A Weapon of Propaganda

The voice of Polish Catholicism:

Tadeusz Pieronek, a Polish bishop and professor and a friend of the last pope John Paul II, claimed that "the Holocaust as such is a Jewish invention" promoted in the press by Jews to gain support for Israel.

Pieronek told the Web site Pontifex.roma that while the Holocaust was not exclusively Jewish, Jews had monopolized it in lieu of encouraging "serious historical debate, free from prejudice and victimization."

Pieronek alleged that Jews today use the Holocaust as "a weapon of propaganda, used to obtain benefits which are often unjustified," citing as an example the unconditional support for Israel by the US.

"This promotes a certain arrogance that I find unbearable," he said, explaining that Israel was using its position of power and exploiting historical tragedies to treat the Palestinians "like animals." [...]

"The Holocaust as such is a Jewish invention ... a day of remembrance must also be set for the many victims of Communism, persecuted Catholics and Christians and so on," he told the Web site.

Pieronek vehemently denied that his words stemmed from anti-Semitism.

"The anti-Semitic history of Poland is an invention," he said. "A joke ... offensive to our people."

Although most of the victims of the Holocaust were indeed Jews, many Poles, Italians and Catholics also died at the Nazi concentration camps, he said.

Strange to think that the people this Catholic bigot would find common cause with nowadays will be, fresh from their Norman Finkelstein readings, largely on the Left

Comments

[Bob-B]

Polish anti-Semitism is undoubtedly real. However, many Poles rescued Jews from the Nazis. This is worth reading:

http://www.savingjews.org/

And so is this:

http://www.holocaustsurvivors.org/cgi-bin/data.show.pl?di=record&da=encyclopedia&ke=107

[Noga]

"..most of the victims of the Holocaust were indeed Jews, many Poles,"

Nearly 6,000,000 perished in Poland during WWII. When Poles recount their WWII dead, they speak of 2,380,000 to 2,580,000 of their dead. The 3,000,000 to 3,500,000 exterminated Polish Jews they do not consider as part of their loss. Tadeusz Pieronek repeats this way of counting without quite realizing the contradiction between how he wants to present the Holocaust and his claim that "The anti-Semitic history of Poland is an invention".