Did You Hear About the Polish Anti-Semite? He Liked Jews

That, of course, is a variant of a Polish joke that decency prevents me from citing here. Considerable ink has spilled over the proposition that Poland’s Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek is an anti-Semite, following remarks about Jewish exploitation about the Holocaust, already posted in this site’s forum.

Holocaust was a Jewish invention, says top Polish bishop
Created: Monday, January 25 2010

UPDATE – Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek, one of Poland’s most prominent religious figures, is reported to have told an Italian Catholic news web site that the Holocaust was a “Jewish invention”. The bishop says his remarks were “taken out of context” however.

“The Holocaust, as such, is a Jewish invention [invenzione ebraica]. We could just as well establish a day of remembrance to the numerous victims of communism, when Catholics and Christians were persecuted,” he told the Pontifex.Roma web site on Sunday.

In remarks that will outrage Jews the world over, Bishop Pieronek said that in his opinion the memory of the Holocaust is often used as a “propaganda weapon” by Israel.

The Krakow-based bishop said: “Undoubtedly, the majority of those who died in the concentration camps were Jews, but also on the list were Poles, Gypsies, Italians and Catholics. So do not steal this tragedy in the name of propaganda.”

“But they, the Jews, have a good press, because the powerful have the financial resources – extremely powerful with the unconditional support of the United States. And this promotes a kind of arrogance, which I consider to be unbearable,” Bishop Pieronek continued.

The complication is that the good bishop seems to like Jews. From his Wikipedia entry:

In 2008, Pieronek received the Jan Karski Eagle Award to honour Pieronek’s combat for tolerance and his efforts to fight against the “extremism” and alleged “antisemitic tendencies” of Radio Maryja, led by Redemptorist Father Tadeusz Rydzyk C.Ss.R. In recent years, Pieronek has supported the social project of the Children’s Hospice „Father Józef Tischner” in the city of Cracow. Bishop Pieronek supports the work of the Open Society Institute of George Soros.

One has to cut the Poles a bit of slack. The Jewish Holocaust belongs to the past, while Poland’s is ongoing. During the next forty years, Poland’s population will fall by over 20%:

and 60% of its population will be elderly dependents:

Why shouldn’t the Poles feel sorry for themselves? They are dying of national anomie. Israel, by contrast, has the highest fertility rate in the industrial world, at nearly 3 children per woman, vs. only 1.29 for Poland.

Let them mourn their terrible fate. The Jewish victims of Auschwitz could pray for divine retribution; not so those who become extinct through lack of interest.