List do Pani Konsul - cd. - Interwencja film "Defiance"

Mr. President
Mr. Prime Minister
State Administration
Media

We, signed hereby, strongly protest against the public presentation, in Poland as well as abroad, of the motion picture ‘Defiance’. This film* totally obstructs the historical truth, presenting ordinary criminals as heroes, and thus insulting the memory of hundreds of defenseless Polish civilians murdered during the Second World War.

*On December 31, 2008  in America, took place the opening presentation of the motion picture ‘Defiance’, starring Daniel Craig.

In America, this film receives enthusiastic reviews from the delighted critics. Everybody seems to be deeply moved* with the beauty and “authenticity” of the Bielski brothers story*, their Jewish unit, which all through the course of the cinematic fiction bravely fights the German oppressor, and saves from Holocaust thousands of people. The screenplay of the film is based only on a fraction of truth, and so the character of Bielski brother’s acts presented in it, makes the savage thugs heroes*.

*Facts:*

Contrary to what one can see in the film ‘Defiance’, the unit of Bielski brothers, in the light of their own testimony, despite the large number of its members, hardly ever took any stand against Germans.

On the territory of nearby Naliboki village, Red Army survivors would gather, and there also Jewish local people would look for a hiding place. The Jews set up two large ‘family camps’. The first of these was controlled by Bielski brothers (Tuvia, Asael, Zus, and Aharon). This happened to be the hiding place for those who had fled from Naliboki and some other nearby villages. In 1944 the camp accounted for 941 people, among these many women and children. Only 162 people were armed. The second camp, commanded by Simcha Zorin, attracted refugees from the ghetto. This one accounted for 562 people (73 under arms) and during the whole course of war did not run one significant battle with Wehrmaht units.

*The main activity of this Jewish “guerilla” unit was capturing provisions for their men and the Soviet partisans, and this through invading Polish and Byelorussian villages. This was so-called ‘supply raids’ and constituted mainly of depriving the peasantry starving at war time.*

The aim of this unit was never to fight the Germans. What really counted was survival. Both camps, however, were submitted to the Soviet command, and on their order they were supposed to allot a contingent of armed men “for the actions”. The Soviets would not tolerate on their territory any ‘foreign’ forces, which becomes obvious seeing how ruthlessly they fought Polish partisans. The Jews, however, were given vast autonomy. Enough to say, that they were even allowed to keep their own synagogue in the camp.

*Unfortunately, as it could be seen later, during those actions the Jewish squads were typical of especially cruel acts, even when compared with the ruthlessness of the Soviet “partisans”. Those facts have been confirmed by both witnesses and the reports of the National Army (Armia Krajowa). Reports of defenseless peasants being murdered and Polish women raped.*
The motion picture ‘Defiance’ shows the fights between the ‘partisans’ of Bielski brothers and the Germans.* In fact, though, the biggest and the most significant “battle” that was carried by Bielskis’ unit happened to be the pogrom of the Polish civilians at Naliboki, when on May 8, 1943, the Jewish unit, together with the Soviet “partisans”, murdered about 120 defenseless people, also women and children.*

The vast majority of the people who will be watching the film presented all over the world do not know the basic facts from the history of Poland. Even more so, they will not know anything about what kind of vicious acts were executed by the unit.

*They are convinced that what they are watching on the screen is the plain truth and this is how they are going to grasp their knowledge of the war history of Poland.* Since the fact is that also in Poland, the historical memory of the nation for many years has not been properly taken care of, and since the fact that films dealing with the actual ways of Polish war generation are practically not presented, this is this Hollywood production called ‘Defiance’ that whole generations of young Poles are going to be brought up upon.*

In this situation, we have to call it a scandal that the Polish authorities as well as Polish media will hardly speak about the fact that such strictly offensive and humiliating to the whole Polish nation a film has been presented, and has been acclaimed internationally by those who have no idea what they are watching.

The media in any country should represent the voice of the public opinion, the voice of the nation.* We regret to observe that the media in Poland has not only stood protecting the honour of Polish people, but – some of it – has chosen to keep this false picture of history in the minds of the readers.* Especially disgraceful here has proved to be the act of “Gazeta Wyborcza”, which for over a year has been trying to hide the truth about Bielski “partisans”, and the crime committed at Naliboki.

This is why we strongly protest against the disgraceful act of the journalists of “Gazeta Wyborcza”, and the articles that in fact prove compromising to them, in which they are trying to advertise Bielski brothers as “Polish heroes”, perhaps “a trifle controversial”.

*The oblique statement which euphemistically describes the Soviet occupation as the new authority, calls for special attention.
“After the Soviet invasion on September 17, 1939, he chose to support the NEW authority and started the career of a civil servant.”*
[http://wyborcza.pl/1,76842,6124559,Prawdziwa_historia_Bielskich.html]

Through this type of allusions one can very easily assume that the “consolidation of people’s ruling” that would come later was carried thanks to the support of the whole nation, and without any foreign influence. Which is obvious manipulation…

The outrageous thing is the fact of “Gazeta Wyborcza” being very reluctant to accept any discussion over the false picture, the opinion, and the label at the same time.

“-/I am afraid though that this is just the beginning of a great row – says Father Tomasz Dostatni, Dominican for many years dealing with Polish-Jewish relations. In his opinion, when the film comes to Poland, the nationwide debate will start, compared only to that which took place after the publication of the books “Neighbours” and “Fear” by Jan Tomasz Gross. - *The only difference will be that this time only extremists will be speaking up, those who of the crime performed by Bielski brothers unit will be trying to construct the general truth of the painful relations between Poles and Jews at the war time-* suggests Dostatni. At the same time, he points out to the fact that when speaking about history there must be no room for taboos, and the disgraceful crime of Bielski brothers should be remembered…/..”

Keeping in heart the words/ “If I ever forget them, you Lord in Heaven, forget about me”/,* we do not wish to accept the fact that Polish nation and the memory of our murdered fathers are so ruthlessly offended.*

Realizing that stopping of the presentation of the film in other countries will not be possible, we expect the facts that are being pointed to in our protest to be extensively distributed nationally as well as internationally.

We also expect that the state institutions in charge of protecting Poland’s honour and her national heritage will take a proper stand to propagate historical truth and to protest against the sheer lies that have been much too often distributed by international media, and where Poles are no longer the victims but the executioners, or just brothers in crime.

At the same time, we would like to state that we are starting the signature campaign on other blogging sites that will support our protest.

With regards, on behalf of blogging community,
Franciszek Gajek