Bad Apples.

Polonization: It is mentioned in Naimark’s Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in the Twentieth Century. It is similar in a way to nationalism: pride for a nation, or country. But it can be drastic. On page 133 of Fires of Hatred, Naimark explains Aleksander Zawadzki’s statement about the Germans. To be honest, it’s pretty extreme. To me not only is it extreme, it’s hypocrisy. It’s not a real evolution of wisdom if people decide to do something that they fought in a war to help stop the very thing they are doing: discrimination. This chapter’s not exactly about discrimination though. It’s about the differences between Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide. Naimark makes a point on establishing the difference between the two. At this point in time, I can safely say with confidence that Polonization was the spark of the ethnic cleansing of Germans, Post-World War II.

My grandfather Joseph P. Wharram fought in World War II as a midshipman. But there were times when he was on leave in friendly countries. The only difference was the people that he saw weren’t so friendly. He saw mistreatment of every kind to not only the jews by germans, but he saw mistreatment of germans by others. Just because there are a couple of thousand bad apples in a bunch, doesn’t mean all them are bad apples. I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for the fact that a conscripted german soldier on leave saved my grandfather from a mob of angry men in the Mediterranean. That one good apple wasn’t spoiled by the rest of them.

But we still can’t ignore those bad apples. One of the articles I found reported several instances of violence in Burma towards buddhism. It wasn't as extreme as this other article. On FrontPageMag.com on September 8^th, 2013  that German Islamist converts were involved in the Ethnic cleansing and murder of several Syrian Christians, and the article goes so far as to state that “Islam is the new Nazism in Europe”. “Islam is the Nazism”? What the WHAT?

Even the Qur’an even states that “Allah forbids you not respecting those who have not fought against you on account of your religion, and who have not driven you out from your homes…” – Holy Qur’an, 60:8-9. Why would the Qu’ran be highlighted as a tome of discrimination and hatred for all that isn’t them, when it has passages such as this? I think that Naimark tries to say that the world is twisted. Between news media and Modern views on past religions and past atrocities, we can’t accept it. But it’s going to take a lot more than words to fix it. It takes action. It takes an action like the German soldier on leave that saved my grandfather many years ago.  It’s like the old adage: Actions are more powerful than words. But, as we have seen in the aforementioned article, it can go both ways. 

So what’s the takeaway? What’s the lesson learned?

Be more understanding. Don’t be quick to judge a book by its cover. Learn to accept people, even though there are some who aren’t the greatest.

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/german-converts-to-islam-ethnically-cleansing-christians-in-syria/

 http://thesentinelproject.org/a-formula-for-ethnic-cleansing-in-burma/