Jennifer Stark-Blumenthal

Read Shmoozers co-founder Gelya Frank’s article on "Rokhl Auerbach, the Yiddish Shmoozers, and Cultural Resistance under Regime Change in America” https://polishjewsreviving.org/reading-rokhl-auerbachs-warsaw-testament-under-regime-change/

The Trump administration's manipulative financial policing of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies in our academic and scientific institutions has shocked Americans. While the administration's call for a "nicer" presentation of American history--one that erases any reference to bad actions in our collective past-- is a new political tactic for Americans, it is typical for a wannabe authoritarian ruler.
In my book, Poles and Jews: A Call for Myth Reconstruction, I discuss how Americans, Democrats and Republicans, rallied against the previous Polish government which sought to obliterate mention of any past misdeeds by Poles against Jews from the nation's history. Americans berated the P*S government's insistence that Poles were victims ONLY during WWII and not also victimizers. In its new museums, the rightwing P*S government insisted erroneously that hundreds of thousands of Poles helped Jews during the Holocaust and refused to acknowledge the harm thousands of Poles caused Jews who tried to escape the N***s. The P*S government policed Polish higher education, and brought Holocaust researchers Jan Grabowski and Barbara Engelking to trial for defaming the good name of Poland. The P*S government stripped most Holocaust education from high school curriculums; only the most dedicated teachers continued to teach it to their students. The result is that most students learned only the "nice" acceptable history.
As a student of this history, it is clear that Trump's tasking J.D. Vance with purging the ugly and troubling parts of America's past from the Smithsonian is just another route toward erasing American's memory of our past.
The question is: what will we do about it? Will Republicans join Democrats in demanding of our own leaders what we demanded of Polish leaders? Or do we think that American ethnonationalism is acceptable but Polish ethnonationalism is an abomination?
In their last national election, Polish citizens voted out the extremist P*S government.
How will American citizens respond to Donald Trump's government?
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Today marks the anniversary of the passing of Albert Göring, a Righteous Gentile, who is a non-Jew who helped save Jews during the Holocaust. He was known as "the good brother," since his infamous sibling Hermann was a high-ranking N**i. Albert was a German businessman and engineer who used his position to save countless Jews and dissidents under the N**i regime.

Among his courageous acts, Albert orchestrated the release of concentration camp prisoners by claiming they were needed as factory workers, later freeing them in the woods. As an export manager at the Škoda factory, which produced weapons for the N***s, he helped create fake bombs that were sometimes filled with sand instead of explosives. In another instance, he joined Jews being humiliated by the SS, compelling their tormentors to stop because of his brother’s rank.

After the liberation, he was interrogated during the Nuremberg trials and imprisoned for two years due to his last name. He was ultimately freed thanks to testimonies that revealed his heroism.

Photo: WarRelics.eu

Hope you can join in on this webinar program!

Whitewash: Poland and the Jews - Beit Polska Blog Poland, the epicentre of the Holocaust, began denying responsibility as soon as the N**i atrocities ended. The nation's distortion of history continues today - with disturbing consequences. World-renowned Holocaust historian Jan Grabowski examines how the government, museums, schools and state never...

Twenty years ago I made a big mistake while speaking with a Polish friend about Polish-Jewish relations. As a Jewish Studies major who concentrated on the Holocaust, I wondered what else I did not know about the subject. So began decades of research.

Unraveling Myths of Polish-Jewish Relations Author Jennifer Stark-Blumenthal in her new book POLES AND JEWS: A CALL FOR MYTH RECONSTRUCTION delves deep into Polish-Jewish history to uncover the truths ...

📖 "Auschwitz. A Monograph on the Human" by Piotr M. A. Cywiński

“Auschwitz. Monograph of the Human” is the first attempt – on a global scale – to delve so deeply into human emotions inside the camp. It is a must-read for those seeking to understand what Auschwitz was all about. The book is divided into more than thirty chapters, each devoted to a separate subject. They include, among others, “Initial Shock,” “Loneliness,” “Death,” “Hunger,” “Friendship,” “Empathy,” “Decency,” “Struggle and Resistance,” “Culture and learning,” “Fear,” and “Hope.” One great asset of the book is the extremely aptly chosen quotations from nearly 450 Auschwitz survivors.

Each chapter of the book can be treated as an independent analysis of a single issue. However, it is only when read as a whole does it provide an overview of the complicated emotional world of people uprooted from their daily lives and thrown into a world that one of the prisoners called the heart of hell. In the last chapter of the book “Auschwitz.

The book: https://books.auschwitz.org/en_US/p/Piotr-M.A.-Cywinski-Auschwitz.-A-Monograph-on-the-Human/367

My friend Leora Tec wrote this recent piece. Her mother Nechama Tec was a sociologist and noted Holocaust scholar.

I’m Glad My Mother is Not Alive to See This Madison Square Garden. February 20, 1939

Michelle Obama’s speech Saturday dug into the horrendous consequences of the current sbortion bans, which have led directly to the dissolution of women’s full reproductive healthcare.

Opinion | Michelle Obama to America’s Men: ‘What Side of History Do You Want To Be On?’ The former first lady shares an emotional appeal about how reproductive rights are on the line in this election.