Totally different story

As a Jerusalem Post subscriber and a fan of Herb Keinon, I was disturbed by his recent analysis headlined “Poland, take note of Austrian chancellor’s speech: ‘My country was a Nazi perpetrator’” (March 15).

For decades, the Austrians promoted the historical myth of the “invasion, occupation and liberation” of their country between the years 1938 and 1945. It’s only been recently, culminating with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s speech last week, that the Austrian government has taken responsibility for events in the country during that time.

Poland is a totally different story. The Poles were truly invaded and occupied. In fact, the invasion of Poland is considered to have been the spark that set off that horrible conflict.

In those years, close to 3 million Polish non-Jews were killed by the Nazis. During the invasion alone, 200,000 Poles were killed, and the same number perished during the heroic Warsaw Uprising in 1944. The rest were murdered in prisons, concentration camps and mass executions. None of these events were paralleled by the Austrian experience.

Of course there were Jews in Poland who were betrayed and killed by their Polish neighbors. There were even some Jews who were murdered by Poles after they returned once the war was over. However, to compare what happened to Austria and Poland during World War II is like making a comparison between apples and oranges.

I agree that the recent Polish law dealing with Polish involvement in the Holocaust is despicable and should be changed. However, let’s try to do that using historical truth as opposed to historical fiction. HOWIE KAHN

Jerusalem