Thoughts on the difficulties of aiding Jews in occupied Poland during World War Two

By Jan Niechwiadowicz

1) Only in Poland did aiding a Jew (e.g. giving them a glass of water) carry the death penalty. An interesting question is why was this? Why was Poland the only country where this was necessary? (Copy in Your Life is Worth Mine)

2) It was not only the Christian Pole who life was at risk but the Jews as well. As a result you had to consider the risks. Jews themselves were often afraid and preferred to stay in the ghettos than risk it outside.

3) It was hard to pass Jews off as Christian Poles as they dressed differently looked different and most important many did not speak Polish or spoke with accent.

4) The Roman Catholic Church in Poland did not treat children of non-Polish origin different from Polish children (Quote from page 12 Your Life is Worth Mine)

5) The resistance received less foreign aid compared to other countries (e.g. France)

6) Length of the occupation in Poland was generally longer (10-40% longer compared to Western Europe, the Balkans and the former Soviet Union)

7) Poland location (e.g. compare it to France) made it difficult to get Jews to safe neutral or allied countries

8) The large number of Jews compared to other countries, meaning a larger percentage of resources was needed.

9) In Poland, the Jews were more true to their faith and as a result were unwilling to accept help (again see Your Life is Worth Mine for discussing of them not willing to hand their children over to be saved)

10) Lack of leadership (i.e. able bodied Christian Poles were in German concentration camps, Soviet gulags, fighting abroad or dead)

11) Polish Jews were targeted first, hence accounting for a higher number of dead compared to other countries

12) The length of occupation and level of cruelly drained the strength of Christian Poles compared to the treatment of others especially in Western Europe

13) Lack of a common language making it difficult to offer aid or to ask for aid

14) The imbalance of the numbers of Jews in the towns/cities compared to Christian Poles (Page 15 Your Life is Worth Mine)

15) Lack of friends/connections not encouraging and again stopping Jews asking for aid and distrusting Christian Poles (Page 15 Your Life is Worth Mine)

16) How Christian Poles really knew that the Jews were being murdered? The fact that Christian Poles were targeted first but survived in the camps may have given a false impression that the Jews were also alive somewhere

17) They could not build the camps in places like France as the allied planes could easily seen them, meaning Polish Jews suffer most as they were to hand for the camps

18) How many Jews fled abroad and therefore could not be saved? How many survived but where not counted? How many became Christians?

19) A feeling of guilt amongst survives and looking for someone to blame makes some Jews blame the Christian Poles i.e. the Germans were the murders but someone should have helped but as the Jews did not help themselves it easy to blame the Christian Poles for doing the same than admit their own actions

20) The Polish Government did all that it could (e.g. publicizing the camps existence, pressuring the allies to bomb the camps, setting up an organisation to aid the Jews) but what did the British, American and other occupied countries do? Why did the allies veto the suggestion to tell the Germans they would face war crimes trials for their actions?

21) In Poland there were much greater numbers of other ethnicities compared to other countries

22) The fighting in Poland was some of the worst in the whole of Europe

23) The German consider Eastern Jews inferior to German and other Jews

24) Polish collaborators are always presented as anti-Semites but Jewish collaborators were desperate people in a desperate situation. There were millions of Germans in the various armed forces therefore the handful of Polish collaborators are nothing in comparison.