Letter to NYT Opinion Editor (@paulkrugman, @nytopinion)
Re: Why It Can Happen Here; We’re very close to becoming another Poland or Hungary. By Paul Krugman .
To the Editor:

NYT Editors and Mr. Krugman, when in Poland’s 1,000 year history was Poland’s path “fascist”?
In 1334, King Kazimierz confirmed privileges and laws granted to Jewish as “people of the king” (https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/12/world/europe/12krakow.html), and after that Poland became home to the largest population of Jewish in the world for the next 600 years; a home where they owned businesses and properties, had laws to protect them from persecution (which was more than Poles had with hundreds of thousands being shipped to Siberia during fascist Tsarist occupied times from 1795–1918), and enough freedom to practice their Jewish faith that many did not assimilate and made it a point to remain orthodox and not learn the Polish language, which naturally resulted in differences with Catholic Poles as it would in other societies with such a cultural differentiation.
Yet, during these 600 years, there were no wars between Jewish and Poles though Poles have in their 1,000 year history been at war with German Teutonic Knights (1431–35), Khan’s Mongols (1240–41, 1259–60, 1287–88), Swedes (1656–58), Turkish Ottomans (1683), Prussian Germans (1767–1918), Austro-Habsburgs (1767–1918), Tsarist Russians (1767–1918), Bolsheviks (1918–1921), German Nazis (1939–1945) and Soviets (1941–1945, among others.
Merriam Webster defines fascism as:
a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race [religion, heritage] above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
That is not Poland. When you associate fascism with Poland, that is like associating Nazism with Poland for many of your readers. That is hurtful to Polish people not only because of history — it’s hurtful because it results in financial and social discrimination against Polish people. Who wants to work with fascists? And Poles are easily identifiable by their name in this digital age.
If you are looking for an example of fascism, what about Israel which exalts Jewish religion above others (confirmed via its recent law which the NYT called an “incendiary move” https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/world/middleeast/israel-law-jews-arabic.html) and has a right-wing extreme government headed by a nearly 20-year in power leader, severe economic and social regimentation over East Jerusalem and Gaza, and forcible suppression of opposition.
When you consider that the issue in Poland that is the center of an end to democracy is changing the retirement of judges from 70 to 65, and that the USA’s federal judges are chosen by the President and approved by the Senate, the concept of political choosing of judges is by example of the original democracy, inherently democratic.
Poland has enough haters who disparage its history, ignore its economic rising from the ashes and rebuilding its cities and towns with no Marshal Plan funds like England, France, Germany, Italy, Benelux, Scandinavia, Greece or Turkey has, and in less than 30 years is about to achieve a breakthrough from a developing nation to a developed one after 45 years of Soviet suppression and robbery (only Korea has achieved that according to an NYT article from last year, and Poland is about to do it more rapidly https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/05/opinion/poland-economy-trump-russia.html).
Poland doesn’t need Paul Krugman parroting bone-headed jokes. The quip may have an edge, but I am surprised a journalist I respect so much fell on it. It doesn’t apply to Poland except in a cruelly misleading way.
If you think about Poland as a country whose culture and people have been the target of annihlation by its fascist neighbors for 1000 years, and yet its still survived and has propelled it to be a top 25 worldwide GDP, political weight, and athletically competitive in the Olympics, World Cup and European Championships commensurate with its GDP, then it’s an extraordinarily impressive resilient country with people who fought fascist totalitarian regimes that wanted to control the world — and all by itself in the past 100 years during WWII and Solidarnosc.
The President of Poland is visiting the White House in September and the focus is security and strategic relations. Russia’s response was to announce it will mobilize its biggest military exercise since the height of the Cold War (and include China, a strategic trading partner for Poland in the last few years).
Poland has recently invested 52M Euros in Jewish Cemeteries, built multiple museums honoring Jewish culture, and hosts educational tours of its Polish-Jewish history. It has no interest in being anti-Semetic and to the extent there are individuals there that are, it’s a small fringe minority. Diligence it and don’t just parrot what someone with a bias and interest for financial support for educational research said. There are groups that seek compensation from Poland for heirless properties destroyed by the German Nazis or confiscated by Communists, which all Polish properties were. These groups are at the forefront of disparaging Poland, and it would be a worthy journalistic endeavor to research these groups and the statements they make that get picked by AP, Reuters, and are reposted by NYT, WAPO and major publications.
Poland is central to Europe and the EU and USA need it to remain strong and a balance to its historically aggressive and destructive neighbors.
In the 1700’s Frederick of Prussia and Catherine of Russia hired journalists in Paris and London to disparage Poland as Prussia, Austria and Russia ganged up on it over 30 years in 3 partitions reducing Poland to nil — an occupied country. The world had no sympathy for Poland then, viewing it as anti-Semetic (though it was the least in Europe), anarchaic due to the power of its wealthy landowners but not the king (the opposite of fascism) farm land (to be fair ‘pole’ in Polish mean fields, prairies, plains, and since Latin times, the land there has been referred to as Polonia and the people as from the plains — z pola).
We are a proud people and the Polish government did warn the world about what the Nazis were doing… it was printed in the NYT in 1941. https://www.nytimes.com/1942/11/26/archives/slain-polish-jews-put-at-a-million-onethird-of-number-in-whole.html
The world forgot about Poland after 1945, disparaged it for years, and now that it’s risen from the ashes, rebuilt itself brick by brick, it needs time to get Democracy right. Even the USA doesn’t have it right after all these years, how can we expect Poland to do so in one generation. Diligence what’s happening there and the enormous pressure it’s under before it’s too late. It’s doing a lot of things correctly, even if not everything perfectly.
Russia invaded Crimea under the pretense of protecting the Russian minority there. In 1939, the same day the President of Poland will be meeting at the White House — Sep 18 — Russia invaded Poland under the same pretenses.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/opinion/trump-republican-party-authoritarianism.html
Respectfully,
Peter Szymanski, Esq.
Founder | Silicon Valley Counsel P.C.
Slide Deck: VC Backed Growth Companies
Slide Deck: Seed Stage Startups
T. 650.776.4826
E. Peter@SiliconValleyCounsel.com
