Talk:The Holocaust in Poland/Archives/2018/February

Victims forced by Nazis to give up their protectors
As explained here, these cannot count as Holocaust collaborators under any reasonable definition. By all this means this should be mentioned in Rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust as an additional peril to Righteous Among the Nations, but the blame for such murders is clearly on the Nazis. I also don't think that the source used is an appropriate one, better to use one that gives a more general summary of the perils faced by protectors.--Pharos (talk) 22:25, 4 February 2018 (UTC)


 * Please read the entire section; our coverage goes both ways. At the very bottom of the same section the article also states: ... the communist secret police routinely tortured the NSZ insurgents in order to force them to confess to killing Jews among other alleged crimes. This was most notably the case with the 1946 trial of 23 officers of the NSZ in Lublin. The torture of political prisoners by the Ministry of Public Security did not stop when the interrogations were concluded. Physical torture was also ordered if they retracted in court their forced confessions of "killing Jews".[211] — The Christian Martyrs of Charity by the Kolbe Foundation gives documented examples of Jewish people betraying all (!) Polish rescuers known to them, and the source is reliable. It is not up to us to blame anyone, and I don't think we need a replacement for a monograph that might have taken decades to develop. Many recently published books on the subject (no need for titles) use prisoner confessions extracted through extreme physical torture as a viable source of information about the mistreatment of others. Summaries don't always help.  Poeticbent  talk 23:14, 4 February 2018 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure what you mean by "coverage goes both ways" - I do agree it is appropriate for this section to cover the issue of false confessions of collaboration extracted by torture. Christian Martyrs of Charity is a memorial book of Christian heroism, not Jewish treachery, and you are missing the point of this publication. The format seems to be primary source one-sentence commemorations of individual instances of Christian heroism; in some of these one-sentence summaries the word "betray" is used, but almost certainly these "betrayals" were extracted by torture or the threat of torture from people about to be murdered. That the rescuers willingly faced this additional peril of being revealed is a credit to them, but it is not something that any reasonable person would attribute to those taken by the Nazis.  We would need general historical sources that Jewish victims who were forced by Nazis to give up their protectors, should be considered to themselves be Holocaust collaborators.--Pharos (talk) 17:33, 5 February 2018 (UTC)
 * I resent your insinuation that I am misusing the source (or missing the point of this publication), and I strongly disagree with your assessment of the book as WP:PRIMARY. It is not! Primary sources generally comprise the survivor testimonies, but the survivors (witnesses, bystanders, etc.) do not speak in this volume! Wacław Zajączkowski (ISBN 0945281005) is a notable historian with two books written on the same subject, and belittling his research is unnecessary. Your claim of betrayals "extracted by torture" is WP:ORIGINAL RESEARCH. — Zajączkowski did not say that. His research is as much a part of Holocaust narrative as any other information on the subject. It is a part of the rescue attempts' history, but no rescuer would have ever consider that as an "additional peril" (as you say). You removed the 'betrayal' from the section heading. — How would you categorize the extortions in the ghettos themselves ... was it not betrayal?  Poeticbent  talk 18:37, 5 February 2018 (UTC)
 * I do not mean to diminish Zajączkowski's work at all, but I disagree with your interpretation of it. Many historians work directly with primary texts and individual cases; there are a number of historians who have written comparable books on large numbers of Jewish Holocaust victims as well, with short one--sentence summaries for each.  But it would not be appropriate for a Wikipedia editor to take a few isolated individual histories from such a book on Jewish Holocaust victims either, and interpret a trend. The interpretation of a trend like that is not a function for us. I think that the word "betray" in the text is certainly inclusive of forced betrayal, and that is the only reasonable interpretation; these were people could not hold out, but they were not collaborators getting a reward.  I certainly do agree that people in the ghettos like Group 13 were collaborators.--Pharos (talk) 19:04, 5 February 2018 (UTC)

Perhaps this should be retitled ...
Perhaps this should be retitled "Poland's Holocaust." If the Polish government wants to forget the people who died for them so they could regain independence in WWI; and if the Polish government does not hold itself accountable in the past or in the future, then I see no other alternative. I am of German, Polish, and Russian ancestry. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.76.126.43 (talk • contribs) from East Wenatchee, Washington at 15:35, 7 February 2018 (UTC)


 * No, it's the Holocaust, as committed by Nazi Germany, and part of it took place in Poland under German occupation. The Polish government is not responsible for what the Nazis did under occupation. Whether or not you agree with the current Polish government's push to formally state that Germany is solely responsible for the Holocaust is irrelevant here. The Polish government did not exist during the occupation. The people of Poland were under Nazi rule. Many individuals resisted, many were passive, some individuals collaborated. However, the latter does not implicate the whole of Poland any more than it does in any other occupied territory during the war. The current article title is the most accurate based on well-established historical sources. The Holocaust -- some of it -- took place in Poland.  freshacconci  (✉) 15:40, 7 February 2018 (UTC)

I request clarification, am I allowed to say, "Polish Ghetto"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.76.126.43 (talk • contribs)
 * I'm not certain what you're asking. Polish Ghetto meaning what exactly? The Warsaw Ghetto? Or do you mean Poland as an occupied territory was a kind of ghetto? Either way, you're free to say what you want but you can't make up terms for Wikipedia. Most reliable sources refer to the occupation of Poland and the Holocaust as it happened in Poland, so "The Holocaust in Poland" is the simplest most neutral title we can use.  freshacconci  (✉) 16:05, 7 February 2018 (UTC)

So the Polish Government is allowed to take away the free speech of the World? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.76.126.43 (talk) 16:08, 7 February 2018 (UTC)
 * I have no idea what that has to do with this article. Whether or not the Polish government is "taking away free speech" is irrelevant here as they have no authority over Wikipedia.  freshacconci  (✉) 17:14, 7 February 2018 (UTC)