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May 21, 2023
Eurovision and the Holocaust
After Noa Kirel's successful showing at Eurovision (a very respectable third place!) she made a statement about how this was really a victory when receiving the full twelve points from Poland after nearly the entire Kirel family was wiped out in Auschwitz during the Holocaust..
This post-Eurovision statement created a bit of a diplomatic stir. Poland got really upset by this statement of Kirel's.
Polish politicians criticized the week Holocaust education in Israel if young people in Israel think Poland was behind the Holocaust or partners with Germany in the Holocaust rather than as the victim they were.
The Polish government said they are going to be inviting Noa Kirel to Poland to understand better why she thinks about Poland this way (as part of the team of perpetrators of the Holocaust), and them to explain, and for her to see for herself how the Nazis were cruel to the Poles and to the Jews...
If I understand it correctly, Kirel's family was from Austria but they perished in Auschwitz which, as we all know, is in Poland.
I would suggest that Poland misunderstood her intention. She did not say Poland killed her family, but they were all killed in Poland. I dont know why she had to bring it up at all, the Holocaust has nothing to do with Eurovision. If she had to bring it up, she could have accused the Germans of still being anti-semites for giving her 0 points after killing her family if she wanted to refer to the Holocaust... I wonder how many points Poland will give Israel next year after this snafu..
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Labels:
Eurovision,
Germany,
holocaust,
Poland
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Even if we ignore the Holocaust, there's over 5 centuries of Polish Jew-hatred that they're also trying to deny. There's a reason Germany put the majority of the death camps in Poland, after all.
ReplyDeleteCome on, Garnel. We know they built the camps in Poland because that's where the Jews were, and because they didn't want to stink up their previous Vaterland.
ReplyDeleteI know, Nachum. They put their camps in Poland because that's where the Jews were and because they knew there would be no outrage even when the locals found out. That why I said "Even if..."
DeleteYou know, Jewish history in Poland was complicated. Jews lived there for a bit under 500 years and put down roots because while there was antisemitism, they were not expelled every few years as they were in Germany and elsewhere in western Europe. So yes, there absolutely was antisemitism, and there were many, many Poles who collaborated with the Nazis - but it's not as simple as some like to think.
ReplyDeletePoland was pretty anti-semitic, but they werent responsible for the Holocaust, though once they were put down by Germany, they played their role as assistants to the Germans pretty well (though maybe less formally and viciously than the Ukranians)
ReplyDeleteAgreed that Poland was historically pretty antisemitic - but there is a difference between not liking or even discriminating against Jews and actively murdering them. However, when the Germans came in, many Poles did not hesitate to turn in Jews for the slightest benefit - including in exchange for a bag of sugar. As such, while Poland as a country was not the perpetrator of the Holocaust, it is disingenuous for the government to say they are pure innocents. The collaboration was too widespread for them to avoid all guilt.
DeleteOn the other hand, there were more Chassidei Umot HaOlam from Poland than from any other country. Granted, again, because that's where all the killing was, and of course not enough, but they were there.
Delete(My roommate in college- YU- was a Polish Jew- literally, born and raised in Poland- whose mother was hidden by a gentile couple whom he considered his grandparents. He would never hear a bad word about the Poles, because he owed his life to them.)
My father, a"h, used to say that before the war, the Poles hated and tormented the Jews but they never considered outright mass murder because they thought God would think they'd gone too far. Then the Germans came, showed them and that God didn't care and happily joined in.
Deleteinteresting point your father made. thanks @Garnel
DeleteOr they never considered it because the Germans invented the idea.
Delete