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YouTube shows Polish propaganda commercial

Metal B

Metal B

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Oct 27, 2017
1,396
EDIT: Added the video.

I was just watching some video about One Piece, while I got some wired commercial at the start. It talked about, how they were always on the side of good, helped Jews and we're resisting the Germans. I was really confused, what this commercial was about. A movie? A game? But then it ends with #germandeathcamps and then it made sense ... and it made me angry.



I seriously don't know, who is worse. The extreme right-wing polish government and the people of Poland, who voted for them, making such a big deal of the wording and the past, that they feel the need to make this propaganda video, tell lies and try to spread it around the world.
Or YouTube being okay to publish this kind of propaganda. I mean, who cares about the truth, when there is money to make!

As a German, I just don't get, why so many nations can't just simply deal with there past in a healthy way. I never felt offended by all those "Evil Germans of World War 2", since it is a element of the past, which doesn't reflect the Germany of today.

Since we can't change the dangerous polish, mindset (unless the EU finally punish them), we should at least make YouTube responsible for publishing propaganda on there site!
 
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BrassDragon

BrassDragon

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Oct 26, 2017
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YouTube has been serving me anti-Kurdish propaganda ads from the Turkish government, despite several attempts to block that specific ad.

Russia's success in 2016 hasn't gone unnoticed, I guess.
 

Deleted member 11262

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Ok, this is suspect as all hell. I'd really like to see that ad and I don't think there is much ground to open such a thread without the ad in question as a link.

It has to be this one, right?


Disgusting...
and there are even a couple of them.
 

Deleted member 28461

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Here in the US I've been getting Prager University ads recently.

YouTube really is just the fucking worst.
 
Fat4all

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one of my co-workers mentioned sommit like this, but only in passing and didn't know exactly why they got the ad attached to a video of an animation thing
 
Kinthey

Kinthey

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Oct 27, 2017
22,271
Recently had a Turkey propaganda ad



Have political ads always been on youtube or is this new?
 
Fat4all

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Dadasch said:
Ok, this is suspect as all hell. I'd really like to see that ad and I don't think there is much ground to open such a thread without the ad in question as a link.

It has to be this one, right?


Disgusting...
and there are even a couple of them.
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holy shit, that ad is super fucked up
 
Odesu

Odesu

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Oct 26, 2017
5,539
This is the ad:



It's propaganda made by the polish government to further strengthen their nationalistic policies build upon patriotism and xenophobia. It's especially disgusting because it takes historic facts and uses them to strengthen their agenda. From time to time Death Camps in occupied Poland, obviously build by germany, have been called "polish death camps", simply referring to their location. Poland is under a lot of pressure now because antisemitic views are spreading like wildfire. A few years ago a "jewish" puppet was burned in the middle of Breslau (german source http://www.taz.de/!5254667/) with no one, neither citicens nor police, intervening.

This ad is aimed at surpressing any notion that Poland or their government could hold antisemitic views by simply saying "Hey, listen, both the Jews and the Polish peope were the victims here, it's the Nazis you should be mad about!" and prohibiting the use of the term "polish death camps" by law, as if that was the problem.

Since then, jewish groups and even Israel have denounced the new law as it stifles discussion, because it's aimed at painting Poland as a whole and every polish person as a victim - suggesting otherwise would seem unpatriotic and possibly now even against the law, even though there were absolutely polish people who not only supported the Nazis but even helped them enact their atrocities. Instead of talking about that the nationalistic polish government went the completely other way.

And now, since Israel and other jewish group denounce this police new law the already spreading antisemitism is out in full force, as noted in many articles, this is just one of them: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news...emitic-remarks-overflowing-in-media-1.5786339

It's straight-up nationalistic propaganda and the fact that Youtube just puts this in front of video game videos EN MASSE (seriously I have seen it dozens of times here in germany) is fucking inexcusable. Not only that, I even got turkish propaganda aimed at denouncing the kurds and excusing their war against them (the one linked above). It's fucking insane how much of a trash platform Youtube really is.

btw, just a small nitpick: It's "polish", not "polnisch" ;) Might wanna ask a mod to change the title.
 
OP
OP
Metal B

Metal B

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Oct 27, 2017
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Dadasch said:
I found it. Look at my edit.
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No, that's not the one. In my commercial, they tried to sell, that they did nothing bad and were the good ones ("standing for truth" or something like this). It was trying to make them look heroic.

I will still put it in the OP, since it is the closest video to the subject, I could find as well.
 
Kin5290

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I've also seen Pro Saudi, anti Iran ads on YouTube, being bought by pro-Saudi think tanks in the US.
 
ravnelis

ravnelis

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As a Pole i would like to apologize for this government and the people who voted for them.

Please note that this government has been elected by less than 20% of the general populace. The general election frequency was extremely low at the time due to an ongoing political crisis.
Law and Justice (that's the name of the ruling party) had it easy because left-wing parties crumbled under the weight of their terrible political mistakes. In addition, Donald Tusk, the biggest opponent and the only competent politician other than the head of L&J left Poland to take the position of the head of European Commission.

Sadly this death camp fiasco is only one of many, and I am absolutely furious that those idiots tarnish the image of Poland and Polish people. It's really not that bad here, I am surrounded by many open mined and great people. Sadly the vocal minority got their way and there's nothing to be done until the next election.

Btw: It's Polish, not polnish. It was rude.
 

Deleted member 11262

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I never knew about any of this, because of Adblock.

Well, it actually made me realize how valuable Adblock is.
 
Fat4all

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ravannis said:
As a Pole i would like to apologize for this government and the people who voted for them.

Please note that this government has been elected by less than 20% of the general populace. The general election frequency was extremely low at the time due to an ongoing political crisis.
Law and Justice (that's the name of the ruling party) had it easy because left-wing parties crumbled under the weight of their terrible political mistakes. In addition, Donald Tusk, the biggest opponent and the only competent politician other than the head of L&J left Poland to take the position of the head of European Commission.

Sadly this death camp fiasco is only one of many, and I am absolutely furious that those idiots tarnish the image of Poland and Polish people. It's really not that bad here, I am surrounded by many open mined and great people. Sadly the vocal minority got their way and there's nothing to be done until the next election.

Btw: It's Polish, not polnish. It was rude.
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so the elected government in Poland is trying to build up an enemy to fight against to try and scare its people into staying in power or sommit?
 
OP
OP
Metal B

Metal B

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Oct 27, 2017
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Fat4all said:
so the elected government in Poland is trying to build up an enemy to fight against to try and scare its people into staying in power?
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It's always ironic, if nations try to distance themself from there connection to Nazi Germany, using their favourite tactics to keep control.
 
Fisty

Fisty

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I had a Praeger University ad tell me that married guys look at other women all the time and it's women's fault for getting mad. There was another one that was a girl pretending that leftist universities tricked her into getting a liberal arts degree that she can't use. Their shit is really bad, like global warming denail, democrats are the real racists, etc etc
 
Buddy

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I saw a Turkish one yesterday and was really confused. This was the first time I saw a "sponsored" political video
 
BrassDragon

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Funyarinpa said:
What the absolute fuck

I've had Adblock on YouTube for years, can you point me to the ad if you have a screenshot or a clip? I wouldn't put it beyond this government.
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Got it blocked now but it was very persistent when looking at foreign policy channels. Screenshot

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Antiax

Antiax

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Oct 27, 2017
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Metal B said:
that they feel the need to make this propganda video, tell lies and try to spread it around the world.
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Wow, hang on there. What lies are being told in this video because I would like to know what do you mean.

The video is adhering to scientific facts - shows Poland as a country where Germans built death camps and killed millions of people (6 millions of them were Polish). Poland can be also seen as a nation whose people had helped Jews the most during World War II which is proven by State of Israel and their "Righteous Among The Nations" honorific.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Righteous_Among_the_Nations

Even yesterday, Chancellor Merkel admitted that every German government is responsible for World War II and German Death Camps built on Polish soil and run by Germans during WW II and that German government will be fighting against using term that refers to Poland taking part in Holocaust.
http://www.dw.com/en/merkel-reiterates-german-guilt-as-polish-holocaust-bill-spat-rages/a-42533935
 
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ravnelis

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Fat4all said:
so the elected government in Poland is trying to build up an enemy to fight against to try and scare its people into staying in power or sommit?
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Basically yes, it seems that all right-wing parties all around Europe are using the same tactic. What makes Law and Justice unique is that they managed to damage the relationship with well, everyone.
 

Deleted member 2752

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Oct 25, 2017
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It's a crazy thing. Polish politicians are convinced that people think Polish people ran Auschwitz and other concentration camps. I have read/watched/listened about the topic all my life and I have never ever heard anyone say that.
So I was equally confused about the whole thing and started reading about it. But it really doesn't get any better than that. They think this is an actual problem, create a law around it (which pissed of Israel, the US and others) and waste a bunch of money on it. It's ridiculous.

Like...they seem to especially show this ad in Germany? This is like one of the best known things in the world. German students visit concentration camps, it's taught in school and you basically can't avoid TV programming etc about it. Auschwitz was German planned, run and executed. It's known.
 
OP
OP
Metal B

Metal B

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Antiax said:
Wow, hang on there. What lies are being told in this video because I would like to know what do you mean.

The video is adhering to scientific facts - shows Poland as a country where Germans build death camps and killed millions of people (6 millions of them were Polish) and as a nation whose people had helped Jews the most during World War II which is proven by State of Israel and their "Righteous Among The Nations" honorific.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Righteous_Among_the_Nations

Even yesterday, Chancellor Merkel admitted that every German government is responsible for World War II and death camps that were German but built on Polish soil.
http://www.dw.com/en/merkel-reiterates-german-guilt-as-polish-holocaust-bill-spat-rages/a-42533935
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Nobody denies that, which makes this so strange. People were saying "polish concentration camps " (did anybody every named them "death camp" as an official name?), because they were located in Poland. And there is also a side of the story of the polish government and citizen helping the Nazi's in capturing jews and other minorities. Which also makes sense, since they had no other choice, because there were invaded by Nazi Germany. There were of course polish people helping them to escape, nobody is denying this either.

if you look at all the facts and most peoples view on the events, the real question is, whit who in hell is the current polish government arguing with?! It's the answer, which is the troubling part: Nobody, but they want to make it look like, there are people, who actually think, that there were polish controlled concentration camps! The government has a big campagne against nobody to create somebody. And YouTube is helping them. That's the problem!
 
Antiax

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mnz said:
It's a crazy thing. Polish politicians are convinced that people think Polish people ran Auschwitz and other concentration camps. I have read/watched/listened about the topic all my life and I have never ever heard anyone say that.
So I was equally confused about the whole thing and started reading about it. But it really doesn't get any better than that. They think this is an actual problem, create a law around it (which pissed of Israel, the US and others) and waste a bunch of money on it. It's ridiculous.

Like...they seem to especially show this ad in Germany? This is like one of the best known things in the world. German students visit concentration camps, it's taught in school and you basically can't avoid TV programming etc about it. Auschwitz was German planned, run and executed. It's known.
Click to expand...
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Of course it is known in Germany but there is a problem in other countries (UK, France and yes, USA) where people only know about Nazis taking part in WWII and building Death Camps. There are a lot of videos, articles and sadly history books missing the fact that Nazis were German. So people connect word "Nazi" with phrase "Polish death camps" that suggests what it suggests. We are living in a age of clickbaits and people only reading headlines so you are overrate peoples (especially younger generation) ability to distinguish basic facts.
 

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Summary:

fEjo4xP.png


Antiax said:
Of course it is known in Germany but there is a problem in other countries (UK, France and yes, USA) where people only know about Nazis taking part in WWII and building Death Camps. There are a lot of videos, articles and sadly history books missing the fact that Nazis were German. So people connect word "Nazi" with phrase "Polish death camps" that suggests what it suggests. We are living in a age of clickbaits and people only reading headlines so you are overrate peoples (especially younger generation) ability to distinguish basic facts.
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Do you have any examples of this actually being true? I seriously think this whole issue is made up, it's ridiculous.

And again: why show the ad especially in Germany then? It just reeks of populist PIS politics.
 
Mivey

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Strange that Youtube allows political ads, seeing how much controversy Youtube is already in, you would think they would be smart enough to have a rule against that.

And could somebody edit the OP and title? The English word is "polish", not "polnisch" which is just German adjective.
 
Antiax

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Metal B said:
Nobody denies that, which makes this so strange. People were saying "polish concentration camps " (did anybody every named them "death camp" as an official name?), because they were located in Poland. And there is also a side of the story of the polish government and citizen helping the Nazi's in capturing jews and other minorities. Which also makes sense, since they had no other choice, because there were invaded by Nazi Germany. There were of course polish people helping them to escape, nobody is denying this either.

if you look at all the facts and most peoples view on the events, the real question is, whit who in hell is the current polish government arguing with?! It's the answer, which is the troubling part: Nobody, but they want to make it look like, there are people, who actually think, that there were polish controlled concentration camps! The government has a big campagne against nobody to create somebody. And YouTube is helping them. That's the problem!
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You are actually denying this because you wrote that this video "spreads lies" which is not true. Well, it is obvious to you, as a German, that these camps were built and run by Germans on Polish soil that's why so many people used adjective Polish. But for a foreigner where World War II education is not being well taught this phrase without a context implies that they were actually run by Polish people. I hope I don't have to tell you why this hurts Polish people.

I am not supporting Polish government, they are probably the worst government Poland has ever had, but their aim was to eliminate the phrase "Polish death camps" being used without context. And it was happening a lot in the past, even Barack Obama used this phrase without context so you can imagine that people, especially considering what age we currently live, accept is a fact and think Polish death camps = Poland have taken part in Holocaust.

To rectify your message - never in history official Polish government collaborated with Nazi Germany. There were some individuals who did it (they were called "szmalcownik" in Poland and they were killed by AK [Armia Krajowa] which was hidden structure of Polish government in occupied Poland during WW2) but there are bad people in every country and you can't blame Polish nation and Poland as a country.
 
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Antiax

Antiax

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Oct 27, 2017
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mnz said:
Summary:
Do you have any examples of this actually being true? I seriously think this whole issue is made up, it's ridiculous.

And again: why show the ad especially in Germany then? It just reeks of populist PIS politics.
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If it's shown mostly in Germany, then it's a huge mistake but this government is really incompetent and populist.

Well, I don't have time to find links now but I will come back later and post some. One of the most popular uses of phrase "Polish death camps" without context was actually used by Barack Obama during his speech in 2015. I believe, you can find articles easily.
 
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petran79

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This article sums it up pretty well

http://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/stories/poland-historical-background.html

Around 3.3 million Jews lived in Poland at the outbreak World War II. Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939 and according to a pact signed shortly before, the country was divided between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Poland's western territories were annexed by Germany and the Generalgouvernement was created in the remaining part under its control. About 1.2 million Polish Jews came under Soviet rule until the summer of 1941, when Germany attacked the Soviet Union and conquered the rest of former Poland.


Anti-Jewish measures were enacted immediately after the German occupation in 1939: Jews were ordered to wear an armband with a Jewish star; their property was seized; they were taken for forced labor; their movement was restricted; and ghettoes were established, most of which were sealed between 1941-1942, where the Jews were mostly doomed to a gradual death, from hunger, cold and infectious diseases.


In December 1941 the first extermination camp, Chelmno began operating on Polish soil. During the spring of 1942 three more camps were added – Sobibor, Belzec and Treblinka – as part of Operation Reinhard – the program for the liquidation of Polish Jewry. The Concentration camps of Majdanek and Auschwitz were expanded to function as killing centers. By the end of 1942 a large majority of Poland's Jews had been killed. The liquidation of the ghettos continued, and with the exception of the Lodz ghetto, which was liquidated in summer 1944, the only Jews left in Poland were in labor camps.


It is estimated that 3 million Polish Jews – 90% of the pre-war community – perished in the Holocaust.





* * *


Between the two world wars the renewed Polish state was challenged with large national and ethnic minorities that amounted to about a third of the population. The Polish national camp generally defined the Jews as an alien ethnic and religious element. Although among certain Polish intelligentsia and liberal circles there was a tendency to integrate the Jews, the masses of Jews continued to live in separation in their own neighborhoods and generally were not favorably regarded by the surrounding population. In the second half of the 1930's antisemitic fervor reached new heights.


After the conquest of Poland, Poles and Jews fell victim to Nazi Germany's regime of terror. However while the policy directed against Poles was intended to turn them into slaves, the Jews were targeted first for overall isolation, and later for total liquidation.


Facing a ruthless occupation and being engaged in a constant struggle for existence, the Polish public at large paid little attention to the immensely greater distress of those interned behind walls and fences. Only some cases of ongoing personal or political friendship between Poles and Jews endured. Individual Poles, motivated by humanitarian reasons, tried to ease the grievous predicament of the Jews and help them escape. In order to leave the ghetto with some chance of rescue, it was not enough for a Jew to be prepared to cut himself off from his surroundings and to go to an unknown destination. As a first step, he had to have a reliable Polish address and a positive response from its inhabitants, as well as money or valuables to cover his living expenses, and in many cases also ransom money in case the war lasted a long time.


A Pole caught hiding Jews endangered his own life and that of his family. And indeed, hundreds of Poles paid with their lives for such deeds. The German threat was constant and they were always hunting for Jews, assisted by the Polish "blue police". However, what prevented Jews from leaving the ghetto and moving freely through the cities and villages was also the fear of some Poles – the "szmalcowniks" – who would inform on them, hand them over to the Germans, or extort all their property from them. These informers were propelled by the corrupting regime that spread hatred and the cheapness of human life in the eyes of the occupier, as well as by antisemitism that had always been rife in parts of Polish society and played a role in the intensity of the widespread malevolence. The threat of denunciation not only deterred Jews from attempting to find shelter among Poles, but also forestalled Poles of good will who feared neighbors or even relatives who were likely to endanger them. Only in September 1943 did the underground leadership announce that a sentence was meted out to someone for blackmailing, robbing and handing over Jews.


While the extent of Polish national solidarity directed against the German occupier was impressive, the Jews were never included in it. It is indeed true that along with passivity and malice, the physical annihilation and the dimensions of the tragedy of the Jews caused some avowed antisemites to cast aside their hostility and lend a helping hand to Jews. Small groups of people, such as employees in the social aid department of the Warsaw municipality and former members of a Polish Catholic Scouts movement, acted with great courage and devotion.


The mass deportation of Jews in summer 1942 caused shock to some groups of Poles. The first who were galvanized into calling for an organized act of rescue and who condemned the public's uncaring passivity, were Catholics, mostly young men, members of the "Revival of Poland Front" underground.


In early in December 1942, Zegota – the permanent Council of Aid to Jews – was founded. Zegota was engaged in finding housing and hiding places, the distribution of a monthly allowance, care of children, medical help, providing false documents, etc. Though most of Poland's Jews had been murdered by the time of Zegota's establishment, it is estimated that it rescued several thousand Jews. In addition to the organized attempts, many Righteous Among the Nations who risked their lives acted without any connection to Zegota, perhaps even without knowing of its existence. These men and women embarked on the rescue endeavor, urged by an inner voice that told them to help the suffering and the oppressed, and their deeds often resulted from past favorable experiences or friendships with Jews.


The Polish underground's attitude during the ghetto period was marked by lack of interest in the fate of the Jewish citizens of Poland. They provided neither material nor moral help to the Jews. During Warsaw ghetto uprising besides some scant assistance with arms, no protection, military assistance or help was given to Jews by the Polish underground Home Army (AK).





* * *


Poles constitute the largest national group within the Righteous Among the Nations recognized by Yad Vashem. Considering the harsh punishment that threatened rescuers, this is a most impressive number. On the other hand, when evaluating the role of Poles in the rescue of Jews, one also has to take into consideration that Poland's Jewish community was by far the largest in Europe and that only about 10% of it's Jews survived. At liberation, around 50,000 Jewish survivors were on Polish soil. It is estimated that about 30,000 to 35,000 Jews, around one percent of all of Polish Jewry, were saved with the help of Poles and thanks to the devotion of Righteous Among the Nations.
 
Jasup

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Antiax said:
To rectify your message - never in history official Polish government collaborated with Nazi Germany. There were some individuals who did it but there are bad people in every country and you can't blame Polish nation and Poland as a country.
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This is the problem with the add, because it paints a very populist picture that all Polish were in fact on the "right side of history". It says so in the add itself: "We did much to save the jews. As a nation. As citizens. As friends." There is no asterisk or a disclaimer "but not all obviously".

What makes the add really problematic is the ending line: "Today, we are still on the side of truth"
What do you think are the implications of that?

This kind of rhetoric is not confined to Poland of course, it's taken directly from the nationalists playbook. It thrives on creating national myths showing how we are a righteous nation created by righteous people, so whatever we do must therefore be righteous (but not the wrong things). It's a means of shutting down the conversation. This is evident around Europe, for example the nationalist circles in Finland are very eager to use Winter War between Finland and USSR as an argument: "we heroically defended ourselves against the soviets. [insert policy] is not what we were fighting for!" You take few aspects of history, wash it clean to show just the convenient narrative and use it to rally your troops.

We are the righteous people, everything that's rotten in our nation comes from the outside.
 
BrassDragon

BrassDragon

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Oct 26, 2017
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Antiax said:
Of course it is known in Germany but there is a problem in other countries (UK, France and yes, USA) where people only know about Nazis taking part in WWII and building Death Camps. There are a lot of videos, articles and sadly history books missing the fact that Nazis were German. So people connect word "Nazi" with phrase "Polish death camps" that suggests what it suggests. We are living in a age of clickbaits and people only reading headlines so you are overrate peoples (especially younger generation) ability to distinguish basic facts.
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I think countries that suffered under Nazi occupations are perfectly well aware that the Germans were behind the holocaust and that the machinations of the final solution stretched across the breadth of the Third Reich. Nobody is under the delusion that someone deported from Holland, France or Croatia would be handed over to the Polish authorities once the Nazis got them off the train.

Young kids learning about the holocaust through the story of Anne Frank understand this just fine. I'm at a total loss who the Polish government is trying to educate here.
 
XAL

XAL

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Oct 27, 2017
373
Not surprising at all.

I watched one Jordan Petersen class lecture and now all I'm getting in the way of ads are the dipshits at Prager U.
 
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