Review of Bystanders, Blackmailers, and Perpetrators: Polish Complicity in the Holocaust, by Jacob A. Flaws. 2012. Dissertation, University of Iowa.
Reviewer: Mr. Jan Peczkis
A Rambling Essay That Offers Nothing New. Strong Judeocentric Bias
Having read this, I thought that I was dealing with a superficial student term paper rather than a thesis. It is little more than a litany of the same-old, same-old Holocaust-related constructs and Holocaustspeak (Holocaust-related neologisms, and to an egregious extent.) The author offers no numerical figures to support his contentions. Author Jacob A. Flaws emphasizes the value of Jewish testimonies, but quotes these sources in a completely uncritical manner.
INCONSISTENT USE OF JEWISH TESTIMONIES
In addition, Jacob A. Flaws cites Jewish sources in a clearly tendentious manner. Almost all of his Jewish testimonies quoted are selectively anti-Polish. For instance, he cites Jews who alleged that Poles laughed and cheered as the Jews were being tormented by the Nazis. He ignores the many Jews who reported that Poles in general were sympathetic to Jews.
Flaws portrays Polish culpability at Jedwabne as unquestioned fact. (pp. 7-on). Even here, he does so in a selective, Polonophobic manner. He ignores Jewish testimonies that point to the Germans, not Poles, as the main killers of Jedwabne’s Jews. For instance, please click onThe Warriors: My Life As A Jewish Soviet Partisan (Religion, Theology, and the Holocaust), read the Peczkis review, and then click on the link within to another such Jewish testimony.
PRONOUNCED JUDEOCENTRIC BIAS
The author has a very shallow understanding of the pre-WWII relationship between Poles and Jews. Again, he selectively focuses on the negative. In addition, he adheres to the familiar theme wherein Jews are objects of perceptions, and never flesh-and-blood entities that interact with Polish society and play a role in how they are seen.
Jacob A. Flaws approaches Polish anti-Semitism itself in a completely unobjective manner. He essentially lumps all anti-Semitism in the same pot, making little or no distinction between conventional anti-Semitism, murderous anti-Semitism, and exterminationist anti-Semitism. [All available evidence indicates that, while conventional anti-Semitism was common among Poles, murderous anti-Semitism was very uncommon among Poles, and exterminationist anti-Semitism was extremely uncommon among Poles.]
Predictably, Flaws completely ignores the fact that prejudices between Poles and Jews went both ways. For instance, please look up and read the detailed, free online book: TRADITIONAL JEWISH ATTITUDES TOWARDS POLES, by Mark Paul. It is a real eye-opener.
The author does briefly mention the German-imposed death penalty for the slightest aid to Jews (pp. 39-40). However, he does not show any appreciation for the magnitude of German terror that the Poles faced. He just proceeds to a long rendition of Holocaustspeak. For example, by portraying Poles as bystanders, he implicitly denies the fact that Poles were also victims of the Nazis.