开云体育

?

Bernie,?

Good answer to Witek's questions. It was powerful "nationalism" that was behind the attacks on Poles by Germans, Ukrainians and Russians in WW2. Comparing it to "fascism" is a non-sequitur, one need not be a fascist or a socialist to be a nationalist - and vice-versa.?

As for Kresy-Siberia, we are not concerned about the "political costs" of doing the right thing. However, there is no benefit in aligning ourselves with one political party or another. In fact, in the USA such alignment is strictly forbidden for charities,and rightly so. As long as a ?government supports our mission and does so ethically, as a foundation we have no business "resisting" them, no matter what our personal opinions. If they are against our mission, we must resist them,?no matter what our personal opinions.

Regards

Stefan Wisniowski

Kresy-Siberia Foundation

On 28 May 2016, at 04:40, bernard_starzewski@... [Kresy-Siberia] <Kresy-Siberia@...> wrote:

?

Witold,
In answer to the question about which was worse, I can simple recount dad's comment which is that "The Russians were terrible but the Germans were far worse."
He goes on to explain that while there was massive incompetence in their administration resulting in tremendous hardships it was still possible to live though in a marginal and deprived sort of way.
They did do things like setting up schools and made attempts to modernize farming like providing tractors but the end result of what they did was as comical as the result was tragic.

He also comments that the Russians were governed by paranoia which lead them to attempt to control everything which is what drove the deportations and selective killings.? Under normal circumstances this is a horrible thing.?? But when held up against the NAZI regime and the systematic murder they and their Ukrainian allies engaged in, for those not deported at least - the Russians seemed like the lesser of two evils.

Re: Patriotism vs. Fascism (or Communism for that matter)
I can only quote George Orwell's essay Notes on Nationalism.
"By ‘nationalism’ I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labelled ‘good’ or ‘bad’. But secondly — and this is much more important — I mean the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognising no other duty than that of advancing its interests. Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism. Both words are normally used in so vague a way that any definition is liable to be challenged, but one must draw a distinction between them, since two different and even opposing ideas are involved. By ‘patriotism’ I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force on other people. Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, not for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality."

Stefan,
It is the usurpation of history for political purposes that I am objecting to.? It is not possible for any political party or politician to dictate what history is.? ANY and ALL such moves like the actions described of PIS need to be resisted.?? I read into your comments that you are concerned that there may be a political cost to opposing them.? This is exactly the problem I am warning about.