Whitewashing History

According to a new Polish law, approved this year, ironically just days before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, anyone who publicly claims that the Polish state cooperated with Nazi Germany, committed war crimes or crimes against humanity will be accused of a crime himself. This new law applies to Polish citizens as well as to foreigners no matter where the statement is made, which means, theoretically, that a Polish Jewish Holocaust survivor living in Israel, the U.S. or elsewhere, who says that 'the Polish people murdered my family during the Holocaust' or 'my mother was killed in a Polish extermination camp', would be accused of a crime in Poland. Israel's Labor Party Chairman Gabbai responded to the new law thus: "This decision will encourage Holocaust deniers … to spread their lies. Ignoring history does not change it." ¹

This is not the first time that a country involved in carrying out the murderous events of the Holocaust has denied it or changed the evidence. As reported by Radu Ioanid (1996), the Romanian dictator, Ceausescu, distorting Romania's role in the Holocaust, went as far as to deny that his government was anti-Semitic and that Jews who were killed were murdered by the Nazis and not by the Romanian Army, since disproved. ²

Since the publication of my book "I Love You, They Didn't Say: Holocaust and Diaspora Survival, The Next Generations" in 2015 Amazon ISBN 1982048352, a follow-up article, "Holocaust and Diaspora Survival: The Next Generations, Past, Present, Future" and an upcoming article, "Searching for Politanky: A Hidden Holocaust Refuge in Transnistria", I have dedicated a large proportion of my life to searching for the truth of how my own family survived the Holocaust, specifically in Transnistria, where hundreds of thousands of Jews perished. I now realize that the complete truth had been hidden by the Soviet and Romanian Communist governments until the early 2000's, when democracy began to emerge and reveal what had actually happened in Transnistria.

My own mother, aged 85 today, was 9-years old when her family survived a pogrom in Stanestie, Romania, (today Ukraine) on July 3, 1941, and then walked for three months arriving in Transnistria in October 1941. There, after some months in Mogilev, they were 'bought' by a farmer and worked as slave laborers until the Russian army liberated the area in 1944.

I have travelled twice to the miniscule village of Politanky looking for witnesses and evidence of the melon farm where my grandparents worked and my mother spent three years inside looking out of a window, never allowed outdoors, no toys, no books, no friends. No, it was not Auschwitz, but it was the Holocaust.

When I was in Politanky in July 2017, I found the oldest living resident, a clear-headed woman exactly the same age as my mother. She was not able to provide me with any additional evidence about the melon farm that I was searching for, but there still may be someone out there who knows something; perhaps in a village nearby. I must try to get back there once more.

We are indeed standing on the border of change, for time is running out to interview any witness who was old enough to remember events that took place, beginning in 1941, and still be able to report the facts lucidly. Each of us must take the time to attempt to trace his family's origin, by research and visitation, before not only the last Holocaust survivor fades away, but also the last witness. 

My father's parents, both "Young Zionists," came to Eretz Israel from Poland separately, aged 16 and 19, during the second Aliyah. After my father was born in Haifa in 1927, the situation was too difficult for my grandmother, as Jerusalem and other areas were burning in 1929, and they moved to the U.S. to live with her older sister. The rest of her family, who she would never see again, her parents and six sisters, perished in the Holocaust in Bialystok, Poland. I had always been content, if that is the correct word, to know that at least Poland had recognized its role in the Holocaust and had concentrated my efforts on bringing the lesser-known Holocaust in Transnistria to light. Now, in addition, we must be aware that our very history, the way the Jews will be remembered for generations to come, is under threat.

I turn to you, historians, professionals, and friends: any suggestions for grants or funding will be welcomed. After several trips funded personally, I feel that this is a goal which is important to more people than just myself. I believe that the truth must be shared with the global village on the world stage.

As Avner Shalev, director of Yad Vashem said at the recent conference "Designing the Holocaust's Memory" which took place on February 21, 2018 in Israel, we are at a point of "an almost violent struggle for the memory of the Holocaust."³

All comments are welcomed.

1 Aferet, Ofer, https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/my-grandma-was-murdered-in-poland-i-don-t-need-holocaust-education-1.5767630, Jan 27, 2018

2. Ioanid, Radu, "Romania", in David S. Wyman, Charles H. Rosenzveig (eds.), The World Reacts to the Holocaust, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore & London, 1996, pp. 225–252. ISBN 0-8018-4969-1

3. Kempinski Yoni, "An almost violent struggle for the memory of the Holocaust"

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