--- Stefan Wisniowski <swisniowski@...> wrote:
Leszek,
Please review the message logs for an extensive
discussion of this about a
month or two ago. Read Harvey Sarner's extensive
examination of this.
I read those avidly.
Read
Anders' own book.
Been trying to borrow a copy for years. No luck so
far.
The desertions were de
facto sanctioned by the Polish command and were
rarely if ever punished
(much to the annoyance of the British military who
became the initial target
of Jewish militants).
And that's one of the matters that interests me. Why
would the Polish command sanction it?
From a military perspective in doesn't make much
sense. You bring several thousand guys out of the
USSR with you. People who have to be clothed and fed.
People that you have spent time and money on training
as well.
You are planning to go fight the Germans and need all
the manpower you can get because Polish replacements
are tough to obtain.
Besides, you know such a policy will piss of the
Brits, who are supplying you with all your goodies.
I just don't understand it.
Any anti-semitic behaviour
amongst non-Jewish Polish
soldiers prior to that may have been annoying or
distressing, but would not
be a reason to desert.
Dunno about that. It very much depends on the
individual. When I was in the RCAF in the 60's there
was one Jewish guy in basic training who took his
Jewishness very seriously, and made sure everyone knew
it. Any time he pissed someone off and that person
reacted, he would see it as anti-semitism.
Given pre-war Polish-Jewish divisions, I wouldn't be
surprised if that kind of attitude was pretty common
among the Jews with Anders.
In a military setting where people live in each others
pockets, irritants of this sort magnify quickly.
I've seen the same thing in the USAF. The airmen's
club at Goose Air Base in the 60's was divided in two.
One side was exclusively black, the other white.
If those black draftees were stationed in an African
country that was being touted as a new homeland for US
blacks, I suspect many of them would have deserted as
well.
The occasional claims by
some deserters that the
army itself was an anti-semitic organisation do not
stand up to serious
scrutiny.
The army itself was no more anti-semitic than the US
Army was anti-black. And yet even after official
integration of US forces in the late 40's, blacks were
separated from whites after basic training and put
into jobs more or less reserved for them. Read Victor
Grossman's memoir, he mentions this practice. He was
drafted in the early 50's.
The organization may officially treat everyone the
same, but in practice matters just might be different.
Israeli Arabs are officially treated the same as
Israeli Jews. How many Arabs are drafted into the
IDF?
Czesc,
Leszek
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