This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Erpegis: I'm not sure whethet to put it in the main body of text, but here's how I see the reason of the common Jewish conviction that the Poles are anti-semites.
Grandpa Yoske: Born in 1910s, in Russian-occupied Poland. Has seen revolutions, wars, violence. Has been unfairly persecuted, not allowed to get a better education or settle in certain parts of some cities. (Technically he could vote, though). He remembers famines, he remembers pogroms, finally, he remembers The Shoah and he sees his life in Poland as unending strain of suffering... despite the facts that the Ukrainians, Lithuanians, and in many cases even ethnic Poles did not fare much better. It is not egoism, it's just his perspective. This much suffering simply could not have no influence on him. He expected only hostile behavior from Germans, but he hoped for at least some kind of help from his gentile neighbors - and usually he didn't get it. Therefore, he moves to US or Israel, and tells his son that Poland was the place of suffering. (And it's even more visible if he was living in France or Hungary).
David, the dad: Born around 1950s, in the new homeland. He knows from his Dad that Shoah happened in Poland, he knows from TV that Poland is the friend of the Russia, and therefore his enemy, he knows from jokes and plays that "Polacks" are uneducated brutes. He hears of pogroms (like Kielce pogrom) and 1968 expulsions, and he knows from his Dad's tales and various other stories that the Poles did participate in the genocide, and ratted out the Jews. He's mostly Americanized or Israelized, and he does not deal with Poles everyday. Therefore, the stereotypes grow stronger.
John, the son: Adult or young adult now. He can actually go to Poland now, and he does - usually he lands in Krakow airport, sees Auschwitz, and goes home. Occasionally he goes on his own to his grandpa's hometown, to see how no Jews live there anymore. For him, Poland is not a place to live, but a cemetery. He can read stories from and about Poland on the Internet, and the ones that interest him are usually the ones about antisemitism in the radio or in the grafitti. He is occasionally confronted with some Polish people who, much like his dad, were raised to see the only side of the problem. Flamewars ensue, which only confirm his beliefs. And of course, the fact that there are far right politicians that exhibit anti-semitism, does not help the issue.
