UK Polonia protesting v German TV series

A UK Polonian has shared the following announcement: Patriae Fidelis are planning a demonstration outside of the BBC building and a public letter to protest against the BBC's plans to broadctast "Nasze Matki, Nasi Ojcowie". The three-part German series devoted to World War Two depicts the AK, occupied Europe's biggest resistance movement, as a band of anti-Semites.

Ive said this before...

BBC is very antiPolish and antiSlavic in general.

I love the Polish victim mentality... :D
So, the Brits shouldn't see a German movie about German guilt because 1% of the movie allegedly depicts Poles wrong. How many of the Poles who protest now have actually seen the movie. I'm sure no one. Ridiculous.

Still lying about that one? The truth that this TV series shows is that some AK were anti-semites, just as some of the Polish western command forces were virulent anti-semites. It's a pity that some people think that the bad parts of Polish history should be erased from history, especially given that they are the ones who appear to have learned the least from Polish history.


I wasn't aware that BBC is offered in Canada, could you advise as to which BBC channels are available there?


It's not Polish, it's just pathetic. Every nation has its morons, the problem is that Poland's fair share have the habit of drawing attention to themselves.

You seem to have a knee-jerk inclination to attack the poster without actually reading what has been posted. Here you can accuse the British Polonia of lying if you wish. Poland's AK Veterans and other ex-servicemen's associations have protested against the series for besmirching the good name of the AK, so they too were lying, according to you. In fact, at times it seems everyone is a liar except their attacker. Maybe a PF nick along the lines of Mr Truthful might be more appropriate.

Who? A "UK Polonian" is meaningless - but let me guess, he runs the "London Gazeta Polska Club".


A tiny organisation that operates on the fringes of Polonia, yet alone society.


The BBC, as a public service broadcaster, should not be swayed by the rantings of a few on the fringes of society. If it was good enough for TVP, it's good enough for the BBC.


Could you perhaps explain why the same television series was shown on Telewizja Polska, then? Are they anti Polish too?

But for a laugh, could you illustrate how the BBC is 'anti-Polish'?

I dunno if I'm authorised to divulge his name, because he sent it as an email. But I can say he's a Welshman based in Cardiff.

Sounds a loon, especially since the tv show has already been aired in several countries including PL. Evidently he wants to end up a laughing stock.

jon357
On the contrary, he should be awarded the Order of the White Eagle by Komorowski. This gentleman, who is only half-Polish (a Welsh mum), has devoted his entire life to the defence of Poland's good name. He has been in the forefront of those battling the 'Polish concentration camp' lie and immediately alerts fellow-Polonians to the slgihtest whiff of anti-Polonism, regeardless of whether it rears its ugly head in Argentina, Brussels, Hongkong or LA.

However, upon reconsideration, I can see where someone devoid of a Polish soul and sensitivity might regard someone of that sort as a 'loon'.

Oh dear, one of those types. No doubt lacking socially, and probably finds solace on internet forums.

Poland doesn't need defending by curious types who choose to do their defending from a place far far away.


Nah, we just see him for what he is - someone who probably latched onto these things to compensate for things lacking in his life.

Nor does it need being constantly discredited and assaulted by foreign visitors who are ready tol defend every nationality and country other than the one that is patiently and hospitably putting up with their insolence and ingratitude.

Sounds rather paranoid - I don't know any foreign visitors that do that.

"Foreign visitors"? I fear you may be confusing yourself with EU citizens who have the legal right to reside in Poland, unlike certain American guests.

As for the topic, does anybody know if the Welshman who wrote the initial email denies that some AK were virulently (and in some cases violently) anti-semitic?

These things do generally go hand in hand. The most "patriotic" the person, the less likely they are to admit history.

And now he's making a fool of himself by getting all worked up about something he disagrees with that's already been shown on TV here.

delphiandomine
Are you saying that Brits are more sophsiticated and knowledgeable when it comes to Polish wartime history than Poles themselves? How many on a London street would even know what the AK was in the first place?

Polo, are you saying they are less knowledgeable about that?

I certianly am. If you don't want to go back and do this yourself, have a mate buttonhoel some passersby on a UK street and ask them what the AK was. Everywhere except London't Ealing, the Polish quarter.

^ Tut tut tut, you know full well that blanket statements are banned on PF.

Back on topic, do you deny that some members of the AK, just as with the Western Command Polish army, were virulently anti-semitic?

I do and I can understand the reason why. They all seem to identify with the notoriously Polonophobic GW daily. Whenever a Polish-Jewish row flares up, guess which side GW will be on. If it involves Llthuanians, GW will support that side against Poles. If true Poles oppose foreign or copycat deviationists, guess who GW will back. If there's an article by a Michał Cichy on the AK's alleged anti-Semitism, where will it get printed? Guess! If patriotic Poles admire and honour the first Polish officer in NATO (Ryszuard Kukliński), GW will support his hate-filled foe Jaruzelski as a 'man of honour'.

So how else can anyone think and act who takes their cues from that 'enlightened' and 'progressive' rag?!

I wouldn't say fair share. I think there is more people in Poland per capita than in any other European nation who ***** and moan about everything that's supposedly "anti-Polish."

I sometimes have to wonder if that's the reason why Polish jokes were very popular at one point here in America.

If Gazeta Wyborcza was "Polonophobic", why does it have such a large circulation and a hugely popular website?

Let's be honest here Polonius - you hate the newspaper because of what it stands for.


Wrong. There is no more and no less than in most European countries. In fact, much of what you read on PF is actually written by Americans.

No-one denies peripheral behaviour or events in any organisation, governemnt or otehr formation or body.. The point is that some foriegn viewers will be hearing about the AK for the first time. (They didn't have a Bogart-Bergman 'Casablanbca' to glamourise them the way France's smaller Résistance did). And the main theme in that initial AK contact are several scenes highlighting anti-Semitic behaviour. What impression will such a one come away with.

To put it in the conetxt of one of your beloved minorities, you virulently claim that homosexuals and padeophiles are two different thigns. But do you deny that some homosexuals do go after little boys?

Nope, most of them are Polish immigrants who happen to be living in America.

Americans don't tend to be anti-Semitic like these clowns.

Have you ever studied the history of GW? They were assigned to operate GW as the voice of the Solidarność oppositon but soon turned it into a comercial corproation. They got in on the ground floor, cornered the market and hijacked the newspaper, harnessing it to their KOR-ite agenda. Wałęsa banned them using the Solidarity emblem. That group is known for their shrewdness, craftiness, cleverness or, if you prefer, business acumen. No-one is saying it is not a good newspaper technically speaking, as it has a variety of columns, local editions and specialist supplements catering for every need. And that's what the average reader is after. But the leftist-libertine ideological agenda can hardly be called pro-Polish. The examples provided clearly illustrate that fact.

Yes, quite so. The media in Poland fascinates me.


That was the reality of Poland in 1989-1990. Gazeta Wyborcza could no longer be the voice of the Solidarność opposition, particularly as Solidarność had entered the Government instead. What was known as Solidarność in the Sejm rapidly broke up - and Gazeta Wyborcza took their own path in light of this. No big deal.


Remember, Macierewicz was a member of the KOR. Anyway, you do realise that the purpose of newspapers is to operate commercially?


At the time, he was falling out with much of Solidarność as it was. As I recall, at least part of the problem he had with them is that they were in the Mazowiecki camp - who was threatening Walesa's popularity.


That's what the people wanted, wasn't it? They wanted a free market...


Gazeta Wyborcza is hilariously nationalist at times, but perhaps you can't see this because you're blinded with hatred towards a newspaper that helped to end the previous system.


Choosing to present all the facts rather than selectively quoting (like Gazeta Polska and other rags) does not make a newspaper anti-Polish, rather it strengthens Poland. But then again, I guess those who grew up on a steady diet of Trybuna Ludu have problems with differentiating facts from fiction.

Trybuna Ludu was read by foriegn correpsondents only to know the official position on things but was not the paper of choice. It was extremely dull, cut and dried officialese. Życie Warszawy, Sztandar Młodych and Słowo Powszechne plus the lighter Express Wieczorny were far more interesting.

Papers are supposed to make money but Michnik was not permitted to change the paper's pro-Soldiarność line and reorient it in a KOR-ite and anti-Cathoilic direction. He simply took advanatage of the chaos and confusion of early RP III to create his own faits accomplis and turned it into a pirvate corporation making money for his clique (Agora).

Of course, some still repeat the opinions first published in Trybuna Ludu. It's strange how people today draw attention to the things that the Party wanted them to pay attention to, all these years later.


What was pro-Soldarność in late 89, really? The Sejm/Senat version of Solidarność (I forget the name of the party there...) was falling apart in endless disputes - it's hard to say that at the time, anyone was right or wrong. Walesa himself started to behave quite badly once he realised that the country was moving on without him.

Remember, Macierewicz was in the KOR. Why are you attacking that organisation so much when they did plenty to help Solidarność? As for "anti-Catholic" - as many people have observed - they didn't get rid of Red to replace it with Black.


What's interesting is that you seem to be willing to completely ignore the reality of the situation in order to portray Michnik in a bad light. I notice that not once have you mentioned that Walesa withdrew the right to use the Solidarność banner for one simple reason - the paper had supported Mazowiecki rather than Walesa.

Except they're much closer to red than to black, in fact the redness remains there subcutaneously, concelaed only by a thin veneer of sloganeering and window dressing. In America that type are called pinkos, soft on commies. Quite a few of them represented a certain ethnic group. Hollywood has always been full of them.

BTW ever wonder why the anti-Catholic KOR-ite crowd supported 'Catholic' journalist Mazoweicki for president? Because he was a Catho-leftist, meaning someone working to undermine the Polish Epicopate, a renegade and turncoat playing intot he hands of the red regime,

Except they aren't. I don't recall Gazeta Wyborcza using cheap political slogans in the way that Trybuna Ludu did - and the way that Gazeta Polska et al use today. Given the amount of Communist propaganda that you're prone to spouting on here, one can only assume that you hate Gazeta Wyborcza for a reason.


I know you struggle with the concept of forgiveness and reconciliation, but living in the past doesn't help anyone. Gazeta Wyborcza, along with her readers, have no time for living in the past and confronting ghosts. Their world is now - today.


Still making veiled comments, Trybuna Ludu style, about Jews?


I suspect they supported him for an altogether simpler reason - he was an intellectual who didn't attempt to play the populist card of promising everyone everything. Gazeta Wyborcza readers tend to have little time for socialist economics, and I suspect they knew fine well that Walesa as President with the power that the office held (at the time) was not a good idea. There's a good reason why the 1997 Constitution stripped the President of much of their executive power - Walesa's five years of meddling was more than enough for anyone.

For what it's worth, the right wing obsession with Gazeta Wyborcza is frankly one of the funniest things in Polish politics. Perhaps it stems from jealousy that their own media is bought/consumed by hardly anyone.