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When you wonder why Hitler built the concentration camps for Jews in Poland, you can find the answer in the article. For centuries and centuries Jews chased awa

When you wonder why Hitler built the concentration camps for Jews in Poland, you can find the answer in the article. For centuries and centuries Jews chased away from Spain and other countries found a safe home in Poland. They enjoyed freedom and were thriving until the nationalists movements started to become pronounced everywhere in Europe in the early 20th century.

wuschel 8y ago
> the nationalists movements started to become pronounced everywhere in Europe (...) After the Polish state that was home to the Jews was crushed in '39 and Europe fell to Nazi Germany and consorts, only Sweden and the UK were liberal havens - and de facto impossible to reach. They were locked, with no escape, exposed to the industrial genocide that would happen. A true tragedy that makes someone think again when one sees refugees on the TV screen.
gambiting 8y ago
>>When you wonder why Hitler built the concentration camps for Jews in Poland, you can find the answer in the article. Well, it's one of the reasons. The other one is that Oswiecim was(and still is) very well connected to the rest of Europe with train lines - prisoners could be brought there easily from pretty much any part of the occupied territory, from both West and East.
jxub 8y ago
You probably ment until the rise of Nazism and the indifference of the Western powers that be to what was going on in Germany.
- dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
  No, unfortunately a bit earlier than that. The mid-war Poland was a country in a terrible state. Most of the population was destitute. Malnutrition was omnipresent. People were dying of typhus, especially in poorer areas (incidentally, it was thanks to a Pole Rudolf Weigl that a vaccine for typhus was finally discovered.) Imagine the Jews in all this: keeping aside, strongly refusing integration (with some notable exceptions), and, for historical reasons, keeping to a different set of jobs than the rest of this multi-cultural Polish society. The conflict was unavoidable. Right-wing nationalists were convinced that Poland would be better without Jews [0], and the Catholic Church was supporting this vision. That's why Ghetto benches [1] appeared, and the life of Jews in the last years before the war was much more difficult than earlier. However, many Western, and especially American scholars, don't have a deep understanding of these issues. They simplify it as "Poles hated Jews." It was not so. Probably the best example is Zosia Kossak-Szczucka, presented in the article "Anti-Semite who saved Jews" [2] As many others, she was critical of Jews in pre-war years. And as many others, she risked her life to save them. Most people discussing the issue of Anti-Semitism in pre-war Poland don't understand this issue at all. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar_Plan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar_Plan [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghetto_benches https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghetto_benches [2] https://polska.pl/arts/literature/zofia-kossak-szczucka-anti-semite-who-saved-jews/ https://polska.pl/arts/literature/zofia-kossak-szczucka-anti...
  - jxub 8y ago
    Really solid and unbiased explanation, thanks for that.

wuschel 8y ago

> the nationalists movements started to become pronounced everywhere in Europe (...) After the Polish state that was home to the Jews was crushed in '39 and Europe fell to Nazi Germany and consorts, only Sweden and the UK were liberal havens - and de facto impossible to reach. They were locked, with no escape, exposed to the industrial genocide that would happen. A true tragedy that makes someone think again when one sees refugees on the TV screen.

gambiting 8y ago

>>When you wonder why Hitler built the concentration camps for Jews in Poland, you can find the answer in the article. Well, it's one of the reasons. The other one is that Oswiecim was(and still is) very well connected to the rest of Europe with train lines - prisoners could be brought there easily from pretty much any part of the occupied territory, from both West and East.

jxub 8y ago

You probably ment until the rise of Nazism and the indifference of the Western powers that be to what was going on in Germany.

dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
No, unfortunately a bit earlier than that. The mid-war Poland was a country in a terrible state. Most of the population was destitute. Malnutrition was omnipresent. People were dying of typhus, especially in poorer areas (incidentally, it was thanks to a Pole Rudolf Weigl that a vaccine for typhus was finally discovered.) Imagine the Jews in all this: keeping aside, strongly refusing integration (with some notable exceptions), and, for historical reasons, keeping to a different set of jobs than the rest of this multi-cultural Polish society. The conflict was unavoidable. Right-wing nationalists were convinced that Poland would be better without Jews [0], and the Catholic Church was supporting this vision. That's why Ghetto benches [1] appeared, and the life of Jews in the last years before the war was much more difficult than earlier. However, many Western, and especially American scholars, don't have a deep understanding of these issues. They simplify it as "Poles hated Jews." It was not so. Probably the best example is Zosia Kossak-Szczucka, presented in the article "Anti-Semite who saved Jews" [2] As many others, she was critical of Jews in pre-war years. And as many others, she risked her life to save them. Most people discussing the issue of Anti-Semitism in pre-war Poland don't understand this issue at all. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar_Plan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar_Plan [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghetto_benches https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghetto_benches [2] https://polska.pl/arts/literature/zofia-kossak-szczucka-anti-semite-who-saved-jews/ https://polska.pl/arts/literature/zofia-kossak-szczucka-anti...
- jxub 8y ago
  Really solid and unbiased explanation, thanks for that.