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The Poles Were Worse than the Germans’: Revisiting Israeli Attitudes Towards the Role of Poles in the Holocaust, by Yossi Kugler. 2025. JOURNAL OF HOLOCAUST RESEARCH (online) 39(4)1-20
Analyzing the “Poles Were Worse Than the Germans” Jewish Bigotry
Jews regularly blame Poland for the Holocaust more than they blame Germany, and deny doing so by means of gaslighting. This Jewish-authored scholarly work is an exception. Kugler not only confirms it, but cites volumes and volumes of Jewish authors that expressed the “Poles were worse than Germans” ideation. (pp. 3-6, 10-13). Clearly, it is deep-seated among Jews. Some Jews even spurn the correction that it was the Germans, and not the Poles, that had been the primary killers of Jews. (p. 4).
The author “clarifies” Yitzhak Shamir’s infamous “Poles drink anti-Semitism with their mother’s milk”, and makes it inadvertently clear that Shamir was not quoted out of context. (p. 4). Shamir’s statement is on par with Hitler’s remark about Jews being an anti-race. What’s worse, some Israeli officials actually supported Shamir’s bigotry. (p. 4).
To his credit, the author cites and uses the extensive work of Mark Paul (pp. 8-9), a largely-ignored scholar of Polish-Jewish relations.
POLES WORSE THAN THE GERMANS: WHY THE JEWISH FACT-INVERSION?
Yossi Kugler rejects the idea that the severe Jewish antagonism occurred because the Polish betrayers of Jews were their own neighbors. (p. 6), thus creating a heightened pain of betrayal. It worked both ways. Note that the same justification could be made for Polish hatred of local Jewish Communists (and Jews generally) being greater than their hatred of distant Soviet Communists. The author also realizes that widespread Jewish antagonism to Poland long preceded Israeli Holocaust-related trips (pp. 7-8), so these also cannot be the cause.
Kugler suggests that Jewish Holocaust survivors from Poland, having undergone bitter experiences, were negative about Poland, and this is what informs modern Jews. It makes little sense, even without the likelihood of fabricated anti-Polish horror stories. Surely modern Jews know, or should have known, that there are many other sources of information available other than Holocaust survivors. Besides, Holocaust survivors not from Poland also had bitter experiences, yet this does not translate to overall Jewish negativism to non-Polish nations, as vividly shown next.
JEWISH SELECTIVE INDIGNATION: POLAND BLAMED, WHILE GERMANY GETS A PASS
The double standard is egregious. Kugler comments, “What makes these perceptions even more striking is the contrast between Polish and German Jews in Israel. While Polish Jews harbored deep resentment toward Poland and Poles, German Jews never ceased longing for Germany and its culture, often feeling like ‘Israelis against their will’… As historian Moshe Zuckermann notes, whereas Polish Jews completely distanced themselves from Polish culture, German Jews ‘refused to relinquish their culture’ and ‘were never truly willing to part with their homeland.’” (p. 11). Go figure.
The bitter experiences of German Jews did not translate into lasting anti-German feelings! So the best explanation for the “Poles worse’n Germans” bigotry is none other than the magnitude and durability of Jewish Polonophobia and, to a lesser extent, Jewish Germanophilia.
For more on how Jews hate Poles more than Jews hate Germans, see:
https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/german-guilt-diffusion-jews-endorse-steinman/
JEWS HONOR WESTERN EUROPEAN NATIONS, NOT POLAND
In contrast to the demonized Poles, and in addition to the Jewish Germanophilia stated earlier, Kugler identifies positive Jewish biases towards other western Europeans. Thus, the never-questioned and much-admired Danish rescue of Jews was admittedly because of ridiculously-favorable conditions not even imagined in German-occupied Poland. (p. 10). The Diary of Anne Frank is credited with creating a favorable Jewish image of the Dutch. (p. 15).
My theory? Jews respect those who stand up to them (as by expelling them) and despise those who grovel before them. For this reason, Jews historically respect western Europeans and historically despise the Poles.
NEVER EVER FORGET: THE HOLOCAUST WAS MADE IN GERMANY, NOT POLAND
Author Kugler goes into considerable detail about the irrelevance of Poles in the German Jew-extermination program. The German death camps, in which the vast majority of Jews were murdered, were staffed entirely by Germans, Ukrainians, etc., but not a single Pole. (p. 16). Unfortunately, Kugler repeats Jan Grabowski’s fabrication of 200,000 fugitive Jews killed by Poles (p. 1, 2, 17), and uncritically quotes another irresponsible author–Barbara Engelking (p. 6, 17). He jumps in with an off-topic accusation about the failure of Poland to do Jewish property restitution (p. 18), which sounds like a bow to the Holocaust Industry.
