CONSERVATIVE

Jews themselves were co-responsible for the Holocaust?
On the contrary, historian Gunnar S. Paulsson (the son
of a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, I may add) has
estimated that about 20-30,000 Jews were directly killed
by Poles during the Holocaust (compared to nearly six
million killed by Germans). That is certainly a tragedy.
However, while puppet governments and SS divisions
that aided the Nazis in killing Jews were formed across
Europe, this did not happen in Poland. By contrast,
the Polish government-in-exile were the first to tell
the United States and England of the Holocaust,
and (unsuccessfully) asked them to intervene. It also
financed the Zegota Council to Aid the Jews, the only
such organization in all occupied Europe. Despite the
fact that the most severe punishment (the death penalty,
often applied collectively) was applied in Poland for
aiding Jews, the country boasts of the most ‘Righteous
Among the Nations’ medals awarded by Israel. The
publication of Gross’s balderdash by a German magazine
is an irresponsible attempt at distorting history.
Certainly, Poland’s and Hungary’s governments are
not without flaws. In Hungary, Viktor Orban has raised
the VAT tax to a jaw-dropping 27%, the highest in
the European Union (even the European Commission
recommends that the VAT not exceed 25%; if you are
more statist and less tax-friendly than the EC, that’s
nothing to be proud of ), although it should be added
that Orban has introduced a flat-rate personal income
tax. Meanwhile, he has nationalized the private pensions
of Hungarian citizens. These actions can only have
terrible consequences for the Hungarian economy. In
Poland, the government is working on legislation to
lower the retirement age, which could have catastrophic
effects on public finances, and it has raised insurance
costs for employees, which won’t help the high youth
unemployment rate. Thus, these governments (like
all governments) can and should be criticized when
necessary. However, the anger of Brussels bureaucrats
and clueless leftist journalists focuses on criticizing
the lack of ‘democracy’, understood as abstractly as
possible and as closely adhering to the pro-EU line. Just
beneath the surface of the media blitz, we can see the
real reason why these governments are a threat to the
EU establishment: They do not want their countries
to be vassals of Brussels, and they are, furthermore,
victims of prejudice and a feeling of superiority still all
too common among German elites.
While these governments are far from perfect, they
are nevertheless an inspiration to those who still believe
in true European values. As the European Union
increasingly becomes devoid of any values, apart from
very abstract ones, Poland and Hungary still believe in
something. These countries have repeatedly defended
the Christian heritage that gave birth to Europe, and
they have asserted themselves into dangerous political
territory. They are not Eurosceptic but instead are
fighting for a Europe in which the nations are truly
partners, rather than the feudal subjects of increasingly
out-of-touch Brussels bureaucrats. Hopefully, they will
pave the way for a Europe more attuned to its own
values.
Filip Mazurczak is a translator and journalist whose work has
appeared in the National Catholic Register, First Things,
The Catholic Thing, and other publications. He is the
Assistant Editor of The European Conservative.
Detail from a “Bird’s-eye View of Budapest” (1617) by Joris Hoefnagel (1542-1600). According to Sanderus Antiquariaat
in Ghent, this is “a view from the East ... of the two cities of Pest and ... Buda .... clearly in the hands of the Turks”—the
former since 1526 and the latter since 1541. “This is indicated by the many mosques depicted.”
The European Conservative 11