Bieganski: The Brute Polak Stereotype, Its Role in Polish-Jewish Relations and American Popular Culture

Review of Bieganski: The Brute Polak Stereotype, Its Role in Polish-Jewish Relations and American Popular Culture, by Danusha V. Goska. 2010. Academic Studies Press, Boston

Reviewer: Mr. Jan Peczkis

The Definitive Work on Polonophobia in America, Past and Present

Despite the fact that I had studied anti-Polonism for a long time (see my Listmania: Exposing Polonophobia...), even I was shocked at the extent and acceptability of such rank bigotry among influential Americans. Goska cites hundreds of sources to present her case, and space limitations permit mention of only a few themes.

After the publication of NEIGHBORS and FEAR, by Jan T. Gross, several respected publications ran articles that, in dead seriousness, made transparently racist statements suggesting that Poles are innately and inevitably brutal and anti-Semitic. (pp. 101-104). [Imagine how long a writer would last if s/he were to make "___are innately and inevitably___" statements about any other group!]

In terms of historical development, much has been said about how blacks had been thought of as innately inferior. However, as Goska shows, similar "scientific" attitudes were long held about Slavs. Some scholars went as far as asserting that Pulaski and Kosciuszko must have been misclassified Nordics! (p. 117). (This is reminiscent of the Nazi view that all successful Poles are actually Polonized Germans.)

In later years, "nationalism" became a dirty word. Goska writes: "The left's rejection of Polish peasants' insistence on clinging to their identity would find echoes decades later in lefts academics' and journalists' rejections of Polish and other Eastern European nationalisms as primitive and needing to evolve into Western liberalism..." (pp. 105-106).

Goska unmasks the media's extreme double standard. When prominent atheist Richard Dawkins (p. 32) and Nation of Islam member Khalid Abdul Muhammed (pp. 65-80) made vile anti-Semitic remarks, they were ignored and apologized-for, respectively. But when Cardinal Glemp made relatively mild remarks in the wake of the Auschwitz Carmelite controversy (well described in this book: pp. 80-95), he was practically crucified by the press, which did much more shouting than accurate analysis of what he had actually said and why.

Polish-Jewish prejudices always went both ways. "The Baal Shem Tov himself, the founder of Hasidism, was called upon to exorcise the Polish soul from the Jewish body." (p. 62). For more on this, see the Peczkis review of: Hasidism and the Jewish Enlightenment: Their Confrontation in Galicia and Poland in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century.

Considering the fact that Poland is inconsequential (p. 148), why does Polonophobia exist at all? Goska shows how it fulfills the attacker's needs. Consider Jewish Polonophobia. Many American Jews know very little about Judaism, and instead define themselves not as who they are, but who they are NOT (those dumb, primitive Poles.)(e. g., p. 154). In fact: "`Poland' became a metonym for anything negative in the Jewish makeup." (p. 160).

Let's analyze Jewish identity further. "According to Israeli politician Zevulun Orlev, who cites studies to support his position, Holocaust education is primary in creating Jewish identity. Poland is a SINE QUO NON for Holocaust education...'cursed' Poland is central to building Jewish identity." (p. 151). Finally, "One reason why some Jews refuse to acknowledge Polish suffering, and why some Jews express more rage against Poles than the Nazis, becomes clear. If it becomes more widely known that Poles were victims of World War Two, rather than its perpetrators, the new Jewish identity based on victim status, typified by the Holocaust, is threatened." (p. 213). For more on all this, see the Peczkis review of: Sparks Amidst the Ashes: The Spiritual Legacy of Polish Jewry.

As for German Polonophobia, it, in the past, had served the purpose of excusing/justifying German imperial ambitions against Poland. It persists today. Goska comments: "A 1990 survey revealed that eighty-seven percent of Germans regarded Poles as `less desirable than themselves, Russians, or Turks.'" (p. 165).

Goska's work contains much seldom-presented historical information. For instance, we learn that the Polish term "black kitchen", contrary to conventional suppositions, had nothing to do with any Jews=devil anti-Semitic construct. (p. 57). It simply referred to the soot caking of a room in the typical peasant hut.

The author (pp. 57-58) cites Botticini and Eckstein, who pointed out that Jews had, in the 1st Millennium A.D., massively abandoned farming in favor of skilled, urban work. (This could be mapped unto Martin Luther's later complaint that Jews are privileged in that they don't have to do sweat-causing work, and foreign observers' suggestions that the poverty of late 19th-early-20th century Polish Jews owed, in large part, to the fact that they, having been displaced from their middleman positions, generally refused to take jobs that involved heavy, manual labor).

Far from being some kind of Polish disease, anti-Semitism, which historically had been much stronger and more developed in western Europe than in eastern Europe, is part of a much broader global phenomenon. Consider the Middleman Minority Theory (Jews in Europe, Indians in Uganda, Chinese in Thailand, etc.). In each case, the middleman "outsider" is resented for not having to do manual labor, and thought of as filling an exploitative niche, etc. (pp. 178-180). Likewise, Amy Chua's "market dominant minorities" position suggests that market-controlling ethnic minorities attract conflict whenever previously-disenfranchised locals gain strength and attempt to gain parity with the ethnic minority. This was realized, for example, by Roman Dmowski and his Endek movement's boycotts of Jews, etc. (pp. 186-188).

The blood libel, far from being some kind of Polish or Christian complex directed against Jews, is much, much broader. Goska uses her background in folklore to show how blood-consumption tales occur all over the world (pp. 188-189). For instance, pagans believed that early Christians drank baby blood, modern Tanzanians widely believe that Europeans consume Africans' blood, and extant Third-World peoples believe organ-theft-ring stories that blame Americans.

A superb book! It must be repeatedly studied in order to be fully appreciated.