Document text
- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels September 21, 2004 Polish history forgotten The film "Corporation" is playing in town. Having seen it in San Francisco at the time of the June 5th "March Against the Occupation of Palestine and Iraq," I have a few concerns from my perspective as a Polish American and as an activist from the left. It was overall a remarkable documentary directed by three very dedicated, intelligent and creative young people. In an otherwise wonderfully balanced and investigative film there were a few moments that at first outraged me and then deeply saddened me. The directors with an obviously scant knowledge and an incomplete historical perspective presented a well-known Jewish spokesman to speak in a most inaccurate and hateful way about the Polish people at the time of the Nazi occupation of Poland. This one voice was allowed to present from an obviously prejudiced view a summary of a most complex and horrible time in world history. It is not that we of Polish descent take exception to the airing of this man's opinion, though it works against our objectives of building a new future in which ethnic and religious hatred are overcome, it is rather that his should not be the only view expressed. There was no time in this film to fully examine the history of the Polish-Jewish relationships, which admittedly has had its high and low points for both peoples. If there was no time to explore voices of the Polish people then the subject should not have been a part of the film. In San Francisco, the directors appeared on stage after the showing of the film and entered into a discussion with the audience. I offered my perspective saying that no attention was given to the suffering of the Polish people to the near destruction of the Polish nation or to the over three million Catholic Poles who perished in the holocaust, many in the Nazi death camps. One of the young directors answered my criticism with great humility saying that I was right and that he was sorry for the problem. I hope everyone who sees this film will be careful to remember his words, and that they will put this moment of great horror and suffering in to the context of all its victims Jewish, Catholic, and socialist, all of whom suffered a terrible fate. The truth is, of course, that Hitler not only set out to murder Polish Jews but all Polish people and to destroy the Polish nation. In a pamphlet published by the American Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., there is a quote from a speech by Adolf Hitler on the ire of the horrendous bombing of Warsaw which began WWII. I quote, "The mission is to eliminate without mercy all people of Polish language or derivation." Now is the time for all of us to be sensitive to the history and suffering of all people and to recognize the complexities inherent in any social phenomenon. There has been plenty of suspicion, prejudice and ill will on both sides of this issue. Let us build together a better tomorrow for all our children. Cynthia Zavatski, Member, Polish American Congress Ashland DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams