Reclaiming the Swastika

[Domen]

Polish highlanders did not have any "ideology of hate" and the German project of "Goralenvolk" and their attempt of creating a "Goral Legion" largely failed.

There were Latvians, French people, Flamands, Spaniards, Albanians (SS Division "Skanderberg"), Danish people, Norwegians, Finns, Swiss people, Swedes and Dutch people (Panzer Division SS "Viking") and Tatars (Tatar Brigade of the Waffen SS) and Indians (Indian Legion of the Waffen SS) on the Eastern Front.

There were even 600 Jewish Karaites from Crimea serving in the Waffen SS (in SS-Waffengruppe "Krim" from Osttürkischen Waffen-Verbände der SS).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaite_Judaism

On the other hand, forming "Goral Legion" from Polish "Goralenvolk" did not succeed - there were not enough volunteers to form a unit:


Link to video.

 

[woody60707]

As a matter of fact, I think we need to add a few more symbols to the ban list. Anyone sporting these symbols should also be investigated by the police... Just in case.

 

[Domen]

Ah, you mean the symbol of KKK ???:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder,_Küche,_Kirche

Oh, probably not this KKK...

 

[Formaldehyde]

Polish highlanders did not have any "ideology of hate" and the German project of "Goralenvolk" and their attempt of creating a "Goral Legion" largely failed.

Yet they clearly used the very same Nazi symbols as those who lived immediately west of them while advocating many of the same antisemitic policies.

Żydokomuna (Polish pronunciation: [ʐɨdɔkɔˈmuna], Yid-Commie[1][2]) is a pejorative[3] antisemitic stereotype which came into use in the interwar period, blaming Jews for the introduction of Communism in Poland,[4] where communism was identified as part of a wider Jewish-led conspiracy to seize power (Kopstein).[5]

The idea of Żydokomuna continued to endure to a certain extent in postwar Poland (1944–1956),[6] because Polish anti-communists saw the Soviet-controlled Communist regime as the fruition of prewar anti-Polish agitation; with it came the implication of Jewish responsibility. The Soviet appointments of Jews to positions responsible for oppressing the populace further fueled this perception.[7][8] Some 37,1% of post-war management of UB employees and members of the communist authorities in Poland were of Jewish origin. They were described in intelligence reports as most loyal to the Soviets (Szwagrzyk).[6] That some Polish historians have impugned the loyalty of Jews returning to Poland from the USSR after the Soviet takeover has raised the specter of Żydokomuna in the minds of other scholars.[9]

Żydokomuna survives in the post-Soviet era primarily in rhetoric on the political fringe.

The concept of a Jewish conspiracy threatening Polish social order dates in print to the pamphlet Rok 3333 czyli sen niesłychany (The Year 3333, or the Incredible Dream) by Polish Enlightenment author and political activist Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, written in 1817 and published posthumously in 1858. Called "the first Polish work to develop on a large scale the concept of an organized Jewish conspiracy directly threatening the existing social structure,"[10][11][12] it describes a Warsaw of the future renamed Moszkopolis after its Jewish ruler.[12] (See "Judeopolonia" article for more.)

At the end of the 19th century, Roman Dmowski's National Democratic party characterized Poland's Jews and other opponents of Dmowski's party as internal enemies who were behind international conspiracies inimical to Poland and who were agents of disorder, disruption and socialism.[13][14] Historian Antony Polonsky writes that before World War I "The National Democrats brought to Poland a new and dangerous ideological fanaticism, dividing society into 'friends' and 'enemies' and resorting constantly to conspiratorial theories ("Jewish-Masonic plot"; "Żydokomuna"—"Jew-communism") to explain Poland's difficulties."[15] Meanwhile, Jews played into National Democratic rhetoric by affirming themselves as alien through their participation in exclusively Jewish organizations such as the Bund and the Zionist movement.[13]

Accusations of Żydokomuna accompanied the incidents of anti-Jewish violence in Poland during Polish–Soviet War of 1920, legitimized as self-defense against a people who were oppressors of the Polish nation. Some soldiers and officers in the Polish eastern territories shared the conviction that Jews were enemies of the Polish nation-state and were collaborators with Poland's enemies. Some of these troops treated all Jews as Bolsheviks. This Żydokomuna paranoia led to violence and killings of Jews in a number of towns, including the Pinsk massacre, in which 35 Jews, taken as hostages, were murdered, and the Lwów pogrom during the Polish-Ukrainian War in which 72 Jews were killed. Occasional instances of Jewish support for Bolshevism during the Polish-Soviet War served to heighten the stereotype.[20][21]

The concept of Żydokomuna was exploited in propaganda by Poland's interwar National Democrats.[22] Publications of the Catholic Church in Poland also commonly expressed anti-Jewish views.[23][24][25] Though Jews were well represented in the Polish Communist Party, Jewish communists were a minuscule political and social group with little actual influence in the Polish-Jewish community or Poland as a whole.[24][26]

During World War II, the term Żydokomuna was made to resemble the Jewish-Bolshevism rhetoric of Nazi Germany, wartime Romania[27] and other war-torn countries of Central and Eastern Europe.[28] A number of historians, such as Jan T. Gross and Andre Gerrits, maintain that there was a strong tradition of anti-Semitism which provided a base for Żydokomuna to feed upon.[2][10][11][12][29]

Much of that antisemitism still exists today:

Poll reveals anti-Semitism still rages in Poland

A survey conducted in recent weeks among high school students in Warsaw, Poland, presented disturbing results on the extent of hatred towards Jews, with a shocking 44 percent saying they would not like to have a Jewish neighbor.

One thousand two hundred and fifty students, aged 17-18, were surveyed by a Homo Homini Institute of Public Opinion Research poll commissioned by the Jewish community in Poland. Of these, 40% said they would not like to have a Jewish classmate.

The survey found 60% of the respondents said they would not like to have a Jewish partner, while 45% said they “would not be happy” if they had a Jewish relative.

When asked about the Holocaust, the Polish students did not hide their anti-Semitic opinions and showed poor knowledge of Jewish history in Poland.


Most of the students believed that the percentage of Jews living in Warsaw before World War II was 18%, while the actual percentage of Warsaw’s Jews was 30%. The survey also showed that 44% believed that “Poles and Jews suffered equally during the Holocaust.”

 

[Evie]

Oh, look, another Poland thread. We clearly didn't have enough of those.

 

[Borachio]

Yet they clearly used the very same Nazi symbols as those who lived immediately west of them while advocating many of the same antisemitic policies.

I wonder how significant this is, though. Anti-semitism was (and remains) very widespread, and there's no doubt it existed in Poland too, up to and during WW2.

Now, just for interest and deviltry, I've googled Churchill and anti-semitism, and, while he wasn't obviously anti-semitic, he was most certainly racist.

Churchill was a life-long believer in race theory and in the idea of the inherent superiority of white people. His deprecatory attitude towards members of what he considered to be inferior races has been well documented, and it was central to his strongly held belief in British imperialism and his opposition to even the slightest concessions to home rule within the colonies. His last recorded political statement was to criticise Harold Macmillan’s ‘Winds of change’ speech, saying that this Conservative prime minister should not have gone to Africa, “encouraging the black man”.

http://www.cpgb.org.uk/home/weekly-worker/964/debate-churchill-and-the-jewish-question

Are we to conclude from this that the UK is a cesspit of racism and anti-semitism?

Spoiler :

You can if you wish. I can't say I care.

 

[Tahuti]

Are we to conclude from this that the UK is a cesspit of racism and anti-semitism?

I'd say that racism is much less of a problem in the UK today than in Poland. Poland cannot into tolerance.

 

[Domen]

A survey conducted in recent weeks among high school students in Warsaw, Poland, presented disturbing results on the extent of hatred towards Jews, with a shocking 44 percent saying they would not like to have a Jewish neighbor.

One thousand two hundred and fifty students, aged 17-18, were surveyed by a Homo Homini Institute of Public Opinion Research poll commissioned by the Jewish community in Poland. Of these, 40% said they would not like to have a Jewish classmate.

The survey found 60% of the respondents said they would not like to have a Jewish partner, while 45% said they “would not be happy” if they had a Jewish relative.

When asked about the Holocaust, the Polish students did not hide their anti-Semitic opinions and showed poor knowledge of Jewish history in Poland.

Most of the students believed that the percentage of Jews living in Warsaw before World War II was 18%, while the actual percentage of Warsaw’s Jews was 30%. The survey also showed that 44% believed that “Poles and Jews suffered equally during the Holocaust."

One more lie from our chief manipulator Formaldehyde.

This survey is from Warsaw, while a representative survey for entire Poland shows much smaller percentages - two times lower than in Warsaw:

http://www.sfora.pl/Mlodzi-nienawidza-Zydow-Ci-najbardziej-w-Polsce-a54635/24

The survey was carried out to the order of the Jewish Community in Warsaw.

Most of the students believed that the percentage of Jews living in Warsaw before World War II was 18%, while the actual percentage of Warsaw’s Jews was 30%.

Most of American students when asked to say a country that begins with U mention Utopia...

By the way - both numbers, 18% and 30%, are wrong.

In 1938 population of Warsaw was 1,265,372 of whom 368,394 were believers of Judaism - which is 29%, not 30%.

But this shows % of Jews in Warsaw only if you define Jews as believers of Judaism, rather than as speakers of Yiddish or Hebrew as primary language.

If you define Jews as speakers of Yiddish / Hebrew, then % of Jews in Warsaw was smaller - many believers of Judaism spoke Polish as mother tongue.

There were around 400,000 Judaistic Poles (Polish-speaking Jews - who declared Polish as their mother tongue) in entire Poland in 1938.

 

[Domen]

“Poles and Jews suffered equally during the Holocaust.”

In quantitative terms (i.e. number / percentage) not. But on personal level suffering is suffering.

My granduncle and first wife of my grandfather were killed by Nazi Germans - first one in Piaśnica, second one in Auschwitz.

And I don't know about any Jewish roots of those members of my family.

===============================================

Link below is a 33 pages long paper titled:

"Losses Inflicted on Poland by Germany during World War II. Assessments and Estimates - an Outline"

Written by Mateusz Gniazdowski in 2007 - download link:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/0ecynm

Anti-semitism was (and remains) very widespread, and there's no doubt it existed in Poland too, up to and during WW2.

I have data regarding nationalities of Axis soldiers captured by the Red Army during WW2 - nationalities and numbers of captives are mentioned.

From that data one can see, that people from entire Europe volunteered to fight for Hitler and his cause. Poland was not exception.

But actually Poland and Britain were perhaps the only two countries in Europe which did not have their "national" divisions within Nazi military. Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Holland and Switzerland had Division SS "Viking". Albania had Division SS "Skanderberg" (busy with extermination of Serbians). Etc., etc.

There were even 50 volunteers from the United States of America who fought in the Waffen SS during WW2.

Yet they clearly used the very same Nazi symbols

Swastika is not an originally Nazi symbol - the history of Swastika dates back to Ancient times.

A number of historians, such as Jan T. Gross

I have seen people who deny Soviet crimes - such as Formaldehyde - calling Mark Solonin "an engineer", rather than historian.

In such case I wonder, why Jan Tomasz Gross is not called "a sociologist", rather than historian ???

Mark Solonin has a degree in engineering and Jan T. Gross has a degree in sociology, after all. They are not history graduates.

it describes a Warsaw of the future renamed Moszkopolis after its Jewish ruler

King Moszko XII in Niemcewicz's pamphlet is actually ruler of entire Poland, not just Warsaw.

Ruler of the city of Moszkopolis is Prince Voivode Icek Szmulowicz, Lord of Wilanów.

They have interesting Kosher recipes in this imaginary Moszkopolis Anno 3333 - for example:

- Łokszyn a la Machabeje
- Kugiel au' Szmalc
- Kaczkes a la Jeremie
- Maces
- obarzankes

Sounds yummy!

 

[warpus]

Why aren't you going after Formaldehyde's lack or response to your last post? He threw out a bunch of random bullcrap in response to what you said - that seems to have nothing to do with your point - that certain mountain people in Poland have been using the swastika as a good luck symbol, and that's why they had it on their uniforms during the war.

He offered no information to counter that - zero - attempting to steer the discussion in a totally different direction by throwing out random quotes.

I'm not saying you were right about that point Domen, just that Forma did a horrible job in attempting to dispute it and that you shouldn't even have engaged his silly points.

 

[Formaldehyde]

I wonder how significant this is, though.

How "significant" was it that a far-right group in Poland known to be friendly with the Nazis also used a swastika as their symbol during the very same period?

Do you think this was a coincidence? That they were actually Buddhists or Hindus who were advocating peace and understanding among all ethnic groups, instead of fomenting anti-Semitic hatred?

 

[Phrossack]

Oh, look, another Poland thread. We clearly didn't have enough of those.

We could pay for the servers and have some left over for the posters if we'd just tax all things Polish here.

I agree with others, though, that the nice thing about keeping the swastika off-limits is that it makes it a hell of a lot easier to identify neo-Nazis, white supremacists, neo-Fascists, and others.

 

[Domen]

How "significant" was it that a far-right group in Poland known to be friendly with the Nazis (...)

What the hell are you talking about ???

Highlanders being a "far-right group in Poland known to be friendly with the Nazis" ???

Maybe read something before writing rubbish - you can start from wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_use_of_the_swastika_in_the_early_20th_century

English postcard from 1910 (apparently English people had Nazi views already when Hitler was still just a teenager):

British national savings stamp from 1916 - a proof that British people were planning the Holocaust already in 1916:

2.12 Poland:

Since the early Middle Ages the sign of the swastika was well established among all Slavic lands. Known as swarzyca, it was primarily associated with one of the Slavic gods named Svarog.

With time the association with Slavic gods faded, but the swastika was preserved both as a personal symbol of various personalities, such as the Boreyko Coat of Arms, and in folk culture, for example, in the region of Podhale, where the swastika was used as a talisman well into the 20th century. As a solar symbol, it was painted or carved on various parts of houses in the Tatra Mountains and was thought to save the household from evil.

The ancient symbol used by the Góral societies was adopted by the Polish mountain infantry units in the 1920s. It was adopted as a regimental insignia by the artillery units of the 21st and 22nd Infantry Divisions, as well as by the soldiers of the 4th Legions' Infantry, the 2nd and the 4th Podhale Rifles. A distinctive blue swastika was a background emblem of the Air defence and Anti-gas League (1928–1939, LOPP), which had circa 1.5 million members in 1937.

Outside of the military traditions, the mountaineer's swastika also influenced a number of other symbols and logos used on Polish soil. Among such was the logo of the IGNIS publishing company (est. 1822), and the personal symbol of Mieczysław Karłowicz, a notable composer and admirer of the Tatras. After his death in the mountains in 1909, the place of his death was marked by a memorial stone and a swastika. Finally, it was also used as a personal logo and ex libris by Walery Eljasz-Radzikowski of Boreyko Coat of Arms, a Polish author who was also strongly influenced by the Polish mountaineers and had a swastika on the dust jackets of all his books and letters.

Boreyko Coat of Arms:

The Highlander Cross:

And also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorals

The Gorale (Polish: Górale; Slovak: Gorali; Cieszyn Silesian: Gorole; literally "highlanders") are a group of indigenous people found along southern Poland, northern Slovakia, and in the region of Cieszyn Silesia in the Czech Republic. There is also a significant Goral diaspora in the area of Bukovina in western Ukraine and in northern Romania, as well as Chicago, the seat of the Polish Highlanders Alliance of North America.

Spread

In Poland they live in the region of Podhale of the Tatra Mountains and parts of the Beskids (Cieszyn Silesia, Silesian Beskids, Żywiec Beskids). In present-day Slovakia they live in 4 separate groups: in northern Spiš (34 villages subdivided in two groups), Orava and Kysuce (2 villages) and smaller groups in 7 other enclave villages in northern Slovakia.

Origin and language, dialect

Gorals are part of a continuum of Carpathian Slavic highlander groups, including Hutsuls, Lemkos, and Boykos. The various dialects spoken by the Gorals descend from Proto-Slavic from the Eastern Lechitic, Old Polish area, superimposed by Slovak. In other words, the language is of Polish origin, but has been influenced by Slovak in recent centuries. In addition to Polish, the language contains some vocabulary of other origins, including Slovak, Vlach, and words of uncertain origin that have cognates in other languages of the Carpathian region. Mazurzenie may occur.

Gorals in a wider sense

In a wider sense Gorals refers to an ethnographic (or even ethnic) group comprising certain highlanders in the northern Carpathians, more precisely these ethnic groups:

Hutsuls (in Ukraine and Romania)
Lemkos (in Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine)
Boykos (in Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia)
Gorals of Żywiec (pl: górale żywieccy), Poland
Gorals (Gorols) of Cieszyn Silesia in Poland and Czech Republic
Gorals in Podhale (pl: górale podhalańscy)
Moravian Vlachs (Moravian Wallachia)

 

[Domen]

The concept of a Jewish conspiracy threatening Polish social order dates in print to the pamphlet Rok 3333 czyli sen niesłychany (The Year 3333, or the Incredible Dream) by Polish Enlightenment author and political activist Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, written in 1817

I suppose you quoted this to "prove" that Poles started to be anti-Semitic very early on? Well, in such case - you failed to prove your claim.

The concept of a Jewish conspiracy threatening Ancient Roman social order dates at least to Publius Cornelius Tacitus:

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/tacitus.html

"(...) among themselves Jews are inflexibly honest and ever ready to shew compassion, though they regard the rest of mankind with all the hatred of enemies. (...)"

And the concept of a Jewish conspiracy threatening German social order dates at least to Martin Luther:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_and_antisemitism#Warning_against_the_Jews

"(...) They are our public enemies. They do not stop blaspheming our Lord Christ, calling the Virgin Mary a whore, Christ, a bastard, and us changelings or meal calves. If they could kill us all, they would gladly do it. (...)"

And the concept of a Jewish conspiracy threatening Italian social order dates at least to Giordano Bruno:

http://davidduke.com/clio-gagged-how-jewish-supremacism-gags-history/

"(...) such a pestilential, leprous, and publicly dangerous race that they deserved to be rooted out and destroyed even before their birth. (...)"

And the concept of a Jewish conspiracy threatening French social order dates at least to François-Marie Arouet "Voltaire":

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/v/voltaire/dictionary/chapter448.html

"(...) The little Jewish nation does not deserve to be considered politically, except on account of the prodigious revolution that has occurred in the world, of which it was the very obscure and unconscious cause. (...)"

And the concept of a Jewish conspiracy threatening English social order dates at least to Edward Gibbon:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gibbon#Legacy

"(...) From the reign of Nero to that of Antoninus Pius, the Jews discovered a fierce impatience of the dominion of Rome, which repeatedly broke out in the most furious massacres and insurrections. Humanity is shocked at the recital of the horrid cruelties which they [the Jews] committed in the cities of Egypt, of Cyprus, and of Cyrene, where they dwelt in treacherous friendship with the unsuspecting natives; and we are tempted to applaud the severe retaliation which was exercised by the arms of legions against a race of fanatics, whose dire and credulous superstition seemed to render them the implacable enemies not only of the Roman government, but also of humankind. (...)"

And the concept of a Jewish conspiracy threatening Russian social order dates at least to Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin:

http://library.flawlesslogic.com/jtr_01.htm

"(...) one exploiting sect, one people of leeches, one single devouring parasite closely and intimately bound together not only across national boundaries, but also across all divergences of political opinion (...)"

And the concept of a Jewish conspiracy threatening American social order dates at least to Henry Ford:

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/ford1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_International_Jew

I could continue this further on - quoting Spanish, Romanian, Swedish, Belgian, Turkish, Arab, etc., etc., etc. concepts of a Jewish conspiracy.

So the conclusion is, that of course Poles were history's most famous anti-Semites ???

And that's why Poland ended up with the largest Jewish population on this planet ???

=================================
=================================

PS:

Considering info quoted above, we must ban this as an anti-Semitic symbol (just like swastika):

=================================
=================================

List of even more of well-known non-Polish people who were labelled as anti-Semites for their views throughout history:

http://dylewski.com.pl/menu-boczne/iluzja-pieniadza/osobliwosc-zydowska-czesc-1/

http://dylewski.com.pl/menu-boczne/iluzja-pieniadza/osobliwosc-zydowska-czesc-2/

Cicero (106-43 BC), Seneca (54 BC – 39 AD), Strabo (ca. 63 BC – ca. 24 AD), Quintilian (ca. 35 – ca. 96), Horace (65 BC - 8 AD), Juvenal (60-127), Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400), Erasmus of Rotterdam (1467-1536), William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), Denis Diderot (1713-1784), Paul Henry d’Holbach (1723-1789), Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831), Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), Napoleon Bonaparte (1768-1821), William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), Charles Dickens (1812-1870), Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799-1837), Richard Wagner (1813-1883), Franz Liszt (1811-1886), Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852), Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881), Anton Czekhov (1860-1904), Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883), Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865), Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), Karl Marx (1818-1883), Ernest Renan (1823-1892), Herbert George Wells (1866-1946), George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945), Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931), Walt Disney (1901-1966), Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936), Walter Lippmann (1889-1974), Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940), Boris Pasternak (1890-1960), Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965), gen. George Smith Patton (1885-1945), Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), André Gide (1869-1951), Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1889-1975), David Irving (193, Mel Gibson (1956-), Werner Sombart (1863-1941), Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814), Johann von Höfen Dantiscus (1485-1548)

Even some Jewish people can also be added to this list of anti-Semites quoted above (yes, there were / are also anti-Semites among Jews).

So stop your rubbish propaganda about Poles being "special kind of anti-Semites".

===========================

PS:

Yes - I was also very surprised that Hannah Arendt is listed there among other anti-Semites.

I tried to google something about this issue - and found this website:

"Troubling new revelations about Arendt and Heidegger":

http://blog.stewarthomesociety.org/...g-new-revelations-about-arendt-and-heidegger/

 

[useless]

Nexus Mods (Skyrim) is doing their part! There is an armor mod with a swastika that caused some controversy because it has a swastika on it. It's not Nazi, and the site owner has made it clear that anyone throwing a hissy fit over it will be welcome to not return. Here's a snippet of the official response:

Let's just remember though that in the game there are a group Northern-inspired, Viking-like Blond Hair, blue eyed people who dislike anyone who isn't them and fervantly fight to get rid of foreigners or people they believe to be "foreign".

I'd also just like to remind people that Nexus Mods is a website that hosts mods for Skyrim that allow you to rape people in Skyrim. Nexusmods is just sleezy.

 

[Camikaze]

Moderator Action: No more mentions of Poland.

 

[Bugfatty300]

As a matter of fact, I think we need to add a few more symbols to the ban list. Anyone sporting these symbols should also be investigated by the police... Just in case.

<<<Hello? FBI? Yeah I want to report a suspicious poster at forums.civfanatics.com. He uploaded a picture of a burning cross which is a banned image...>>>

 

[Domen]

Much of antisemitism still exists today

Yes, this is true. But much of antigoyism still exists today as well:

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Secu...2013/1007/Rabbi-Ovadia-Yosef-in-his-own-words

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/antigoyism

(...) For instance, in 2010 he [Rabbi Ovadia Yosef] said in a weekly Saturday night sermon that the sole purpose God put non-Jews on earth was to be servants to Jews. "Goyim (gentiles, non-Jews) were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world &#8211; only to serve the People of Israel," he said, according to the Jerusalem Post. "Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat. That is why gentiles were created." An "effendi" is a lord, or a master, in Arabic. (...)

This Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has just died a month ago (on 7 October). And now I see such a comment from New York, posted after his death:

Millions of people around the world lost a leader today in Rabbi Chacham Ovadia Yosef. His wisdom, charity and sensitivity were legendary.

What "wisdom, charity and sensitivity" ??? It is like saying about "wisdom, charity and sensitivity" of Hitler...

 

[Borachio]

How "significant" was it that a far-right group in Poland known to be friendly with the Nazis also used a swastika as their symbol during the very same period?

Do you think this was a coincidence? That they were actually Buddhists or Hindus who were advocating peace and understanding among all ethnic groups, instead of fomenting anti-Semitic hatred?

No, indeed. There was for sure a far-right group in Poland friendly with the Nazis.

There were also far-right groups in every other nation in Western Europe who were friendly with the Nazis at the time.

There were also far-left groups in Poland who were known to be friendly with the Soviets.

That Poland was more susceptible to (ahem) polarization at the time is hardly surprising, given its geographical situation.

Moderator Action: Please note the moderator warning three posts above. Three mentions of the country doesn't quite square with it.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[warpus]

Which is all beside the point, as the initial point that started this whole exchange was that the swastika was used in the country as a good luck symbol, or what have you - and not a "let's kill the Jews" symbol.

All very relevant to the thread subject matter, but of course it has to be derailed by a quote war between the 2 random quote demons that we have here...