on others, someone feeling isn't matter for debate but anyone should have right to safely express their feelings safely even on public video. About reconciliation Poland don't want to say sorry mostly becouse no one really say sorry to polish people for all this shit that happened so why we should say sorry that is how I see this topic even fact that Germany did so much to reconcile with Jews is something that put some Poles on emotional edge. Plus fact that many poles see Jews that just cut ties with Poland as they abandon their roots which is not good in Polish eyes at all(even if their history was harsh). That was a little of this defensivness you was talking about but didn't mean anything bad just wanted to bring a little of other side of fence into discussion. Rn I think best we can do is to make sure that Part of culture isn't lost in Poland and I think you doing good job bringing this to discussion. Sadly people are not so good in discussions in some part of internet.

Antisemitism in Poland exists, and exists not without reason. Poles remember that many Jews betrayed Poland when the Soviets entered the country. Of course it was nothing personal. They simply believed in Communist Revolution. They also preferred to go east than west from obvious reasons. Unfortunately after war Jewish Communists were also involved of killing Polish patriots and heroes of WWII. From Jewish side Poles are often seen as those who told Jews to leave the country. There is also the role of the Roman Catholic church. Some priests were antisemitic and they were pushing that to the nation. Basically Catholics blame Jews for killing Jesus. Of course all these "good" reasons to hate each other don't apply anymore. I hope Jews and Poles have a great history of living side by side. Share recipes for great food, and traditions. This is great.

Regarding spreading lies: as Romans say: "es facit, qui prodest". Who profited from those massive lies? Mostly AngloSaxon so called. Not small people like me and you.

Interesting interview with Norman Finkelstein in the link

Two Religions living together for a Thousand years. They Are fine together. Michael some times you are overreacting/overthinking.

Germany /Deutschland=Ditzland=the land of the Jews/Yiddish. Germans speak Yiddish not a germanic lenguage

Odpierdolcie się od Polaków i tyle - that's my view on our reconciliation

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Guxb-T8xn-g.htmlh27m29s

Żydowska wizja Polski jest tak różna od wizji polskiej, że pogodzić się tego nie da. Za dużo kłamstw i bajania. Ostatecznie Polski nie będzie ale to też będzie początkiem końca wędrowców. Kto mądry ten zrozumie, pycha kroczy przed upadkiem a wyniosłość ducha przed ruiną. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WOO3NWzH69g.html

Its pointless and your story doesnt make any sense

For $$$ lets ask Elon Musk in his Berlin GigaFactory , it is only 2 hour drive!

To nie ma żadnego sensu, bo żadne samozwańcze organizacje czy nawet demokratycznie wybrane władze nie reprezentują całego społeczeństwa. Niech Żydzi żyją swoją narracją tak jak to robią od kilku tysięcy lat. A że rozjeżdża się z prawdą historyczną to już inna sprawa.