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I stumbled on Victor Sebestyan's review in the Spectator.
Professor Snyder found evidence in the Polish archives of this.
This is topical now. ('The past is not dead. It is not even past.')
'In the 1930s the anti-Semitic government in Warsaw wanted rid of 3.5 million Polish Jews. Initially they tried to pack them off to Madagascar. But then the Poles hit on the idea of helping Jews create their own state in British-occupied Palestine. The problem was that Britain would not allow large-scale Jewish immigration into Palestine, where the Irgun terrorist group was beginning a bloody campaign for independence in a Jewish homeland. The Irgun’s principal backer was Poland, whose military trained scores of guerrillas, gave them generous supplies of arms and smuggled them into Palestine. So Jew-hating Poles helped Jews to murder British soldiers and civilians, supposedly their allies.'
Professor Snyder found evidence in the Polish archives of this.
'Take Ukraine, where much of the population had, willingly or not, collaborated with the Soviets. When the Germans came along and declared that the Jews were responsible for communism and must be punished, vast numbers agreed and took part in murdering them.' ‘
The review ends with a reminder that, as well as being a great historian, Professor Snyder is also a silly ass
'Snyder is an exceptionally gifted historian and is always worth reading when he sticks to history. But he rather loses his way here in the last few pages when he tries to ‘update’ the Holocaust with references to contemporary environmental issues. I agree with him about the dangers of climate change, but to compare global-warming ‘deniers’ with Hitler, who famously doubted the value of science, is too far-fetched.'
Actually, the Nazis were environmentalists avant la lettre and might have been very hot on climate change.
They were keen on scientific research and we are lucky that they didn't develop the bomb before the Americans. They made big strides looking for a cure for cancer.
Professor Snyder is not alone, by any means, in his fatuous comparison between holocaust deniers, climate change deniers and, inevitably, the philosemite Donald Trump. David Irving's nemesis Deborah Lipstadt does, amongst others.
This is the madness of our age.
The United Kingdom followed a one sided immigration policy into the Holy Land in this historical period - Muslims from various Middle Eastern countries were allowed to enter, but many Jews were blocked from entering, why this one sided immigration policy was followed is complex - but both Herbert Samuel (ironically a Jew himself - it was also Herbert Samuel who picked the Grand Mufti who organised the murder of many Jews and many British people as well,. Herbert Samuel was warned that the man he was appointing was savage, but he ignored all advice holding that he knew better than everyone else, supposedly giving the man a senior position would "calm him down") and the Webbs (Sydney and Beatrice) were involved in pushing it. As for claims that Poland in the 1930s pushed attacks on British soldiers - it does not seem very likely, and there were not many attacks on British soldiers in the 1930s (at least not by Jews) - attacks on British people in the Holy Land tended to be a feature of the late 1940s (independent Poland was conquered in 1939). There was a change of attitude among a minority (a small minority - but a deadly one) of Jews after World War II and the murder of six million Jews. Before the war British policy caused deep resentment - after the war (after the six million murdered Jews) the continuation of the one sided immigration policy did not just cause resentment - it caused rage. After their experiences men such as Mr Begin divided the world into friends and enemies - and if they decided you were an enemy, things would go very badly for you.
ReplyDeleteBy the way - as late as the start of the Victorian period the "land between the river and the sea" was almost empty, with even Jerusalem barely the size of a town.
This new book might be interesting. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/01/new-history-challenges-israels-hold-on-western-imagination/
DeleteThe behaviour of the Jews in Palestine towards England up to 1948 reminds me of the words of the Austrian prime minister, Schwarzenberg, after Russia intervened on Austria's behalf to defeat the Hungarian revolution of 1848-9. "Austria will astound the world with the magnitude of her ingratitude."
DeleteThe Arab Revolt of the 1930s was called the Arab Revolt for a reason - it was the Arabs who were in revolt (not the Jews), just as it was Islamic forces who attacked in the 1920s and during the First World War. Blaming the Jews makes no sense - and trying to blame Poland is bonkers.
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