What Helen Thomas missed (Richard Cohen, WP)

[Prometheus Bound]

<snip>

Well, I don't know about "everywhere else," but after World War II, many Jews did attempt to "go home" to Poland. This resulted in the murder of about 1,500 of them -- killed not by Nazis but by Poles, either out of sheer ethnic hatred or fear they would lose their (stolen) homes.

The mini-Holocaust that followed the Holocaust itself is not well-known anymore, but it played an outsize role in the establishment of the state of Israel. It was the plight of Jews consigned to Displaced Persons camps in Europe that both moved and outraged President Harry Truman, who supported Jewish immigration to Palestine and, when the time came, the new state itself. Something had to be done for the Jews of Europe. They were still being murdered.

In the Polish city of Kielce, on July 4, 1946 -- more than a year after the end of the war -- rumors of a Jewish ritual murder triggered a pogrom in which 42 Jewish Holocaust survivors were killed. The Kielce murders were not, by any means, the sole example of why Jews could not "go home." When I visited the Polish city where my mother had been born, Ostroleka, I was told of a Jew who survived Auschwitz only to be murdered when he tried to reclaim his business. In much of Eastern Europe, Jews feared for their lives.

For that reason, those who had struck out for home soon returned to DP camps and the safety of -- irony of ironies -- Germany. Some of the camps were under the command of Gen. George S. Patton, a great man on the screen, a contemptible bigot in real life. In his diary, Patton confided what he thought of Jews. Others might "believe that the Displaced Person is a human being," Patton wrote, but he knew "he is not." In particular, he whispered to his diary, the Jews "are lower than animals."

The Jews, Patton felt, had to be kept under armed guard, otherwise they would flee, "spread over the country like locusts," and then have to be rounded up and some of them shot because they had "murdered and pillaged" innocent Germans. All of this is detailed by Allis and Ronald Radosh in their book about the founding of Israel, "A Safe Haven."

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/07/AR2010060702583.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

[hlthe2b]

1. Well, interesting if only because I did not know how horrific

Patton could be in this regard..

[Prometheus Bound]

2. What a vile creature he must have been.

[Recursion]

13. I had not thought my view of Patton could get worse

And yet it has.

Van Creveld makes a great case that he extended the war in Europe (and by that same fact made more of Europe fall under Soviet control) by refusing to stop his advance to support Monty's advance into the Ruhr.

[BanTheGOP]

3. Retroactive war crimes, anyone??

If true, Patton would face the most serious demotion in the history of the republicanist military...

[TimesSqCowboy]

4. The conclusion to the article is the premise of her statement.

If you believe that Israel exists because a haven was needed, then you can ask, Was that the right way to handle the situation? which can lead to the answer, No. No one thinks the best way to handle ethic cleansing in the Balkans was to resettle one party or another somewhere else. No one thinks the best way to protect Native Americans is to repatriate Americans of European descent. It's a pretty unique solution - you're in danger, so get out. Usually it's, we will protect you.

[wroberts189]

5. The context in what I read was she was speaking of today .. not after ww2. nt

[iamjoy]

6. But Europe Isn't Home

Many Jews living in Israel today were born there, so it is their home.

[wroberts189]

7. She lived through this history ..the UN partitioning. I cannot judge her POV. nt

[iamjoy]

9. Fair Enough

To a woman born a generation after Israel was established, 1948 is history. To a woman born when the ink on the Balfour Declaration was barely dry, it's a different story.

[proteus_lives]

11. I can and will.

[Prometheus Bound]

10. Yes, I agree. I posted it because of the interesting excerpt. I disagree with Cohen.

Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda understandably canceled Thomas's commencement address. It would be wonderful, though, if Thomas could go through with it and tell the graduates what she had learned in recent days. I hardly think it would turn her into a supporter of Israel, but it might lead her to understand why so many others are.

I think what Walt Whitman High School needs is for Helen Thomas to go through with her address and tell graduates the same story from the Palestinian point of view, because that is the perspective they are more likely to be missing.

[Daveparts still]

8. Settling Scores

After the war there was a lot of score settling that was done. Even before the war was over when the free Polish Underground rose up in Warsaw and the invading Russian army stopped and allowed the Germans to murder the Democratic intelligencia of a future Polish government.

The Sudaten Germans were hounded and murdered by returning Czech’s. Collaborators and those accused of collaboration were in many cases rounded up and shot. The Russians executed their own returned captured prisoners for not fighting hard enough.

Poland was created after WW1 as a buffer state between Germany and Russia and both countries looked at Poland as an artificial state. So when the Fuhrer suggested they divvy it up both states leapt at the chance. Czechoslovakia was a piece of the Austro- Hungarian Empire. Europe was rife with ethnic minorities and hatred of ethnic minorities. Anyone remember the Roma? They too went to the gas chambers for their ethnicity but whenever anyone brings up the Holocaust it is always about the six million Jews. There were twenty million Russians and millions more Poles, Czech’s and Roma that also died in the Holocaust for no other reason but their race.

[Kind of Blue]

12. +1