| A. Religion: Atoning for sins |
They felt
in a Catholic fashion, here I considered a Jew as a low being. I
was an anti-Semite, maybe I behaved improperly toward them and for this I
must pay now. In some way I must erase this sin. -- anti-Semitic rescuer, from "When Light Pierced the Darkness" |
| B. High moral values |
Their actions
were motivated by very high moral values. You see I cannot say that
they helped us...because they liked us. They tried to help anybody....It
was not our presence or our relationship to them that changed their anti-Semitic
views. Instead, it was the German actions that made them change, by
upsetting all preexisting values, including those that had to do with anti-Semitism.
-- David Rodman, from "When Light Pierced the Darkness" |
| C. Feelings toward Jews did not
change |
During the
war anti-Semites did not see a Jew as a Jew. He did not anymore fit
the image of the threatening aggressive foreign being. Instead, the Jew assumed
the position of the haunted and the persecuted. He was stripped of
all attributes except those of a hurt, suffering being. The anti-Semite
saw him as such and responded to the appeal
of humanity. -- survivor, Ibid |
| It is one
thing to help an underdog and quite another to consider him as an equal.
As long as the Jews were persecuted, one could help them, but when they wanted
to become equal to the Christian, this is quite a different matter.
- survivor, Ibid |
|
| The silence
can no longer be tolerated. Whatever the reason for it, it is vile.
In the face of murder, it is wrong to remain passive. Whoever is silent
witnessing murder becomes a partner to the murder. Whoever does not condemn,
consents. Therefore, we -- Catholics, Poles -- raise our voices. Our feeling toward the Jews has not changed. We continue to deem them political, economic, and ideological enemies of Poland. Moreover, we realize that they hate us more than they hate the Germans, and that they make us responsible for their misfortune....Awareness of this fact, however, does not release us from the duty of damnation of murder. Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, from an illegal leaflet titled "The Protest," Ibid. |
|
| D. Not even after the war |
Jewish presence
had prevented Poland from achieving unity, but now Poland could be ethnically
homogeneous. -- Marek Dunsky, Ibid |