tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41830823818186028962024-03-14T03:50:27.172-07:00Must Read... if you want to know. The Polish American Congress, Long Island Division informs about important issues Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10802197188240179363noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4183082381818602896.post-38512745055301370662016-05-19T16:02:00.001-07:002016-05-19T16:02:16.067-07:00No. 11 Jan Karski<h3 style="text-align: center;">
Courage and Hope in Times of Despair</h3>
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The speech of the University Stony Brook Freshman, Jakub Juszczyk. </div>
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Delivered during Karski’s Awards Night at the Polish Consulate in Manhattan May 9, 2016.</div>
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The event was co-organized by Polish-Jewish Dialog Committee </div>
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and Polish American Congress, Long Island Division</div>
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(originally, it was an essay prepared for the scholarship competition </div>
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of “Polonia of Long Island”)</div>
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During times of crisis, when situation becomes increasingly drastic and tyranny turns to victory, heroes who rise against the epidemic of death and oppression can make a difference. <br />
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In 1939, as Adolf Hitler began to conquer Europe and the war was raging, his troops commenced <br />
the process of annihilation of those whom he considered “inferior” - the Jews, the Slavs,<br />
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the Gypsies. The number of Jewish individuals living in Poland before the war was the largest of all European countries (10 % of the overall population or 3.5 million). </div>
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Notable is the fact that the Jewish community enjoyed sanctuaries and acceptance that it could not find elsewhere in the world. </div>
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Poland, when compared to other countries under the occupation, had the strongest resistance movement. It was the only country under the occupation, in which anyone found associating with Jews or helping them in any way was executed by the Germans, along with his or her entire family on the spot. Despite the threat of an eminent death, the Poles are credited with the greatest number of “Righteous Among the Nations”. Thousands of Polish people assisted the Jews, often at the expense of their own lives. </div>
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Colonel Tadeusz Bednarczyk, the Polish underground’s intelligence officer who worked undercover as a taxman in the Warsaw Ghetto and had a very good orientation in Jewish affairs, stated that about 100,000 Poles were directly engaged in helping the Jews and about a million did so indirectly. Some of the most notable included Jan Karski and Irena Sendler, both of whom were given recognition beyond the borders of their homeland.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBHqWDs3CaqPAhSmnWIBaOBhttuGk0fYH9P1Y6ZhYDHXVY5jehmTnhtsTnftAvDbCbOc42G-dPBQqZ23fmJ6ZjZdTo0XmyV44DQH2i2FzWsBCXukkrer3KtCeu8T-EW-pTQrt60oBs6No/s1600/Jan+Karski.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBHqWDs3CaqPAhSmnWIBaOBhttuGk0fYH9P1Y6ZhYDHXVY5jehmTnhtsTnftAvDbCbOc42G-dPBQqZ23fmJ6ZjZdTo0XmyV44DQH2i2FzWsBCXukkrer3KtCeu8T-EW-pTQrt60oBs6No/s320/Jan+Karski.jpg" width="251" /></a>Jan Kozielewski, (who later took the name Karski), was born in 1914 in Łódz, Poland. He completed demography studies at Lwów University and embarked on a career as a civil servant at the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When Poland was occupied by Germany, Kozielewski joined the Polish Underground. His photographic memory made him ideal for the job of courier between the underground in Poland and the Polish government-in-exile that was first in France and after the fall of France, moved to London. </div>
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During one of his trips, Jan Karski was captured by Germans and severely tortured. He was later smuggled out of the hospital and after a short rehabilitation returned to work in the underground. In 1942, when Hitler’s “final solution” began, Karski was given the mission, then as a member of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa), to inform the Polish government in-exile in London about the carnage that the German troops were performing on Polish soil. He reported on the brutalities of the Third Reich, including the extermination of the Jewry. Passing as an Estonian guard, he personally visited the transit point to the Bełżec death camp. As the first-hand witness of the atrocities of the Germans, he provided detailed descriptions of the horror of the Holocaust. Following his report to the Polish Foreign Minister, Count Edward Raczyński, Karski was able to inform the Allied forces about the German crimes done on the territory of occupied Poland. </div>
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In 1943, Karski arrived in the United States and met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt to share the obtained information about the horrors taking place in Europe under Hitler's occupation. The President was far from interested and insisted on ignoring the subject. During their meeting, Roosevelt asked about the condition of horses in Poland. He did not ask one question about the Jews. When Karski asked if there was any message he should deliver upon his return, the President’s only answer was: "Tell them we shall win this war!" The Chief Executive of the United States was greatly disinclined to listen to the account Karski was providing, and ignorantly dismissed the man who was one of the most accurate describers of the Jewish situation in German-occupied Poland. </div>
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Karski went on to meet with many other government and civic leaders in the United States, including Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, Cordell Hull and Rabbi Stephen Wise. Frankfurter, skeptical of Karski's report, said later "I did not say that he was lying, I said that I could not believe him.” Karski presented his report to media, members of the Hollywood film industry and artists. However, they refused to acknowledge his testimony to be true and did nothing to help the European Jewry. Karski to the last days of his life, could not understand why his message and proposals were ignored. </div>
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In October of 2012, 12 years after his death, Jan Karski received, posthumously, the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the highest honor that the US can award to civilians) for his efforts to spread the information that he firsthand obtained - risking his and the lives of others - to the Allies in an effort to prevent the genocide. He will always be remembered as a man who tried to stop the Holocaust. </div>
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During the very speech meant to honor Karski's deeds, President Obama used the phrase "Polish concentration camps," which echo loudly in Poland as this slogan is often used by individuals who are indolent or ignorant, or simply lack the proper education and understanding of European history, or are... full of ill will. </div>
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Sadly, today, there are often instances in which such heroes are omitted and Poland is often referred to as a country that assisted the Germans in carrying out its extermination, rather than one that attempted to prevent it. This could be a result of ignorance or act of provocation. </div>
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Besides Jan Karski and Irena Sendler (who helped to save 2500 Jewish children) or Henryk Sławik, a Polish diplomat who was providing the Jews with false diplomatic identities in German-occupied Hungary and the Ulma family, who were executed for hiding two Jewish families in their house, there were myriads of others who assisted the persecuted community anonymously, and history will never know the names of most of them. </div>
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Possibly, when people will learn of the scope of what the courageous men and women did during the German occupation and how difficult it was to stand against Germans’ demands, they will understand the importance of the Poles who voluntarily helped their fellow men survive. </div>
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Thank you for giving me the opportunity to remind you about courage of our Polish countrymen in times when so many forget or disturb historical facts. </div>
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added by zk:</div>
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On the Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom Hashoah, Thursday, May 5, 2016 (4 days before the Karski’s event), Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman and his students from Random Mesivta ,a private High School on Long Island were protesting in front of the Polish Consulate in New York: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vteeXsAqvYU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vteeXsAqvYU</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10802197188240179363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4183082381818602896.post-11482758108286453172016-04-27T14:30:00.000-07:002016-04-27T14:30:51.038-07:00No. 10 - Pensions: taxes, reductions, benefits<br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Taxes of pensions </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">(points A and B)</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">US - Social Security and Polish - ZUS or KRUS</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">( prepared by: Elizabeth Baumgartner, Zbyszek Koralewski and Teodor Lachowski;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">translated by Zbyszek Koralewski; edited by Richard Brzozowski )</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Useful Information based on the provisions which existed at the middle of the year 2016.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The rules will change after the ratification of the Polish-American tax agreement, signed on </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">February 13, 2013 and approved by the Polish parliament on June 21, 2013.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Note:</b> recipients of Social Security residing in Poland may resign from purchasing </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Medicare insurance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Reductions in pensions <span style="font-weight: normal;">(point C)</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">persons who have reached the full American retirement age can work without a reduction in benefits of Soc. Sec. and also ZUS is not reduced for people who have reached the full Polish retirement age. However, 0 % ; 50 % ; or 85 % of your benefits may be taxable – p. A. 1.</span></span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you are below the full retirement age and work, your Soc. Sec. and ZUS may be reduced. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>How to receive spousal benefits free</b></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (point D)</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Take advantage of the option called "Spousal benefits".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Requirements: your spouse started to draw Soc. Sec. pension and you are at least 62 years old.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You can choose to receive a pension; the amount will depend on your age and the amount of your spouse's retirement - how much you are entitled, check here: <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/oact/quickcalc/spouse.html">https://www.ssa.gov/oact/quickcalc/spouse.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">About the Polish American pension matters you can read in: <a href="http://www.poradniksukces.com/">www.poradnikSukces.com</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A. People who live in US and have: </span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. <b>Only US retirement / pension </b>- pay: American income tax on income from around the </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> world </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">depending </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">on the amount and type of their income, and other factors (0 to 36.9%).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> This is </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">explained in the </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">publication 915: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p915.pdf </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Your Social Security will not be taxed if the sum of 1/2 of Soc. Sec benefits plus all the other <br /> income is lower than $25 000 for individuals and $32 000 for married couples . Above</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> these limits 50% of your benefits will be taxed. Above the sum of $34 000 for singles and </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> over $44 000 for married filing together, 85% of Social Security benefits is taxable. Married</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> couples living together and filing separately pay tax on 85% of the pension regardless of the</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> sum of ½ Soc. Sec. benefits + other income. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. <b>American and Polish retirement / pension</b> - pay: <br /><br /> a. US income tax on income from around the world (Including Polish retirement)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> see above </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> p. A 1 </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /> b. Income tax in Poland from Polish retirement. Polish payer -ZUS, KRUS- deducts tax of </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> 18% (information below in p. B. 5. a.) <br /><br /> c. A part of the American retirement of Soc. Sec., which is reduced under of the provisions </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) because of receiving a Polish retirement </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> pension. The size of reduction (up to 50% of the Polish pension) depends on the number </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> of years </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in the Social </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Security system. It does not apply when: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> • pensions calculated on the basis of American and Polish retirement periods based on <br /> the Polish-American pension agreement of 2008 (the so-called. combined pension), <br /> • pensions from private sources, <br /> • survivors//family benefits. <br /><br /><b>3. Only Polish retirement / pension </b>- pay: <br /><br /> a. income tax in Poland for Polish pensions - ( p. B. 5. a. ) <br /><br /> b. income tax in the US --- ( see above p A. 1 ) . <br /><br /><b> Note:</b> Double taxation of pensions in Poland and in the United States is partially reduced <br /> through the use of the Foreign Tax Credit (IRS Form 1116 ).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">B. Persons who have returned to Poland and have: </span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>1. Only American retirement / pension and US citizenship</b> - pay : <br /><br /> a. US income tax to the IRS on income from around the world - see p. A. 1. <br /><br /> b. Polish income tax on American pension and income from around the world - see p. B. 5. a. <br /><br /> c. Contribution to the National Health Fund (health insurance ) withheld by the bank in Poland </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> - see p. B. 5. b. <br /><br /><b>2. Only US retirement / pension and <u>do not have</u> US citizenship</b> - pay: <br /><br /> a. American non-resident tax withheld by the US payers: 30% of the pension from the private</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> sector, 25.5% of their Soc. Sec. and 30% on the withdrawals from private retirement </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> accounts (eg. IRA, 401 (k)) <br /><br /> b. Polish tax on revenues from all over the world - see p. B. 5. a. <br /><br /> c. health insurance contribution which is deducted from Soc. Sec. - see p. B. 5. b. <br /><br /><b>3. Polish and American retirement / pension and US citizenship</b> - pay: <br /><br /> a. US income tax on income from around the world - see p. A. 1. <br /><br /> b. Polish income tax on income from around the world (including pensions Polish and </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> American) – p. B. 5. a. <br /> <b> Please note</b> that the double taxation can be avoided by reporting to Polish Tax Institutions, <br /> proof of tax payment in the US. <br /><br /> c. the contribution to the National Health Fund (health insurance) - p. B. 5. b. <br /><br /> d. the part of the Soc. Sec pension, which is reduced on basis of WEP - p. A. 2. c. <br /><br /><b>4. Polish and American income and <u>do not have</u> US citizenship</b> - pay: <br /><br /> a. American non-resident tax - see p. B. 2. a. <br /><br /> b. Polish income tax on income from all around the world (including pensions) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> - see p. B. 5. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a. </span></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Please note</b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> that the double taxation of American retirement can be avoided in Poland</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> on the basis of a confirmation from the American Consulate of paying US taxes for </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> non-residents. <br /><br /> c. the contribution to the National Health Fund - see p. B. 5. b. <br /><br /> d. part of the pension from Soc. Sec., which is reduced based on WEP - p. A. 2. c. <br /><br /><b> 5. Only Polish income </b>- pay: <br /><br /> a. Polish income tax. ZUS deducts 18% to the payment of pensions as so called tax down </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> payment.<br /> Since 2009 the amount of 3,089 zł is tax-free. Tax rate is 18% of income up to 85.528 zł <br /> and 32% on income over 85.528 zł. <br /><br /> b. contribution to the National Health Fund collected by ZUS in the value of 9% <br /> of which 7.75% of the premium reduces the tax levied on withdrawals.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">C. Reduction of Social Security benefits and ZUS because of employment</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. <b>Recipients of retirements of the Social Security</b> <u>below the full retirement age</u> will be </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> deducted $ 1 of a pension for every $ 2 earned in the US over the limit of $ 15.720 ( year </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> 2016 ) . In the year of completion of full retirement age they will be deducted $ 1 for every $ 3 </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> of earnings over $ 41.880. <br /> <b>Warning:</b> if you have worked 45 hours or more in a month outside the US your Soc . Sec. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> will be suspended.<br /> <br />2.<b> Recipients of the ZUS pension</b> <u>below the full retirement age</u> have benefits reduced if their</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> earnings exceed 70 % of the average monthly salary in Poland and suspended if they earn </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> more than 130 % of the average wage. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">D. How to receive spousal benefits free </span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Call your local Soc. Sec. office and arrange a meeting on the "spousal benefits" (bring: passports or permanent resident cards and marriage certificate). Should the clerk not be familiar with these benefits, ask for a manager. You state that you choose to limit yourself temporarily to the amount which is equal to a part of your spouse’s benefits (and depends on your age) until such time as you decide to switch to your Soc. Sec. For a spouse who has reached full retirement age (min. 66) request a "Restricted spousal application". In the interim, the applying spouse pension will grow 8% per year (even if not working). At age 70, the applying spouse must take their own Soc. Sec. benefits.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Note:</b> The budget law of 2015 eliminates the “restricted spousal application” for people born after January 1954 year. Also the option of "file and suspend" will end April 29, 2016 r. Read about it in: <a href="http://www.clarkhoward.com/new-laws-that-will-affect-social-security">http://www.clarkhoward.com/new-laws-that-will-affect-social-security </a><br /><br /><b>Note:</b> spousal pension is available for wives and husbands, even if he/she lives in Poland and never visited the US , but the spouse worked in the US and receives Social Security benefits.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10802197188240179363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4183082381818602896.post-25683460972659249352016-03-25T12:31:00.001-07:002016-04-27T14:29:01.740-07:00No. 9 - KOD what it is, who is financing... <div style="text-align: center;">
(prepared and translated by Zbigniew Koralewski, edited by Richard Brzozowski)</div>
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What is the Committee for the Defense of Democracy - CDD ( Komitet Obrony Demokracji - KOD). <br />
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This political opposition movement arose suddenly, one day after the Sejm (Polish Parliament) elections, and before the parliament began its work. It means that the CDD began organizing earlier, after the surprising defeat of Bronislaw Komorowski in the spring of 2015. The unidentified CDD Board members publicly stated that democracy in Poland is threatened by PIS (party of Law and Order). Well educated persons, most of them prominent, associated with the former ruling coalition of the PO (Citizen’s Platform) and PSL (Polish Peasant Party), organize demonstrations on the streets of Polish towns. </div>
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The CDD and their supporters are less concerned with what is good for Poland and more concerned with the loss of their privileges. Their skillful propaganda and appealing slogans on Facebook was viewed by more than 25 thousand people in just three days, and quickly gained attention. They recruited to their cause many opportunists and people who do not really know what is actually going on. CDD activists convinced many demonstrators that Poland does not need reforms, that everything is ok, that nothing needs to be changed and that the newly elected authorities want to establish a dictatorship. They introduced more than 70 abusive epithets to chant during demonstrations. For example, "Down with the Duck!" (referring to the leader of PIS), and the more sophisticated "We will not remain silent when our freedom is trampled" and other rhyming and catching statements which excite crowds but do not relate to current events and issues. The activists’ intentions are to provoke riots, to make it difficult to govern and to ultimately overthrow the new government. CDD did not hesitate to ask support from the European Union, American senators and the world media which are unfriendly to Poland. Such shameful lobbying is no different than the “Targowica” betrayal, when a faction of Poles appealed Poland's enemies not to accept the reforms of the Constitution of May 3. The "Targowica" action contributed to </div>
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the partition of Poland 200 years ago. The link to the letter of 3 senators:</div>
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<a href="http://www.cardin.senate.gov/download/2-10-16-blc-mccain-durbin-letter-to-polish-pm-on-freedom-of-press">http://www.cardin.senate.gov/download/2-10-16-blc-mccain-durbin-letter-to-polish-pm-on-freedom-of-press</a></div>
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and the PAC President's response: <a href="http://www.pac1944.org/presoffice/2016/SpulaLet2USSens.pdf">http://www.pac1944.org/presoffice/2016/SpulaLet2USSens.pdf</a></div>
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The opposition in democratic system is always there and can take two forms: </div>
The first is <b>constructive opposition </b>– it controls the government and protests against wrong decisions, while concurrently supporting initiatives that are useful. <br />
The second form is <b>obstructive opposition </b>– it leads to total war with the government<br />
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and weakens its operations, even if government’s actions are beneficial to its citizens.<br />
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CDD is an energetic, vociferous and obstructive opposition. It threatens a second Majdan </div>
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(such as in the Ukraine). Its dangerous activities serve Poland's enemies. <br />
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A couple of quoted comments: <br />
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<b>~ Mieczyslaw:</b> "As a worker and as a citizen of the Republic of Poland, I've had enough, and I cannot take more of these nasty fellows of CDD. Can you leave in peace this Government, chosen by me and by the majority of the nation? What are you all afraid of? After all, you are honest, hardworking, and blameless citizens with no wrong doing. You do not cheat; you are not caught up in scandals and corruption. You are righteous citizens. So what are you afraid of? You use PIS to scare others. What's wrong with you? Write boldly, maybe you have something on your conscience. Oh, that means order must be restored, while there is time." <br />
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<b>~ Julita:</b> "Who takes part in these marches? Maybe there is a bit of ordinary people, but mostly politicians, actors, bankers, journalists, officials of non-governmental organizations, or people very well lined up, who are worried that their grants and funds accounts will decrease. Some people (those who organize marches) are counting on political careers, and others are worried about their positions, many of them in support of the PO and PSL lived well at the expense of the nation, </div>
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and now it may be that they are not useful, and even damaging to us. Hence is the lament.” <br />
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<b>Who is funding </b>this spontaneous, grass-roots movement (as CDD likes to advertise itself)? <br />
CDD is supported by foreign institutions and individuals that want Poland to be a colony. The leftist paper “Gazeta Wyborcza” and TV station “TVN” were grateful for example to George Soros, who through the Batory Foundation, donated 150 million zlotych to the fight for " democracy in Poland".</div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;"><b>Activists of CDD. </b></span></div>
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The political voice of a majority of Polish citizens was ignored during the Tusk, Komorowski and Kopacz administration. The CDD was not organized then to defend Poland's natural resources, namely foreign acquisition of forests and mines, nor falsification of Polish history and demands of Jewish organizations for $ 65 billion in compensation for property lost during World War II. According to the media, CDD is directed by <b>Matthew Kijowski,</b> born 1968 in Warsaw. He is a journalist, has a blog and is active in his parish. He claims that he is motivated by genes inherited from his parents. It is sad that those same genes did not motivate him to defend democracy and bring out thousands of people onto the streets during the administration of government ran by PO and PSL. Among the activists who spoke and/or marched in the front ranks of recent demonstrations is a prominent judge, Jerzy Stepien, former Solidarity activist and former president of the Constitutional Court, participant in the Solidarity Round Table talks and recipient of numerous awards. And there are others: Agnieszka Holland - theater and film director is quoted as saying that the objective of the demonstrations "is to keep things the way they were"; Ryszard Petru - CEO of Modern Party; Marcin Święcicki - "prominent democrat" and former member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party; Andrzej Mischka – Polish catholic deacon, entrepreneur, blogger and former opposition activist during PRL; Karol Modzelewski - former opposition activist; Wanda Nowicka - member of leftist Palikot's Movement; Aleksander Smolar - currently CEO of Stefan Batory Foundation funded by George Soros ; Szymon Gutkowski - board member of Stefan Batory Foundation. Other prominent activists are :Tomasz Cimoszewicz - the son of former prime minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz; Radomir Szumełda - PO politician, one of the founders of the CDD; Kamila Gasiuk-Pihowicz - Polish lawyer and spokesperson for the Modern party; Paul Rabiej - co-founder of the Modern party. Acting under the euphanism "threats to freedom" are equally prominent individuals supporting the previous government; journalists like Jacek Zakowski; Stefan Bratkowski - founder of Gazeta Wyborcza and Agora; his daughter Catherine Bratkowska - promoter of gender movement; Peter Rachtan - former member of the PO; Tomasz Lis, Ewa Wanat, Renata Kim, Slawomir Sierakowski, Jaroslaw Kurski, Seweryn Blumsztajn. And, politicians like Slawomir Neumann, Wladyslaw Kosiniak- Kamysz, Barbara Nowacka. The activists listed above, under the guise of "citizens' initiative”, through the CDD, seek to catch “the second political breath”. The CDD‘s main ideologue, Piotr Pacewicz, “Gazeta Wyborcza” journalist, a specialist in revolutions, supports, among other, the slogan, " Down with Communism". It is humorous that next to him marched Marek Baranski supporting the PRL authorities during marshal law and criticizing the opposition. Lech Walesa, through his speeches also supports the CDD, as well as infamous <b>Prof. Jan Tomasz Gross</b> who during a recent visit to Germany, quoted from his published research paper, "that Poles were proud of their resistance to Nazi occupiers, but actually during the war they killed more Jews than Germans. "</div>
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<b>Recruitment methods </b>(interesting and educational) <br />
It is easy to research and obtain information via internet search engines on </div>
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" How to join the CDD ": <br />
“If you agree with our manifesto and do not want to be passive but want to join us, you can do it in a following way : contact one of our coordinators from the region in which you live and learn how to proceed.” You will be referred to a impressive list of coordinators in Poland and in the world: <a href="http://komitetobronydemokracji.pl/koordynatorzy-regionalni-komitetu-obrony-demokracji/">http://komitetobronydemokracji.pl/koordynatorzy-regionalni-komitetu-obrony-demokracji/ </a><br />
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<b>WE CAUTION AND ADVISE YOU TO THINK AND EVALUATE THE CURRENT POLITICAL SITUATION IN POLAND BEFORE YOU SUPPORT ANTI GOVERNMENT DEMONSTRATIONS AND ACTIVITIES AS ADVOCATED BY THE CDD. </b></div>
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<b>Addition </b>- the recent mechanical failure of the presidential car should have raised justified concern. However, for CDD’s sympathizers, the accident has become an opportunity for ridicule and malicious comments on their Facebook page. Some of the comments:</div>
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Zenon Kaczorowski : Oh , what a pity . Cezary Bak : I wish him death in agony . </div>
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Ted Roznicki : I thought that we would do collection for flowers. It is sad it did not happen </div>
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Helena Jałosinska : I was ready to spend my entire retirement check on flowers, and let it be </div>
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Ryszard Koczyrkiewicz : I wish there was a birch tree. Krystyna Wardziak : the incident was </div>
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a warning , the second will not be. Art Dru : Unfortunately, nothing happened to him. Bartosz Czerniec : We are waiting for the replay - this time effective. Krzysztof Tomasz Ratajczak : pity, lightning should have struck him, so I was hoping. Wojtek Woś: Too bad shit, and it would be cool. </div>
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There are hundreds of such entries. In the vast majority with the names and photographs. Without embarrassment, with complete openness. After all, people of the Committee for the Defense of Democracy are blatantly outspoken. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10802197188240179363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4183082381818602896.post-7234393275613180862016-02-26T11:45:00.002-08:002016-02-26T11:45:38.781-08:00No. 8 - Opinion of the German MEP <div>
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synopsis and translation Zbyszek Koralewsk , editing Prof. Anthony J. Bajdek </div>
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link to the original article:</div>
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<a href="http://wiadomosci.wp.pl/kat,1329,title,Hans-Olaf-Henkel-dla-Do-Rzeczy-sankcje-dla-Polski-to-bylby-koniec-UE,wid,18125498,wiadomosc.html?ticaid=1165ff"></a><a href="http://wiadomosci.wp.pl/kat,1329,title,Hans-Olaf-Henkel-dla-Do-Rzeczy-sankcje-dla-Polski-to-bylby-koniec-UE,wid,18125498,wiadomosc.html?ticaid=1165ff">http://wiadomosci.wp.pl/kat,1329,title,Hans-Olaf-Henkel-dla-Do-Rzeczy-sankcje-dla-Polski-to-bylby-koniec-UE,wid,18125498,</a><a href="http://wiadomosci.wp.pl/kat,1329,title,Hans-Olaf-Henkel-dla-Do-Rzeczy-sankcje-dla-Polski-to-bylby-koniec-UE,wid,18125498,wiadomosc.html?ticaid=1165ff">wiadomosc.html?ticaid=1165ff</a></div>
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<br /><b>There are two reasons for attacks on the new government in Poland: the Polish opposition did not come to terms with its defeat in the elections, and the other due to </b><div>
<b>the fact that the countries of Central and Eastern Europe: Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia, are not enthusiastic about EU centralism, and they do not want to have a second Moscow in the form of Brussels, which will tell them what to do -- says Hans-Olaf Henkel, the German MEP (Member of European Parliament) from the EK fraction, in an interview with the weekly "Into the stuff ". </b><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqrY8aP04Omg6QVRaIYCZJ52BcXxNGOM-mg2II2EnDoJy6TKpDTA6hJr1FRmZ0osQUXojtsBQ22BBsMkzSbZbtG1G8wyL9XfvNN_auZKWPEyiTZUpeC_7ysQvyd9Ay01tvuaALwMo71Uc/s320/niemiecki+deputowany+UE.jpeg" /><br />Hans-Olaf Henkel PAP/EPA / DPA<div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dominika Ćosić: Did the Prime Minister Beata Szydło succeed during the debate</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>in the European Parliament (EP) to convince the skeptics ?</b></span> <br />Hans-Olaf Henkel: With skeptics she did not. In the EP there are people who just do not want to be convinced. You can show them the facts, clearly and lucidly, and they still will not admit them (i.e., the facts) to their consciousness and will continue to stick to their ideology. </div>
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This presentation, however, had an impact on people who have open minds.<br /><br /><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> And there are those?</span></b><br /><br />-I think so. But certainly the farther to the left and the farther to the right [one may be], it is harder to meet these types of people. It is clear that the Polish opposition can not accept that they lost the election. This is a Polish problem. I can only appeal to the current Polish opposition [to] the Polish problem not to make [it a] European [problem]. Growing tensions hurt Poland and Europe. The second axis of the division concerned ideology because there are [those] in the EP parties wanting greater centralization of the Union -- federalism -- and those for whom such a vision is not acceptable. The new Polish government, like me, belongs to the latter group. And it was [thus] </div>
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the second division of supporters of and opponents to European centralism.<br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What according to you is the main reason for the attacks on the new Polish government?</span></b></div>
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<b><br /></b>-There are two reasons about the first I have already stated: the Polish opposition does not come to terms with its defeat in the election, which was visible even in the discussion. The second reason stems from the fact that the countries of Central and Eastern Europe: Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia are not enthusiastic about EP centralism and do not want to have a second Moscow in the form of Brussels, which tells them what to do.<br />And in all of this there is an additional German element which makes the whole situation even more dramatic and difficult. As a German, who is reading [and] watching international media, I notice clearly that the German media and German politicians are leading the criticism of the Polish government. Something like that I can hardly see in the French press, a relatively small extent in the UK, [and] in Italy the theme is almost non-existent. A little bit is written about it in Austria and the Netherlands. This strong German instructive voice has a good cause – Germans have ambition to be a global moral superpower. They want to save the world's climate, marginalize nuclear energy, save the eurozone; [they] saved Greece three times, along with Ireland, Portugal, Spain, [and] now save refugees from different countries. Finally, they believe that they have to save Polish democracy. The reason for this moral arrogance of many German politicians -- and the best example is the chairman Schulz -- is that the generation of Germans born after the war feels obliged to show its high, overblown morality.<br />Mr Schulz attacks Poland, speaking [either] of a coup or of democracy in the style of Putin. It is not only the greatest wickedness, I've heard, while an MEP, but also a total lack of respect for </div>
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the letter of the law. Everyone says that we should wait for the verdict of the Venice Commission, while this man does not wait, because he had already judged Poland. I asked him in a speech to apologize to the Polish people. He did not do it. Why?</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A spokesman for the Chancellor distanced himself recently from the comments of some German politicians calling for the imposition of sanctions on Poland. </span></b><div>
<br />-Ideas such as imposing sanctions on Poland are ridiculous, completely ridiculous. <br />Fortunately, they will not be realized, because it would be the end of the European Union.<br /><br /><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> How should the Polish government be in responding to the attacks by Mr. Schulz and </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the German government? Do not treat Mr. Shultz as a representative of the government</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in Berlin and possibly answer only to him?</span></b><br /> <br />-My advice is that the Polish government should be confident in responding and show it. Do not attack the German Government for the words of Mr. Schulz. </div>
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The German government, moreover, has serious problems now, and they are on several fronts. About the effects of "policy of Willkommen" [i.e., "Welcome"] I have alredy stated, and it is also </div>
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a question of giving up nuclear energy, which has caused a dramatic increase in energy prices. </div>
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The price of electricity in Germany is the second highest in the world. For this reason, many foreign and German companies begin to retreat from Germany. The crisis in the eurozone has not been resolved; Greece does not carry out reforms. In short, Mrs. Merkel does not need to open another front, that being,</div>
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the deterioration of relations with Poland. And there is also no reason to "teach" the Polish government. And the government in Warsaw should be aware of that.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10802197188240179363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4183082381818602896.post-41881866595710478482016-02-11T15:25:00.000-08:002016-02-12T11:42:56.721-08:00No.7 - Today's Targowica<br />
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author: Prof. Vladimir J. Korab-Karpowicz</div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">(translation Zbyszek Koralewski, editing Prof. Anthony J. Bajdek)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">The original article was published January 3, 2016 by A303W</span><span style="color: #ffd966;"> <a href="http://wolna-polska.pl/wiadomosci/category/polska">POLSKA</a>:</span></div>
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<a href="http://wolna-polska.pl/wiadomosci/dzisiejsza-targowica-prof-w-j-korab-karpowicz-2016-01">http://wolna-polska.pl/wiadomosci/dzisiejsza-targowica-prof-w-j-korab-karpowicz-2016-01</a></div>
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Today's Targowica uses the slogan "threatened democracy." Instead of appeals to Moscow, today's appeals are to Brussels. The motivations, however, are the same: the defense of their [i.e.,Nowoczesna, KOD and others] interests and lost privileges. Today there are not aristocratic privileges, but the party’s privileges.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF8ahfBuuIAWZu2inp1gXTcKbxSMHt9jbDxRi87Sug_q2_6dOwdKdvLaz_dNb9cxYpB6k5UL00h0wjTPlCiuYWG13mrTY3cQTQgVzQexn88gTEPuPNEVCntWLOsWMwssYw383xDkr8lYo/s1600/PAC+-Targowica.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF8ahfBuuIAWZu2inp1gXTcKbxSMHt9jbDxRi87Sug_q2_6dOwdKdvLaz_dNb9cxYpB6k5UL00h0wjTPlCiuYWG13mrTY3cQTQgVzQexn88gTEPuPNEVCntWLOsWMwssYw383xDkr8lYo/s400/PAC+-Targowica.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></b><b style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></b>We all probably remember from school textbooks what Targowica had been, but it is worth recalling this story. When the party of reform led to the enactment in 1791 of the May 3rd Constitution, which cut the excessive privileges of the nobility and led to a positive reform of the state, a group of those dissatisfied appeared, who supposedly in the name of "endangered freedom", but actually defending their own interests, formed a confederation in Targowica. The aim of the Targowicans was to abolish the Constitution of May 3rd and restore the old privileges. To achieve their goal, they did not hesitate to ask Moscow for help.<br />
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Politics can be understood in two ways: as an art of governing, or as a struggle for power. If in coming to govern are people whose aim is to benefit the state [or simply stated, the public in general] politics acquires the characteristics of the art of governing, and therefore, control of the state in a way that serves the general good [of society] and reinforces its strength. Dr. Andrzej Duda’s winning the presidential election and the PiS in the parliamentary elections is an expression of the will of the majority of society. The majority concluded that the previous ruling party -- PO -- and associated with it ideologically President Bronislaw Komorowski didn't rule the state well. Society refused [to extend] further credit of its trust. That's what democracy is. In a country with a democratic system, power can be exchanged. Currently, it happened in Poland.<br />
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PO, Modern and other groups associated with the opposition, as once with the group of people opposing the Constitution of May 3rd, they [PO, Modern] can not come to terms with the loss. The political loss means curtailing the privileges associated with the exercise of power. They are supported by a considerable number of the media which proves that the media are not independent. Programs run by Lis, Kraska and many other well-known journalists are clearly biased. Also, they get support from politicians such Walesa and Cimoszewicz, whose political lives have already ended long ago. So clearly, they want to take on this opportunity, and even from the [political] grave, to remind about their existence.<br />
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The main argument of the opposition is that the PiS does not have an explicit program, and it wants to dominate the Polish political scene. Meanwhile, in January 2014 the congress of PiS was held, on which the program framework had been carefully delineated; and if it comes to the second plea, the winners always hold winning in their palm. It goes without saying that the center-right party, and this is Law and Justice, will move away from the solutions of the liberal-leftist PO, and put in place their own.<br />
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Modern democracy is based, on the one hand, on free, regular elections, and on the other, on ensuing basic civil liberties, such as freedom of speech, religion and assembly. Both due to the system of legislation and social practice, Poland is one of the most democratic countries in the world. For example, the way the media criticize the government now would be in many countries unthinkable. Poles have the freedom to manifest their views and association, and most importantly, have the opportunity to recall authority, in regular elections, which did not meet their expectations or abused their trust.<br />
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Freedom should be distinguished from anarchy. Anarchy is chaos, manipulation, confusing intent, <br />
undermining of authority. The current actions of Modern, KOD and other groups directed against the democratically elected President of the Republic and the winning PiS party, are spreading anarchy in Poland and do not have much in common with democracy. Rather than being called "the Committee of Defense of Democracy", CoD should rather be called CoA (Committee of Anarchy). When, in turn, Walesa and others go so far as to defame the President of Poland and the Polish Government abroad, they reveal themselves as today's Targowica whose desire is not concerned about the common good, but its own [benefit], and in this quest do not hesitate to request assistance of foreign powers.<br />
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Poland has an old democratic tradition, dating back to the 1st Republic, but of democracy apparently, we still must learn together. It is essential to distinguish democracy from anarchy. The enormous value of democracy is the possibility of sharing power, but this exchange can not take place under the influence of pressure groups or organized by their protests, but through democratic elections. Victorious parties should be accorded the credit of trust and an appreciation of the fact that its choice expresses the will of the majority in society.<br />
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Vladimir J. Korab-Karpowicz<br />
<br />
Vladimir Julian Korab-Karpowicz, philosopher and political thinker. He studied at the Gdansk University of Technology (electrical engineering) and Catholic University of Lublin (philosophy). He received his doctorate from Oxford University, and habilitation at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. In 1991-1992, he was vice-president of Gdańsk. He worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as First Secretary of the Polish Embassy in Oslo, and was an adviser to the European Commission. Professor/instructor of Lazarski University in Warsaw and Zayed University in Dubai. The author of the "Tractatus Politico-Philosophicus" and many other works in the field of political philosophy.<br />
<br />
More about changes in Poland :<br />
<a href="http://takimag.com/article/sour_grapes_over_poland_chodakiewicz_wellisz#.VqhcGThvJdE.email">http://takimag.com/article/sour_grapes_over_poland_chodakiewicz_wellisz#.VqhcGThvJdE.email</a> <br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10802197188240179363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4183082381818602896.post-26872571699067846602016-01-30T07:42:00.000-08:002016-02-11T15:44:21.584-08:00No. 6 - Four Letters to European Parliament<div align="CENTER">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER">
<h3>
Written by: </h3>
Bishop of <span lang="pl-PL">Włocławek</span>,<br />
PAC-Long Island,<br />
PAC South & North California,<br />
PAC President<br />
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">December
15, 2015</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dear Mr. Martin Schulz, President of European
Parliament </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Willy-Brandt-Ring 1 D-52477 Alsdorf</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Deutschland – Niemcy</span><br />
<br />
With great amazement and indignation I have read your opinion
about the "coup" in Poland. I really know my
country better than you. I have lived in my homeland for 70
years already. I assure you that the elections for the
President and the new government in Poland are not evidence of an
absence of democracy.<br />
<br />
The elections showed that most ordinary citizens of my country
want change. The problem is that those, who hitherto had
authority to govern, on this decision lost. Therefore, they do
not want to surrender to the verdict of the election, and use
for their interests the European Parliament. Under your
leadership, Parliament is certainly busy with very important issues,
including the length of a candle's flame and the amount of water in a toilet’s tank.<br />
<br />
There are no politicians today in Brussels with class, or people
looking for the common good of the societies making up the
European Union. Political correctness coupled with pettiness is not
conducive to wisdom.
<br />
It is a pity, as Mr. Chirac once said, that you also
“lost the opportunity to keep quiet".<br />
<br />
I know that you will not change your position and will not
apologize to Poles. Greatness is required to recognize one’s
own mistake. Therefore, at the "winter holidays" (as
you call Christmas),<br />
I wish you prudence, wisdom and imagination.
<br />
<br />
+ <span style="color: #f9cb9c;">Wiesław Mering, Bishop of Włocławek</span><br />
<br />
January 9, 2016<br />
<br />
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Open Letter to Members of the European Parliament</span></b><br />
<br />
Response to Attacks on Democratically Elected Polish President and
Parliament<br />
<br />
The Polish American Congress, Long Island Division is increasingly
concerned with the false accusations directed at the recent,
democratically elected, Polish government.<br />
<br />
In the past foreign powers interfered in Poland’s internal
affairs and its sovereignty which resulted
<br />
in Poland being partitioned by Austria, Prussia and Russia. Also,
the alliance of Germany and Russia encouraged Hitler to attack Poland
and begin WWII. More recently, the Yalta Agreement
<br />
between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin enslaved Central Europe,
including East Germany.
<br />
<br />
The European Union did not react to the Russian-German Nord Stream
II gas pipeline agreement
<br />
that violated European solidarity. Also ignored is the tragic
migration crisis.
<br />
But, interference in Poland’s internal affairs is being
considered.<br />
<br />
Poland's internal reforms are OUTSIDE THE SCOPE of EU
law, and fall under its observance of national
interests and are within the existing constitutional
framework. The internal reforms are necessitated by years of corrupt rule of the previous government
and the post communist oligarchy. <br />
<br />
Mass media allegations against Poland are orchestrated by those
interested in manipulating
<br />
public opinion to sustain a neo-colonial status of Poland.
<br />
<br />
We hope the January 13 and 19 European Commission and European
Parliament meetings
<br />
openly debate “the political situation” in Poland and result
in a cessation of attacks on<br />
the democratically elected Polish President and Parliament.<br />
<br />
Sincerely,
<br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Grzegorz Worwa, President, Polish American Congress, Long
Island, New York Division
</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;"><br /></span>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Link to the letter written by PAC North & South
California
.January 9, 2016</span><br />
<br />
http://nebula.wsimg.com/e78afe6d36a899b29973b041ce1c8fff?AccessKeyId=2A383047C534A4ABC133&disposition=0&alloworigin=1
<br />
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br />
Saturday, January 16, 2016 00:52:27
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">Dear President Juncker,</span><br />
In recent weeks there has been much negative publicity and
conflicting messages concerning Poland, its government and decision
making practices. The recent actions by the European Commission (EC)
regarding Poland contributed to the discussions and debate that take
place both in Poland as well as outside her borders among the members
of Polish communities worldwide, including the United States,
<br />
where the Polish American diaspora is approximately ten
million.<br />
<br />
The Polish American Congress, founded in 1944, is the
largest Polish American organization.<br />
Many of our members closely follow the situation in Poland.<br />
<br />
Since the announcement of the discussion on Poland by the
European Commission our organization has been inundated with messages
expressing great distress among members of our organization and the
Polish American community in general. It’s unfortunate that the
debate on Poland and associated negative publicity has escalated to
this magnitude on an international level causing harm to the good
image of Poland.<br />
<br />
We understand, the European Commission is
concerned about Poland because of political and administrative
actions undertaken by the newly-elected Polish President and
Parliament. We also understand that Poland agreed to a possibility of
such action while signing the documents of accession to the European
Union; however, we question if such a strong approach was necessary.<br />
<br />
Regrettably, the unprecedented steps by the Commission regarding
Poland have provoked a great degree of anxiety and worry that Poland has been singled out for this
type of measures. Furthermore, it provides additional arguments for
Euro-skeptics. The internal political and social agitation that
currently takes place in Poland around EC's decisions fuels the agendas of those who do
not have Poland's best interest at heart, including one of Poland's
neighbors - Russia. <br />
<br />
Nonetheless, and in response to the
great concern among the members of the Polish American community, we
urge you, Mr. President, as well as other members of the Commission,
to thoroughly and objectively review the facts of the situation in
Poland and take under careful consideration all of its aspects
including political, legislative and those of a historical, social,
and cultural nature.<br />
<br />
We are confident that Beata Szydlo,
Poland's Prime Minister, and her staff will be able to resolve
<br />
matters in question in an amicable and equitable manner.<br />
<br />
It is in the best interest of all concerned that Poland remains a
politically and economically strong<br />
member of the European Union.<br />
<br />
I hope this matter gets resolved in the very near future for the
benefit of all: Poland,
<br />
the European community, as well as Polish communities
worldwide.<br />
<br />
Sincerely yours,<br />
<br />
<span style="color: orange;">Frank J. Spula,</span><br />
<span style="color: orange;">PAC President</span><br />
<br />
CC: Mr. Donald Tusk, President of the European Council<br />
A.
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="background: #ffffff;"> </span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10802197188240179363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4183082381818602896.post-64153413341069575582016-01-30T07:32:00.001-08:002016-01-30T07:33:25.971-08:00No. 5. The year 2016 – A hope for Poland <ol type="A">
<li><div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>The year 2016
– A hope for Poland</b></span>
</div>
</li>
</ol>
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">(original
title: Year 2016 is a hope for liberation from occupation of
“the round table”</span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">-
author unknown, s</span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="pl-PL">hortcuts
and translation by</span></span></span> <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Zbyszek
Koralewski)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">In
1989, once again we managed to rescue a criminal system and the
people who created it. This time under the guise of "democracy"
and "capitalism" a compromised system was created in which
communism took over the Capital and Democracy was partitioned between
selected opposition and </span></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">the
communist apparatus. (<i>former communists were never brought to
justice – zk</i>)</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Effect
of the reforms by comrade Balcerowicz, who since 1969 belonged to the
Communist Party, and in the years 1978-1980 worked on problems of the
socialist market-oriented economy - it is unusual on </span></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">a
European scale: impoverishment of the majority of society, while the
beneficiaries of the system have become the creators of the Third
Republic.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 6pt;"><span lang="pl-PL"><b><br /></b></span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Poland
for 25 years, so-called "Freedom" has divested as part of
the privatization of their own industry, their own banks, retail
chains and processing establishments creating an army of unemployed,
with more than 3 million people leaving Poland in search of bread and
better prospects for life.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">After
25 years, the Poles - like under communism earned a pittance - for
the most part, not only have not received anything from this
"favorable" privatization - but have become slaves in
western corporations, often working in addition on "junk"
agreements and therefore not entitled to pensions, vacations, and
sick days.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">"Handelsblatt",
a leading German daily business paper does not make a secret that
European expansion (mainly German) in Poland was made possible by the
neo-liberal government which in fact realized building a neocolonial
- theoretical state.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">"The
prime minister of the government, Donald Tusk, was "as if in
gratitude for this" awarded the position of President of the
European Council," - says the "Handelsblatt".</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Merkel
and German politicians will do anything not to lose Poland, as its
sphere of influence, where it pulled a lot of profits. According to a
recent report by Global Financial Integrity, it is estimated that in
recent years companies of our western neighbor "sucked" out
of our country $30 billion! It turns out that annually as much as 5
percent of Polish GDP goes abroad, i.e. approximately 90 billion zl.
For comparison, an annual need, for the program 500 zł per child, is
approximately 17 billion zl.</span></span><span style="font-size: 5pt;"><span lang="pl-PL"><b><br /></b></span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Shame
that some important and well-known opposition individuals, about
which – paradoxically – already warned Orwell in "Animal
Farm" joined a group of Polish traitors, Gazeta Wyborcza, </span></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">agents
SB, WSI, obliging journalists.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Most
of the former dissidents who fought for a free Poland, however did
not sell themselves – </span></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">they
are people excommunicated, which had to be forgotten, as it was
attempted to do with </span></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Anna
Walentynowicz. From others they attempted to make idiots and
lunatics.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><b>The
year 2016 is the hope for (reforms</b></span></span> <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">and
–</span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><i>zk</i></span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">)
liberation from "progress" that is exported from </span></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">the
European Union and neo-colonialism especially from Germany, in
defense of the faith, heritage, tradition, culture, economy, history
and truth, that was manipulated and sold.</span></span><br />
Contratack of Beata Szydlo on Targowiczan in Polish Sejm: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFPOLwyo6aQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFPOLwyo6aQ</a> <br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">(Professor
Radosław Zenderowski: <i>Elites of Central and Eastern
countries so far largely have been oriented to the West and were not
able to represent the national interest in a way in which do the
Germans, the French or the British</i>.)</span></span><br />
<br />
<ol start="2" type="A">
<li><div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>Criticism of
new government</b></span>
</div>
</li>
</ol>
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><b>s</b></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">ynopsis
by Zbyszek Koralewski from “Polish Democracy is in Fine Health”.
By Matthew Tyrmand & the Editorial Staff of Gazeta Polska
Codziennie</span></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The
mainstream western press apparatus, taking its cues from the Polish
mainstream press (which is 80% owned by Germans –<i>zk)</i> and
those connected to the government freshly ejected from office,
continues to criticize the recently democratically elected new
government (not in charge because of </span></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">the
"fascist coup" as depicted by some western officials, like
e.g.: Mr. Martin Schulz, President of European Parliament </span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><i>-
zk).</i></span></span>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Western
press suggests that the democracy is being violated in Poland today
and censorship abounds under the new regime. This is an outright lie
as both pro- and anti-government protests have occurred unencumbered
(since the last election –</span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><i>zk</i></span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">).
However, during the past eight years during the ruling years of
the Civic Platform and the Polish People's Party (PO-PSL), democratic
ideals were NOT upheld and that the right to protest, express oneself
freely without fear of reprisal, and other civil liberties were
frequently abrogated (surprisingly</span></span> <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">there
was no criticism then - zk). Examples:</span></span><br />
<ul type="DISC">
<li><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Independent
journalists were repeatedly harassed by the security agencies. The
staff of, </span></span> <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">among
others, Gazeta Polska Codziennie (GPC) had their homes searched. </span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul type="DISC">
<li><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">In
December 2014, two journalists (Tomasz Gzela of the Polish Press
Agency and Jan Pawlicki of Telewizja Republika) were arrested. They
were covering the protest held at the headquarters of the National
Electoral Commission after the local elections. PSL having
received well more votes than expected (by a factor of 10) in a
region (Gdynia) where they have had little historical support.
They managed to gain just enough votes to enable them to remain the
junior governing partner of PO. The election results were most
likely falsified and this was not investigated.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul type="DISC">
<li><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Journalists
were dismissed from their posts when they pushed for a transparent
investigation into the Smolensk crash. Tomasz Sakiewicz and Anita
Gargas, among others, lost their jobs in the public media.
Cezary Gmyz was dismissed from the editorial staff of Rzeczpospolita
(a daily paper partially owned by the state) for publishing
information indicating that there were traces of TNT found on
the wreck of the plane that crashed in Smolensk in April 2010.
</span></span>
<br />
</li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">This
information was later confirmed by the experts. </span></span>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">In
May 2015, after the Presidential election was lost by President
Bronisław Komorowski, the PO-PSL coalition violated the constitution
and appointed new members of the Constitutional Tribunal before the
justices' terms expired. Today, after the reforms implemented by the
democratically elected Law and Justice Party, the judges elected by
the Civic Platform still constitute the majority. They occupy 9 of 15
seats in the Tribunal. It was no secret that the Tribunal in its
current form was largely a rubber stamp on the previous government's
lawlessness. (The Tribunal was formed in communist times in 1986). </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Breaking
civil liberties went unreported by a pliant media that was directly
and indirectly on the previous government's or foreigners’ payroll.
These encompassed every sort of corrupt behavior from accepting
bribes to patronage jobs and contracts going to friends and family
members, to bogus un-bid non-competitive contract procurement, to
self-dealing, the awarding of bonuses and pensions, to preferential
tax treatment for allies and supporters (including foreign
multi-national corporations). </span></span>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">(Today, a
very pro-American Polish Government is in power, and has started a
purge of corrupt upper level civil servants. Too many dark
interest groups, including both German and Russian geopoliticians,
both of whom are opposed to American strongholds in East Central
Europe, are threatened by Poland's new government. This
explains why there is a huge uproar and a continuing stream of
lies and false accusations appearing in the mainstream mass media
which are orchestrated mainly by Germany and are designed to
discredit and disqualify opinion Poland's truly democratic
government. (<i>J M Malek)</i></span></span><br />
<br />
Interesting to listen to - zk: ( in Polish) Poland under attack in European Parliament: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzT6ckfxYk8">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzT6ckfxYk8</a><br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10802197188240179363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4183082381818602896.post-11885822529052938672015-12-12T18:09:00.000-08:002015-12-20T18:42:50.695-08:00No. 4 The Jews in Hitler's Military<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A young American is documenting the stories of hundreds <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">of German veterans of Jewish descent. <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many lost family to the Holocaust<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> while serving the Nazi
regime.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">LONDON —
Sustained by scholarship, peanut butter and a sense of mission, American Bryan
Rigg is exploring an eerie </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and uncharted
no man's land of Holocaust history. Rigg interviews former German soldiers of
Jewish heritage, some of them high-ranking officers, who fought for Adolf
Hitler's Third Reich in World War II--</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">during the Holocaust, when the Nazis slaughtered
6 million Jews.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Thousands
of men of Jewish descent and hundreds of what </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the Nazis
called 'full Jews' served in the military with Hitler's knowledge. The Nazis
allowed these men </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">to serve but at the same time exterminated their families,"
Rigg said. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(according to different sources 150 thousands – add. Zk)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On a heady
journey of personal and professional discovery, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the
25-year-old Texan has talked with more than 300 of these veterans, including a
handful in California. Passed along from one old soldier to another, he has
crisscrossed Germany over four years, often by bicycle, sometimes sleeping </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">in railroad
stations to stretch his budget.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Rigg said he
has documented the Jewish ancestry of more than 1,200 of Hitler's soldiers,
including two </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">field marshals
and 10 generals, "men commanding up to 100,000 troops." In about 20
cases, soldiers of </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jewish
heritage were awarded the Knight's Cross, Germany's highest military honor, he
said.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Along the way,
Rigg, who is of German extraction and was raised as a Protestant, has
discovered that he too has Jewish ancestry. Like many of the families he has
visited, Rigg had distant relatives who were killed for being Jewish--and
others who died fighting in battle for Nazi Germany.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The old
soldiers give Rigg both documents and their stories of war, peace and
suffering. He says many stillstruggle with a question that is a challenge to
history: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If I fought in the German army while my mother died in a Nazi
concentration camp, am I a villain or a victim? Many of the men Rigg meets
cling to Nazi terminology, describing themselves as half-Jewish, half-German.
Sometimes they weep as they reminisce, these Germans now in their 70s and 80s,
many of whom killed on </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the battlefield for </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">a monstrous regime while their
families were being killed by it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"In many
cases, these men have not talked about it for 50 years. When I come, it is as
if they have opened up a coffin they thought they buried so long ago. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It all
comes out," Rigg said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of his
discoveries was a 1944 German army personnel document listing 77 high-ranking
officers "of mixed Jewish race or married to a Jew." Two generals,
eight lieutenant generals, five major generals and 23 colonels are on the list.
Hitler personally signed declarations for all 77 on the 1944 list asserting that
they were of German blood, thereby exercising his right of exception under 1935
Nazi legislation that barred anyone with a Jewish grandparent from becoming an
officer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Deciding
exactly who was to be classified a Jew stirred great internal debate among Nazi
leaders. Hitler loathed Jews, but he also needed experienced commanders and
fighters."What's fascinating is how involved Hitler was in the screening
process," Rigg said. "At the height of the war, he was personally
deciding whether this private or that should be of German blood. A
private!" He said there were at least a dozen exception lists approved by
Hitler--naming ranking officials not only in the armed forces but in the
civilian administration that worked with the military. In interviews and research in Germany this
month, Rigg found still more Wehrmacht officers of Jewish descent and more than
1,500 pages of documents, both from veterans and their families and from the wartime
German archives </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">that Rigg explores with these people's consent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Thousands
of men of Jewish ancestry fought in the Nazi military because they were
drafted. But many were career soldiers, and that forced them to apply for the
German blood declaration," Rigg said. "What's sick here is that, even
though Hitler gave the approvals, the officers' relatives </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">were being exterminated </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">behind their backs. . . .</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Were most of
these people so egotistical they didn't care who died just so they could
live?" Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center
in Los Angeles, says that the soldiers' individual stories are well known but that
there does not seem to have been a serious scholarly attempt to piece them
together </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">into a larger picture. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The new
research also poses vexing questions. "If there were Jews who served in
the armed forces to save their own lives, that is one thing. If there were
others who served knowing what was going on and made no attempt to save
[lives], well then that is unacceptable and dishonorable," Hier said. In
the homes he visits, Rigg often sees menorahs and books about Judaism. Many of
the veterans "have learned Hebrew," he said, "and a few have
converted to Judaism and gotten circumcised in their 40s and 50s."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Nazi
regime reeked of hypocrisy, Rigg's new research makes plain. He documents the
case of Field Marshal Erhard Milch, deputy to Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering.
Long rumored to have been Jewish, Milch in fact had a Jewish father, which,
according to Nazi code, made him unacceptable to serve in the armed forces. But
in 1935, Rigg's research shows, Goering, Hitler's chosen successor, falsified documents
to declare Milch of Aryan descent by asserting that his mother's brother </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">was
really his father.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Many of
them lost relatives in the Holocaust and knew they had been sent to Auschwitz
or other camps. Yet in 1944, when these men themselves got postcards ordering
them to report to a certain train station for deportation, most of them
went," Rigg said. "If they really knew what happened to their parents <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and
grandparents, why did they go?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At Cambridge,
Steinberg--a New Yorker who has taught in England for three decades—said Rigg's
findings will deepen history's view of the Holocaust. While Rigg's quest has at
times proved unsettling for him, for
many of the old soldiers that he interviews, a visit from the young, earnest
American scholar is cathartic--</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">even liberating. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"I've
gotten letters and phone calls from kids and grandkids of these people, saying:
'Thank God you've come. Now our daddy or grandfather will talk to us</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> about all
of this,' " he said</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">December 24, 1996 | WILLIAM D. MONTALBANO | TIMES STAFF WRITER<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The Jews in Hitler's Military - </span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">2015 Los Angeles Times – article
collections</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/The%20Nazi%20regime%20reeked%20of%20hypocrisy,%20Rigg's%20new%20research%20makes%20plain.%20He%20documents%20the%20case%20of%20Field%20Marshal%20Erhard%20Milch,%20deputy%20to%20Luftwaffe%20chief%20Hermann%20Goering.%20Long%20rumored%20to%20have%20been%20Jewish,%20Milch%20in%20fact%20had%20a%20Jewish%20father,%20which,%20according%20to%20Nazi%20code,%20made%20him%20unacceptable%20to%20serve%20in%20the%20armed%20forces.%20But%20in%201935,%20Rigg's%20research%20shows,%20Goering,%20Hitler's%20chosen%20successor,%20falsified%20documents%20to%20declare%20Milch%20of%20Aryan%20descent%20by%20asserting%20that%20his%20mother's%20brother%20was%20really%20his%20father.%20%20%22Many%20of%20them%20lost%20relatives%20in%20the%20Holocaust%20and%20knew%20they%20had%20been%20sent%20to%20Auschwitz%20or%20other%20camps.%20Yet%20in%201944,%20when%20these%20men%20themselves%20got%20postcards%20ordering%20them%20to%20report%20to%20a%20certain%20train%20station%20for%20deportation,%20most%20of%20them%20went,%22%20Rigg%20said.%20%22If%20they%20really%20knew%20what%20happened%20to%20their%20parents%20and%20grandparents,%20why%20did%20they%20go?%22%20%20At%20Cambridge,%20Steinberg--a%20New%20Yorker%20who%20has%20taught%20in%20England%20for%20three%20decades%E2%80%94said%20Rigg%27s%20findings%20will%20deepen%20history%27s%20view%20of%20the%20Holocaust.%20While%20Rigg%27s%20quest%20has%20at%20times%20proved%20%20unsettling%20for%20him,%20for%20many%20of%20the%20old%20soldiers%20that%20he%20interviews,%20a%20visit%20from%20the%20young,%20earnest%20American%20scholar%20is%20cathartic--even%20liberating.%20%20%20%22I%27ve%20gotten%20letters%20and%20phone%20calls%20from%20kids%20and%20grandkids%20of%20these%20people,%20saying:%20%27Thank%20God%20you%27ve%20come.%20Now%20our%20daddy%20or%20grandfather%20will%20talk%20to%20us%20about%20all%20of%20this,%27%20%22%20he%20said.">http://articles.latimes.com/1996-12-24/news/mn-12209_1_adolf-hitler<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 3pt;"> </span></b></a></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #202020; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">synopsis by Zbyszek Koralewski<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10802197188240179363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4183082381818602896.post-32428317849754612682015-12-05T10:52:00.000-08:002015-12-22T14:33:25.630-08:00No. 3 Killers of Jews or Saviors of Jews?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
http://www.thejewishweek.com/arts/books/killers-jews-or-saviors-jews<br />
synopsis of the article: Zbyszek Koralewski<br />
<br />
<b>New study by YU history professor sheds fresh light on Poland’s wartime anti-Nazi Resistance movement.</b><br />
<br />
YU professor Joshua Zimmerman’s book on Poland’s underground fighters during World War II.<br />
A third-generation American Jew who grew up in California, Joshua Zimmerman was raised with an atypical perspective about Poland. Most heard mostly horror stories about anti-Semitic Poles. Zimmerman didn’t.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS5zLf5NboyGRfRLwEi1t9Z6rzKWw91VY_o-Z2W_cZTsnNMDrlGlcSyt23EtBL8R_OS3Vety3DpZr1mzgwBxvuxAKQ21NooQu7CMMwVDnp8gVlUoXEnuE_hZevOp98NkGhofbSON9jgiE/s1600/Zimmerman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS5zLf5NboyGRfRLwEi1t9Z6rzKWw91VY_o-Z2W_cZTsnNMDrlGlcSyt23EtBL8R_OS3Vety3DpZr1mzgwBxvuxAKQ21NooQu7CMMwVDnp8gVlUoXEnuE_hZevOp98NkGhofbSON9jgiE/s320/Zimmerman.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
His great-grandparents came from the area of Poland-Russia where most of the world’s Jews had lived for centuries, in the decades before the Shoah. And when they spoke about World War II and the Holocaust, they would concentrate instead on the German role in atrocities. “Ethnic Poles did not appear in the narrative,” said Zimmerman, 48, a professor of Eastern European Jewish history and Holocaust studies at Yeshiva University.<br />
<br />
Then, during a college course on the Shoah, a Jewish student whose grandparents were from Poland declared that the Poles were as bad “as the Germans.”<br />
<br />
During a later trip to Poland, Zimmerman met citizens who had lived through the war and told him about the heroic Resistance movement there and its Armia Krajowa (Home Army). And then he read a New York Times obituary of the wife of Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal, which described how she survived in Nazi-occupied Poland “with the help of the Polish underground.”<br />
<br />
“A book was born that day,” said Zimmerman, sitting in his Yeshiva University office, surrounded by books about the Jewish experience in Poland. He would, he says, investigate the truth about the relationship between the country’s Resistance movement and the country’s Jews during World War II. Were the members of Armia Krajowa — AK, as it is popularly known in Poland — saints or sinners?<br />
<br />
The result is the recently published “The Polish Underground and the Jews, 1939-1945” (Cambridge University Press), a study that raises fresh questions on the eve of the commemoration<br />
of Kristallnacht. “ I have to see it from both sides,” Zimmerman said.<br />
<br />
For most Jews, this is not an arcane historical question. Poland was the pre-war home of 3.5 million Jews and the site of the greatest number of Nazi death camps. The behavior of the underground and the AK epitomizes what happened to Polish Jews under German occupation, and it has become an article of faith of most Jews outside of Poland that the Poles abetted or supported the Nazi effort to annihilate the Jewish population.<br />
<br />
Zimmerman spent nine years researching the book, which clocks in at nearly 500 pages. Joshua Zimmerman will discuss his book on Monday, Dec. 21, 3 p.m. at YIVO, 15 W. 16th St., Manhattan<br />
He lived in Poland for a year, studied its language and culture, interviewed aging AK members and Jews who owe their lives to the underground, combing through archives that had become open to historians after Communism fell a quarter-century ago. He also did research in Israel and England. <br />
Zimmerman’s book on some pages challenges and contradicts, and on other pages reinforces, the often prevailing belief about the Polish Resistance’s relationship with Polish Jewry during the war.<br />
<br />
“Such a book plays a major role” in understanding Poles’ attitudes towards Jews under Nazi occupation, said Holocaust expert and author Michael Berenbaum. “The more information we get,<br />
the more we can get to a [balanced] judgment.”<br />
<br />
Most Poles, in the view of most Jews, behaved in ways that largely ranged between cold indifference and fiery hatred. Saul Friedlander’s 2007 epic study of the Holocaust, “The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews 1939-1945” (Harper Perennial),” typified this Jewish perspective, that Poles were antagonistic towards Jews, that Polish patriotism and nationalism were equal to anti-Semitism.<br />
Armia Krajowa was at first reluctant to aid Jewish partisans because holding a view that tended to dominate Polish thought, it was “suspicious of the leftist and pro-Soviet leanings of part of the ZOB,” a reference to the Jewish Combat Organization, the main underground Jewish partisan group.<br />
He writes of Armia Krajowa units welcoming Jews into their ranks, supplying arms and money and training to Jewish partisan units, organizing an ultimately unsuccessful effort to breach the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto at the start of the 1943 Uprising, condemning Poles who blackmailed Jews and looted Jewish property, rescuing Jews at the risk of AK members’ lives, helping to found the Committee to Aid the Jews (Zegota), maintaining a sometimes-on/sometimes-off relationship with the ZOB, sending members clandestinely into ghettoes and concentration camps to ascertain the life-threatening situations, and publicizing the Jewish plight through its underground press of the government-in-exile.<br />
<br />
But he also writes of AK units that excluded Jews that killed Jews that refused to offer aid because isolated, small-scale attacks on the German military were regarded as a “futile” waste of limited arms. He writes of right-wing parties that continued to harbor anti-Semitic views and spread anti-Semitic calumnies. Zimmerman’s book offers a balanced perspective…<br />
<br />
Popular support for Poland’s Jews decreased after liberation when the Soviet army seemed likely to occupy the country; there was widespread fear the Soviets would impose hated communist rule, which many Poles associated with Jews.<br />
<br />
Poland and Russia were enemies during many years of their history as neighbors; Poland, a majority Catholic society, hated atheistic Communism; Poland’s Jews, who had initially welcomed the Red Army in 1939 as a release from anti-Semitic rule and as bulwark against the Third Reich, were viewed by many non-Jews as a disloyal fifth column.<br />
<br />
“This study revisits the historical evidence and changes our understanding … by presenting a comprehensive treatment of different patterns of behavior toward the Jews at different times during the war and in various regions of occupied Poland,” Zimmerman writes. “I agree that because the Home Army was an umbrella organization of disparate Polish organizations numbering more than 300,000, from all regions ranging from socialists to nationalists, its attitude and behavior towards the Jews varied widely.”<br />
<br />
“That the AK freed 398 Jews from German captivity is pretty much unknown.” Zimmerman says, as is the Jewish role as fighters in the ill-fated 1944 Warsaw Uprising — the nearby Red Army remained uninvolved while the outnumbered Poles were decimated by the Germans and the capital was flattened.<br />
<br />
Zimmerman says his book, by presenting both sides of the wartime picture, “has the potential of contributing to the Polish-Jewish reconciliation.” He says his own young children, when they come of age, will also hear both sides. He will tell them of “the legacy of anti-Semitism” in Poland. [Will he tell them why –add. by zk] And they will learn “that there were very good people in Poland…<br />
extraordinary Poles who risked their lives to save Jews.”<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">review of Zimmerman’s
book by Jan Peczkis:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2IX8JFLBC9IG6/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1107014263#R2IX8JFLBC9IG6">http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2IX8JFLBC9IG6/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1107014263#R2IX8JFLBC9IG6</a></span></span></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10802197188240179363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4183082381818602896.post-27630993123467334372015-11-29T10:50:00.000-08:002015-12-20T18:06:12.374-08:00No. 2 Anatomy of a lie<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;">One of the sages said that we should beware of those who want to arouse
in us a sense of guilt because they desire power over us. Communists understood the validity of this
maxim perfectly well. Julia Brystygierowa,
a Jewish executioner of the Stalinist secret police, was famous for repeating
that she will beat pride and honor out of Poles, even with a whip if
necessary. She knew that pride and honor
of the Poles are the greatest danger for the totalitarian power. <u>She
knew that unless she beats pride and honor out of Poles, she could not enslave
them.</u><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;">In 1989, the Bolshevik Polish People's Republic ceased to exist, but the
spirit of Bolshevism and lust for power have united </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the factions of select representatives of the anti-communist opposition,
which means -- erstwhile Communists disguised for Democrats, including
Communists with Jewish roots. The Round Table gave Adam Michnik </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the media.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Gazeta Wyborcza was read by almost all Poles.
Adding to that </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the radio stations as well as TV stations started in the
nineties by the people encumbered in the cooperation with </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the Communist secret
police (Polsat in 1992 and TVN in 1996), who spoke with </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the same voice as Adam Michnik </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">and company, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">it </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">must be said that the
instruments for beating pride </b><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">and honor out of Poles were prepared perfectly.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The first victim was the Warsaw Uprising. It was a dangerous theme. It was a pattern dripping with Polish pride
and honor, which shaped the post-war generation of Poles. It was dangerous also because in the eyes of </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the
world, it destroyed the Jewish fighting ethos, built with such great
difficulty.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;"> <b>The world
knew nothing about the Warsaw Uprising</b></span></u><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;"><b>,</b> just because its name was appropriated in
1945-1989 for Jews, who used the name for t</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">he Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in
1943. In an article in Gazeta Wyborcza,
titled "Poles – Jews: Black Card of </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the Uprising"</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">(29-30.01.1994), a
freshly baked historian Michal Cichy, as announced by his patron Adam Michnik,
revealed </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the "full truth" about the Warsaw Uprising, writing that the
insurgents were mostly busy murdering Jewish survivors.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;"> He also wrote that when it comes
to the Warsaw Uprising, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the Poles have nothing to be proud of, because their heroes were
ordinary thugs.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Polish historians
immediately denounced these barely disguised lies, and Leszek Zebrowski
described </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the publication perfectly as </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">"The manufacture of nonsense</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">about the Warsaw Uprising."</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Adam Michnik’s action was a big dud.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In the
end, Michal Cichy publicly apologized to Warsaw insurgents </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">for his article.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Even before the echoes of unfounded accusations against </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the Warsaw Uprising could subside, the second stage of inducing in Poles </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the sense of guilt began. The symbol of </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the alleged atrocities of Poles has become a town of Jedwabne.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Agnieszka Arnold began by making </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">a documentary film, "Where's my older son Cain", then in year 2000 </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Jan T. Gross took on and continued </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the subject in the book titled "Neighbors," </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">which was heavily advertised across Poland.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The investigation by the IPN [Institute of National Remembrance] concerning the pogrom in Jedwabne later undermined credibility of the testimony of Shmuel Wasersztejn, the main witness of the Jedwabne events in </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the film and in the book, as well as the number of victims estimated at 1500-1600 by Gross. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In order to learn what actually happened in Jedwabne, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> the exhumation of victims’ bodies had to be carried out.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;">The issue of exhumation was consulted with the
Jewish side. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;">The rabbi of Warsaw and
Lodz, Michael Schudrich announced that "Respect for the bones of our
victims is more important to us than the knowledge of who was killed and how,
and of who killed and how." Jews
agreed only to a limited exhumation, i.e., one where you cannot lift the
bones. Exhumation activities began on
May 30<sup>th</sup>, 2001, but the ban on lifting </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the bones was upheld.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Since this
way of exhumation makes the determination of the number of carcasses and causes
of death of individual victims impossible, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the exhumation activities were
discontinued on June 4</span><sup style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, 2001.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Despite the protests of historians, who were disallowed to carry out a
genuine investigation, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the festival of
accusations for alleged war crimes against the Poles continues for over a
decade, especially against residents of Jedwabne.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><u style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The truth is that this Jewish chutzpah of
Jedwabne was not intended to establish the historical truth, but to instill in
the Poles a sense of guilt towards the
Jews, again with the intent to break the Polish pride and honor</u><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;">
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--></span>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">It is indeed pitiful that the highest Polish authorities allowed themselves
to be dragged themselves into this forgery, at least on two occasions failing
to fulfill their obligation to act consistently with Polish law. Firstly, the Polish law is the only law governing
within the limits of the Republic of Poland, and according to which </span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">a regular
exhumation should have been carried out in Jedwabne. Secondly, if Poland insisted to be so elegant
and respect Jewish law, it should rely on information coming from truly
religious Jews, from known and recognized specialists in Jewish law and Jewish
tradition, instead of relying on the words of one American rabbi and succumb to
pressures from Polish-American Jewish leftists.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />
Orthodox rabbi Joseph A. Polak, a former prisoner of the German camps at
Westerbork and Bergen‑Belsen, chairman of the halachic council of the Boston rabbinical
court, disagrees with the decision banning xhumation of mass graves. "The victims of Jedwabne should have
been exhumed and buried again, either in the nearby Jewish cemetery or in the
State of Israel. The fact that this is
not just a halachic option, but a fundamental duty is unambiguously clear from
many sources. [...] ". <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />
In the light of the above interpretation of the Jewish law, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">the Polish State should immediately cancel decisions made several years
ago, and in consultation with the community of religious Jews, carry out the
exhumation, which is </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the prerequisite to explain what really happened </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">in Jedwabne in 1941.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">No discussion about Jedwabne
makes sense until after the exhumation.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<br />
At the same time it should be remembered that every historical event is deeply
rooted in time and space, i.e., it is conditioned by political and territorial
realities. The region of Bialystok –
where </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">the town of Jedwabne lies – is a part of Poland which in September of 1939
was invaded and then occupied by the Soviets.
The most shameful and threatening for the Polish population in the
eastern Polish lands, was the widespread cooperation of Polish Jews with </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">the
Soviets in drawing up lists of Poles and Polish families earmarked for
deportation to Siberia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">In other words, in the period from September 17<sup>th</sup>, 1939 to
June 22<sup>nd</sup>, 1941<u>, it was the Jewish neighbors who pointed to the
Soviets, whom of the Poles and Polish families to send “to the polar
bears"</u>, i.e., to places from which hardly anyone was coming back alive. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">The Jews promote to the world the barn in
Jedwabne, in which allegedly lie the remains of the Jews murdered because of
Polish anti-Semitism. But no Jew would
ever bend before the monument which stands in the central square in Jedwabne to
commemorate Poles murdered by </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the Soviets in Siberia in 1939-1941, because their Jewish neighbors
reported to the Soviet functionaries that these Poles do not love
communism.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">As a rule, the Jews envelop
their own crimes in silence.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><u style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Such
attitudes of the Jewish communists are a part of the permanent exhibition
in </u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">the
Museum of the History of Polish Jews.</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">Attitudes of Jews who pointed disloyal residents of Jedwabne to </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">the
Soviets, thereby sentencing them to death, cannot be extended to the entire
Jewish nation. Yet, the crowd is
governed by its own rules, so Poles tended to suspect all Jews for such
attitudes. Therefore, when in 1941 the
Germans began to occupy the area of </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;"></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">Bialystok, incidents of as yet
undocumented deaths of Jews could have occurred in Jedwabne or other places in
the region. Yet, it was not about any
anti-Semitism, but about ordinary human revenge among the Poles for their loved
ones who, at exactly the same time, froze or died of hunger and exhaustion in
the taigas of Siberia – through the Jewish denunciations. These motifs would qualify possible cases of
murder of Jews by Poles in </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the
Bialystok region as a murder of passion.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Revenge is always blind, so it often victimized innocent Jews, because
those who sentenced Poles to death </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">usually managed to
withdraw with Soviet troops to the east.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">Tomasz Gross became famous in recent days for
announcing to </span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">the world that Poles during World War II killed more Jews than
they killed Germans</span></u><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">. It would be better for Tomasz Gross to
finally shut up, <b>instead of opening
Pandora’s boxes</b>. Because if you
count carefully all Polish residents of Jedwabne, residents of Galicia, Volyn,
Podlasie and Bialystok exiled in 1939-1941 to die in Siberian gulags because of </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">a denunciation by Polish Jews; if you count all </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the Polish underground
soldiers of Bialystok, Lublin, Mazovia and Podkarpacie exiled by the Jewish
operatives of NKVD and UB to Siberia in the second round-up in the years
1944-1945; if you count all the</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">victims of the Jewish judges,
prosecutors </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">and functionaries of UB and KBW from the years 1944-1956, then the barn
in Jedwabne – about which, by the way, no-one knows yet what it really hides –
may be an even bigger flop than a failed attempt to discredit</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">the Warsaw
Uprising.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 4pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="PL" style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: PL; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;">Author’s sources: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 20.25pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="PL" style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: PL; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;">1.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="PL" style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: PL; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;">T. Strzembosz, „Polacy – Żydzi: Czarna karta Gazety Wyborczej”, Gazeta <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.25pt; mso-hyphenate: none;">
<span lang="PL" style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: PL; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;"> Wyborcza, Feb. 5-6, 1994. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 105%; margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="PL" style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: PL; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;"> 2.. Żebrowski, „Fabryka bzdur o Powstaniu
Warszawskim”, Gazeta Polska, July 13, 1995.
See also: L. Żebrowski, „Paszkwil
Wyborczej”, Warsaw, 1995. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 105%; mso-hyphenate: none;">
<span lang="PL" style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: PL; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;"> 3. Piotr
Kadlcik, „O ekshumacji”, Kolbojnik – Biuletyn Gminy Wyznaniowej <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 105%; mso-hyphenate: none;">
<span lang="PL" style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: PL; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;"> Żydowskiej w Warszawie, nr 4/2014. </span><span lang="PL" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: PL;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />
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<!--[endif]--></span></u></div>
<!--[endif]--></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">
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<!--[endif]--></span></b></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.solidarni2010.pl/31935-ewa-kurek-jedwabne---anatomia-klamstwa.html"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;">http://www.solidarni2010.pl/31935-ewa-kurek-jedwabne---anatomia-klamstwa.html</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;">(abridged by Zbigniew Koralewski, translated by Andrzej Burghardt,
edited by Dr. Mark & Ann Pienkos)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-hyphenate: none; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="PL" style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Anatomy of a Lie </span></b><span lang="PL" style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">– Dr.<b> </b>Ewa Kurek </span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;">GWIAZDA POLARNA No. 21, Oct. 17, 2015<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10802197188240179363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4183082381818602896.post-56674805219216438682015-11-20T07:32:00.000-08:002015-12-20T18:07:03.991-08:00No.1 Poland already paid<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">American
Jewish groups again demand the restitution of property. The value of claims is
at least 60 billion dollars.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Several days ago, the World Jewish Congress, the World
Organization of Jewish Affairs for Restitution,</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif";">as well as Stuart Eisenstat, special advisor to the United
States Secretary of State for Holocaust issues, expressed deep disappointment,
sadness and regret at the suspension of work on the re-privatization bill. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif";">The
appeal for restitutions was joined by the Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich
who has stated that the refusal to return property is
immoral. It is strange that the representatives of the Jewish community somehow
do not get it that their claims are groundless, that the Polish state
has no outstanding ommitments regarding restitution of property, and that re-privatization
continued for years and has already led
to the return of tens of thousands of properties by way of administrative and
judicial intervention. Three years ago, the United States Congress in its
resolution included such wording: "the Polish government IS URGED for the
immediate enactment of a fair and omprehensive law.... We URGE also to ensure
that the law on restitution and compensations are established as a
non-bureaucratic, simple and transparent process.... "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It may of course be that it is impossible to determine the </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">familial heirs of
the estates taken from their Jewish owners. Then, under such circumstances, as
claimed by Jewish organizations, estates should be transferred to foundations
designed to deal with the commemoration of Jewish heritage. The value of the
potential claims relating to Jewish property is variously estimated, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">the
lowest given sum is 60 billion dollars. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[Yet In any democratic country the related
applicable rule of law holds that the only entity legally entitled to the
successive ownership of any assets left by her </span>heir-less<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> and intestate citizens
is the government of their country which, in these cases, is Poland. – added by
zk]<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif";">(The
United States Congress should remember who sold Poland "down the
river" to Stalin at Tehran and Yalta during World War II, and who imposed communism
in Poland by killing the opposition. Morally,
it would seem appropriate for the United States and the World Jewish Congress to
admit that it is about time that legislative work on a bill should be initiated
that would compensate Poland and its citizens for their properties east of the
Kurzon Line that had been arbitrarily and forcibly seized on what was to be a
permanent basis by the Soviet Union in September 1939, in an action similar to
that of the seizure of Crimea by the Russian Federation some 75 years later. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">-
added by zk) </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Poland and
accession to NATO</span></b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> (extortion of restitutions - add by .zk)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 12.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jewish
organizations since the </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif";">mid-1990s
have attempted to persuade Poland to enact laws of
restitution (then in exchange for consent to admission to NATO). Initially they
demanded, above all, the return of </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 12pt;">the
property to Jewish communities. In 1997 the Sejm passed a law of the
reimbursement of municipal property</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 12pt;">, and because of that the Polish Jewish communities regained many public
facilities, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 12pt;">the return </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 12pt;">of which occurred </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 12pt;">in a very wide range, and the formalities were maximally
reduced. Rightly so, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 12pt;">then </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 12pt;">the Foreign
Minister Radoslaw Sikorski </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 12pt;">stated
that Poland had generously returned </span><u style="line-height: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif";">communal </span></u><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 12pt;">Jewish properties.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As of
today<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 12.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From a
legal point of view, the Jews who lost their estates in Poland during World War II already received
full compensation in accordance with the United States - Poland Agreement of
July 16, 1960. This is confirmed by the United States Department of Justice. Compensation
for the effects of the Holocaust was paid by the German state. It was the
Germans who invaded Poland, confiscated Jewish estates,
organized and carried out the Holocaust. Under the Treaty of 1952 between
the State of Israel and the Federal Republic of Germany (i.e., West Germany),
that non-communist German nation sent Israel approximately 3.5 billion marks for damages. In addition,
Israel received annual economic and financial assistance. The total value of
all financial benefits from West Germany for Israel and its citizens were
estimated at 60 billion marks. That it was the right sum of payment and full
satisfaction was evident by the fact that </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 12pt;">the Jewish community since then has not
announced any other claims against Germany, and from its related operative
negotiation terminology</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 12pt;">the term
"German concentration camps"</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 12.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(and the word
Germany, has been replaced by the word, Nazis – added by zk). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Restitution by Poland to private owners.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Already almost</span><b><span style="color: red; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">thirty thousand of the former owners and their
descendants have obtained favorable rulings for themselves, and almost twice as
many cases are being handled. Every case of lost property is different. The
properties obtained by the state varied, some stay stable in worse shape,
and others regained original elegance thanks to larger investments. Related
costs and benefits varied, as it happened that the
state had occupied the heavily indebted properties by the former owners
and burdened with mortgages. Specialized judicial and administrative measures
are designed to thoroughly and properly settle these matters. In 2010 alone, it paid
nearly 150 million złoty to former owners of property from the restitution
fund. Therefore, all who desire to have their cases to be dealt fairly should
seek recourse before the courts and administrative
bodies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h2>
<span lang="X-NONE" style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The statement of the Minister<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: 12.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<span lang="X-NONE" style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Minister Sikorski has recently recalled the
agreement for damages (restitution) concluded in 1960 by Poland and the USA.
Under its provisions, Poland submitted $ 40 million to the United States for "total
settlement and discharge of all claims of U. S. nationals, both individuals and
others, to the Polish Government" for any decision </span><span lang="X-NONE" style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12.0pt;">to re-acquire
expropriated property. This sum was to be allocated "at the discretion of
the Government of the United States", </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 12pt;"> <span lang="X-NONE">and</span></span><span lang="X-NONE" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 12pt;"> also: "After the entry into force of
the agreement, the United States Government will not present the Polish
Government with, nor will support, </span><span lang="X-NONE" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 12pt;">the claims of US citizens to the Polish
Government." The agreement makes clear that </span><span lang="X-NONE" style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 12pt;">henceforth any claim of United States
citizens for compensation </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 12pt;">for property lost in Poland can be directed
only to</span><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 12pt;">authorities </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 12pt;">of the American
government..</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Does Poland have any restitution commitments yet to nationals of
other countries?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> John
Bogutyn rresponds, president of InterRisk Insurance Company SA, <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">former Polish Deputy Minister of Finance<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As
a citizen I am appalled by the recent alleged claims. I believe that we should
not have any obligations, because in light of the agreements from the period of
my work in the Ministry of Finance, this issue was regulated in the communist
era. In the early 1960s<b><span style="color: red;"> </span></b>in an almost perfect way the Polish government negotiated
settlements for the property, which was nationalized and belonged to citizens
of other countries, including Americans. A document from the American side was signed
by U.S. President John F. Kennedy, and on the Polish side by Prime Minister
Jozef Cyrankiewicz. It implied that Poland gave $ 40 million to the
United States for claims of payments to involved American citizens. This agreement was ratified by the <u>U.S. Congress</u>
and the Polish Sejm. The U.S. government took responsibility for any
liabilities which could arise on the part of its citizens. Now the correct
address for submitting claims is the State Department in Washington. I'm
surprised that nobody, neither in the U.S. nor in Poland, remembers that. What I
read now about the claims, it seems to me, is a scandal. Why do we have to pay
twice for something that has already been paid? This would be an unjustified
attempt to extort property, this would be a daylight robbery. Poland had signed
such agreements with 14 countries, i.e., liabilities to
Swiss citizens were paid by our supplies of coal, Americans were paid in cash. Today,
if someone thinks that some property should be his or hers, that person can always individually take
legal action.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It
must be remembered that these properties -- apart from their nominal values -- over many years after the
nationalization were maintained, repaired, and taxes paid for should be taken
into account for any evaluation. In other
states that have followed a road similar to that of Poland, e.g.,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> the
Czech Republic, the problem is completely non-existant.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Prof. Lyudmila Dziewięcka-Bokun, law,
economics, political science, social policy, rector of the Lower Silesian
School of Public Service "Assessor" in Wroclaw<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
We cannot for generations pay for
historical injustice, sometimes even reaching back to the [18th century] Partitions
of Poland. Other countries have already done it, and we still expose ourselves
to various comments, political, and religious connotations. This should have
been closed long ago; otherwise our wealth will be plundered, and distributed<b><span style="color: red;"> </span></b>anew.<b><span style="color: red;"> </span></b>Each
new Polish ruling party wants to show its good will to the citizens of other
countries who report further claims. This must be done once, finally and
categorically, <span style="line-height: 12pt;">so in the future misunderstandings will be avoided.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<span style="line-height: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: right;">
statements noted by Bronislaw Tumiłowicz </div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
[The
letter of June 29, 2015 signed by 46 congressmen addressed to the Secretary of
State John Kerry, once again refers to restitutions. It is now a good
opportunity for the PAC to summarize this issue and together with the Polish government
end up restitutions clams once and for all – comment by zk]-----</div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">source: <a href="http://www.tygodnikprzeglad.pl/polska-juz-zaplacila/%20(synopsis,%20translation%20and%20footnotes%20Zbyszek%20Koralewski,%20editing%20Prof.%20Anthony%20Bajdek)%20Poland%20already%20paid%20-%20author%20Andrew%20Dryszel,%20April%203,%202011"> http://www.tygodnikprzeglad.pl/polska-juz-zaplacila/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">(synopsis, translation and footnotes Zbyszek Koralewski, editing Prof. Anthony Bajdek)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Poland already paid</span></b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> - author Andrew Dryszel, April 3, 2011</span></div>
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