History / Can anyone from Poland tell me about Auschwitz and The Ghetto? [612]

@Lyzko
And when I think it is possible to have a sensible conversation with you ...

Whose parents were gassed by a nameless enemy? Who was tortured?

As for the first part of your post, do you actually know who kapos were?
Never have I come across anyone referring to kapos as poor ...

History / Can anyone from Poland tell me about Auschwitz and The Ghetto? [612]

I don't think he is the only one. People make their choices. What about reformed Jews, wouldn't they accept him as 'technically' Jewish too because of his Christian mother? I think I read it is acceptable for reformed Jews. Not sure, though.

What I find interesting about him is his view on the scale of antisemitism in Poland. I wonder where it comes from and the only answer that comes to my mind is what happened to his family in 1968. He felt rejected by Poland, so he rejected Poland, too.

History / Can anyone from Poland tell me about Auschwitz and The Ghetto? [612]

Actually, Gross' s Polish mother helped his Jewish father to survive WW2.

Language / IS "MURZYN" word RACIST? [686]

@rozumiemnic
I wrote: 'I think we are getting carried away with political correctness'. I didn't even think to explain it in detail. Your immediate response was calling me a nasty racist. It's not what I wrote, it's how YOU read it.

@jon
well, you easily agreed with rozumiemnic calling me a racist.

@gumishu
Sto lat za murzynami sounds racist to me.

Language / IS "MURZYN" word RACIST? [686]

@jon357
So you assume I would use the word 'murzyn' as an insult? Why?
If used with a perjorative adjective or in an offensive expression, it is racist.
Similarly, 'kobieta za kierownicą!' is sexist.

Language / IS "MURZYN" word RACIST? [686]

Just because I don't agree with people who take political correctness to the extreme doesn't mean I whine about it.
Such people often do more harm to those who are truly oppressed because of their race, sex, age etc. As political correctness is not only about race. Are you going to call me sexist if I think it is ridiculous to have politically correct traffic signals? Or accusing men of mansplaining even if they don't? Go ahead. Will I be told to face a six-foot feminist?

Language / IS "MURZYN" word RACIST? [686]

Apparently Miodek and Bralczyk are racist, too.
Not sure about John Godson, who doesn't mind the word.
You do realise 'murzyn' is not the equivalent of the 'n' word in English, don't you?
And it all started with me writing about an old Polish poem for kids in which murzynek is just like Polish kids and the author wrote it was a shame he didn't go to school with Polish kids. Ehh ...

Language / IS "MURZYN" word RACIST? [686]

Both 'murzyn' and 'Maur' are derived from Latin 'Maurus'. So is 'Moors', I believe. Is 'Moor' offensive?

Language / IS "MURZYN" word RACIST? [686]

Both of you are missing my point. The Polish word murzyn is neutral. Whether you like it or not. You can call me racist if that makes you feel better - that won't turn me into one.

Language / IS "MURZYN" word RACIST? [686]

@jon357
The same applies to the word Maur in Polish. It may mean someone from North Africa or Central/South Africa.

Language / IS "MURZYN" word RACIST? [686]

Yes, that's what I mean.
Pollack in English isn't neutral. Murzyn in Polish is.

Language / IS "MURZYN" word RACIST? [686]

@rozumiemnic
You have just called me a nasty racist because I dare to disagree with you about a word that is neutral in Polish and because I said the society today sometimes(!) gets carried away with political correctness. You even suggested a fight. Seriously?

Language / IS "MURZYN" word RACIST? [686]

Why would it be lucky for them?

Language / IS "MURZYN" word RACIST? [686]

@rozumiemnic
I'm sorry but I'm female and I'm not into fights.
I'm sorry to surprise you but I don't have a problem with black people.
It's easy to judge people, huh?

Language / IS "MURZYN" word RACIST? [686]

So I am nasty because I don't find 'murzyn' offensive? I'm sorry but it is not an overty racist term. I'm not defending the cz- word - that is offensive, indeed.

I have just googled 'murzyn'. Both Miodek and Bralczyk consider it neutral. So does John Godson.
And I do think the society today sometimes gets carried away with political correctness. Just like several years ago when Pharrel Williams was criticised for wearing a Native American headdress.

Language / IS "MURZYN" word RACIST? [686]

I'm not trying to be provocative.
I just think we are getting carried away with political correctness sometimes.
And Tuwim was great.

History / Can anyone from Poland tell me about Auschwitz and The Ghetto? [612]

@dolnoslask
We can just try to explain. We can't change it.

Language / IS "MURZYN" word RACIST? [686]

@rozumiemnic
And it ends with: Szkoda, że Bambo czarny, wesoły nie chodzi z nami do szkoły.
Bambo in the poem acts like any kid. It shows that both black and white (are 'black' and 'white' still acceptable? 'Black' may not...) kids are in fact similar. Quite an approach for the first half of the 20th century.

What if someone calls me white? As pale as I am, at least in winter, my skin colour is not actually white.

History / Can anyone from Poland tell me about Auschwitz and The Ghetto? [612]

@dolnoslask
I agree. And there are lots of people like this, it seems. What they don't see is that they are also prejudiced. Ironically ...

History / Can anyone from Poland tell me about Auschwitz and The Ghetto? [612]

I'm sorry but the examples you give just don't sound credible. Markiewicz doesn't sound Jewish. Why would he have changed the name?

Could a Jewish person face antisemitism in Poland? Sure. The same applies to other countries. Even your country!
You say someone Jewish had their tyres slashed in Poland. Google 'antisemitism USA slashed tyres' as I did and there are several quite recent articles about that - one incident happened in New York - close to where you are, I believe.

What about Charlottesville?
What about the KKK?
Lynching and segregation well into the 1960s?

Ethnic Poles and Polish Jews have intermarried. The president's wife is partly Jewish, so is the former first lady.
That is not a recent thing. Such marriages happened before WW2, too. Kiepura's mother was Jewish.
Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman look like thousands Polish women you meet in the street. They may have Slavic ancestors.

All over the world, there are people who hate others for their race, religion, sex etc. And those who don't care. There are good and bad people.

Poland or the USA are no exceptions.
So please, stop blaming Poles for all antisemitism in the world.

Language / IS "MURZYN" word RACIST? [686]

I wouldn't say it sounds racist but then again we live in the times of political correctness andsome may argue it does.
But should we censor 'Murzynek Bambo' then?

History / Can anyone from Poland tell me about Auschwitz and The Ghetto? [612]

A surname ending with -wicz doesn't sound Jewish at all. As far as I know Adam Mickiewicz or Henryk Sienkiewicz weren't Jewish. The ending is typical for Eastern territories.

Also it is just a myth that a typically Polish name ends with -ski.

Another made up story.

Genealogy / Leszczynski surname, Balcerzak [51]

You can try to look for her birth certificate or check the Leszczyński family tree. If she came from that noble family, her name was well recorded.

Did Kongel also come from a noble family? He would have if he had wanted to marry an aristocrat. Otherwise it would have been a mesalliance.

Consult a genealogist.

History / Can anyone from Poland tell me about Auschwitz and The Ghetto? [612]

You can make me laugh today ;)

Lyzko at his 'best': Poles are responsible for the Holocaust, whoever questions his posts doesn't understand English and that horrible Polish accent. Lol. You forgot to mention it today. Hahaha.

So any examples of Danish citizens murdered for helping Jews?
Did you just lie about living in Poland?

Two serious questions to you.

I'm not sure you understand them as I typed it in a very strong Polish accent but you are such a darling that you speak Polish to Poles because their English sux so: Jakieś przykłady Duńczyków zamordowanych za pomoc Żydom? Czy właśnie sklamales o mieszkaniu w Polsce?

;)

History / Can anyone from Poland tell me about Auschwitz and The Ghetto? [612]

A long post about nothing.
No real arguments.
No answers to the questions.
Talking about the truth ... have I just read in another thread that you 'no longer live in Poland'?
Have you ever lived in Poland?
Or you have just visited Poland once.
What is the truth?
Less and less credible with every post ...

History / Can anyone from Poland tell me about Auschwitz and The Ghetto? [612]

As for my post about Jews involved in Stalinist atrocities, keep in mind it was about not making harmful generalisations.
Also, some of your posts have proved you know very little about Poland during WW2.

History / Can anyone from Poland tell me about Auschwitz and The Ghetto? [612]

@Lyzko
Can you give us any examples of how Danes were punished for helping Jews?
Can you give us any examples of Danish people who were murdered (like the Ulma family) or tortured (like Sendler) for helping Jews?
Why are there so few Danish Righteous?
You keep talking about Poles from small towns and villages who helped Nazis. What about those who hid Jews? Or those who lost their lives for helping Jews in public executions? Also from small towns and villages.

History / Can anyone from Poland tell me about Auschwitz and The Ghetto? [612]

@Bieganski
Wasn't it just half a day in Szczecin?
I have also noticed he calls Gdańsk Danzig - but again he likes Germans and probably doesn't know or 'remember' that Gdańsk was Polish.

History / Can anyone from Poland tell me about Auschwitz and The Ghetto? [612]

@delphiandomine
He is interested in Poland to some extent, but he still knows very little about the country or its people (although he claims otherwise).

History / Can anyone from Poland tell me about Auschwitz and The Ghetto? [612]

Recently I have read a book by an American Jewish author. She had come to Poland to trace her family's history. Among other things the book also focuses on Jewish misconceptions concerning Poles and Polish misconceptions concerning Jews. Unfortunately, there are people on both sides who choose to see the other side only through painful stereotypes.

Take Kazimierz in Kraków - some think it is a Jewish Disneyland. They don't see it as a way of preserving the history of Polish Jews but as a way of making money on tourists. So even if Poles are interested in the history of Polish Jews, it is wrong to some.