THE POLISH GOVERNMENT just passed a law that penalizes anyone for calling the nazi death camps in Poland “Polish death camps.”
Maybe it’s a good law; after all, the Poles – most of whom supported the nazi brutalities against Jews, Roma, Communists, Socialists, and others the nazi ruler found distasteful – didn’t build or directly run the camps.
What should be said is “nazi death camps in Poland.”
CAVEAT: While I think the behavior of the Polish government is absurd and seems to be the first step in white washing the many nazi (and now “neo-nazi”) collaborators in Poland, I know Poles who don’t agree with the government.
CONSIDER THIS
According to the Jewish Virtual Library (JVL)1, all but ONE “annihilation” (death) camp was located in Poland. The list:
- Auschwitz-Birkenau,
Belzec,
Chelmno,
Majdanek,
Sobibor,
Treblinka
The only “annihilation” camp NOT in Poland was Janowska in the Ukraine.
That is not to suggest that inmates escaped death in forced labor camps; only that the “annihilation” (JVL’s word) camps were built with mass murder in mind.
So, it is true the “annihilation” camps were not “Polish annihilation camps”; they were nazi “annihilation” camps on Polish soil.
Given that, why would the nazis elect to build their “annihilation” camps on Polish soil.
Obviously the nazis wanted to keep their good German hands clean, to distance the loyal German from the reality of the death camps.
Equally obviously, and this is why so many call the “annihilation” camps “Polish death camps,” because for the most part the Poles were both willing and convenient hosts.
Under the heading Concentration and Death Camps Chart ThoughtCo.2 lists basically the same information as did JVL, but more clearing defines the camps as “extermination” camps. Annihilation or extermination. Bottom line is the same and either way, the camps were in Poland.
Another ThoughtCo. Page3 provides a map of nazi camps or all types, as well as links to educational material.
1. JVL: http://tinyurl.com/y9dr8flq
2. ThoughtCo.: http://tinyurl.com/mbqtawt
3. ThoughtCo.: http://tinyurl.com/mgkh2ku
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
