Submitted by Danusha V. Goska, Nov 20, 2007 07:49

The above article quotes a letter I sent to Fox re: "Back to You"'s Nazi "joke." Below is the full text of that letter --

According to internet reports, the November 14, 2007, episode of the Steven Levitan, Fox TV sitcom "Back to You" contained a "joke" accusing Poles of collaborating with the Nazis. If these reports are true, it is Fox TV's responsibility to eliminate that "joke" from any further broadcasts of that episode, and it is Fox TV's responsibility to publish a retraction.

A "joke" about Polish Nazi collaborators is comparable to a "joke" about Jews orchestrating the September 11, 2001, World Trade Center attacks. It is comparable to a "joke" that denies the reality of the Holocaust. It is no less.

There are rumors and urban legends that do accuse Jews of orchestrating the 9-11 attacks. These rumors and urban legends are factually false. They have currency because they are part of an invidious campaign of anti-Semitic bigotry and hatred. Just so, there are understandings of Poles as Nazis. These understandings, too, are factually false, and are part of vile and dangerous campaigns of bigotry and hatred.

The facts: Poles fought the Nazis first, fought the Nazis longest, and fought them, per capita, the hardest. An abundance of statistics evidences Poles' heroism and sacrifice. Poland had the largest underground resistance army during World War Two; Polish soldiers fought, not just in Poland, but far afield, making significant contributions, for example in the RAF during the Battle of Britain, and in Italy at Monte Cassino. Poles were essential to one of the key factors in the defeat of the Nazis and the Allies' victory, the breaking of the Enigma code. More Poles than members of any other nation rescued Jews; count the trees dedicated to Righteous Gentiles at Yad Vashem.

Poles suffered worse, under the Nazis, than any other national group except for Jews and Gypsies, reports historian Michael C. Steinlauf. Poles were gassed with Zyklon B; Poles were tortured in concentration camps and a special school set up to teach Nazis how to torture; Poles were shot down en masse by Einsatzgruppen; Poles were deported in cattle cars, sterilized, burned alive. Polish churches, museums, and historic monuments were methodically destroyed by German soldiers, even as Germany was losing ground for lack of those soldiers at the front. Poles were denied education; Poles, like the late Pope John Paul II, studied secretly in "flying universities." Poles were executed for crimes like owning a radio, or offering a glass of water to a Jew. Poles were murdered merely to terrorize other Poles.

Given this history, one may ask why "jokes" about Polish collaborators exist. This is why: these jokes are lies concocted to support an alternative history that is no less heinous than Holocaust Denial.

America and Britain did nothing after Jan Karski, a Polish agent, brought, firsthand, eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust to the West. America and Britain betrayed Poland at Yalta. Negative images of Poles assuage that guilt. The West has not been able to confront, morally, the guilt of the Holocaust. Germany, the world's most scientific nation, the world's most modern and secular nation, using Darwinism and Scientific Racism as guides, descended to diabolical depths of insane cruelty and destruction. We, modern, secular, scientific people cannot accept that persons so like ourselves, operating under systems we value, committed such crimes. So, we assign the guilt of that crime to persons unlike ourselves - ethnically distant, and disempowered, Poles. Finally, there is a push, typified by superstar scholars like James Carroll and Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, to equate Nazism with Christianity, specifically, Catholicism. Poland is a Catholic country, and it is the best target for this effort.

"Back to You"'s "joke" about Polish Nazi collaborators is as funny as a "joke" about Jews planning 9-11, or a "joke" that denies the reality of the Holocaust. It is a truly evil fabrication with a disgusting intellectual history and a morally corrupt agenda.

Polish Americans and persons of conscience who do not wish the truth of World War Two or the Nazi era to be erased by lies demand that Fox TV eliminate this "joke" from any further broadcast of the episode in question, and demand that Fox TV publish a retraction. Further, we demand that Steven Levitan receive education in the true history of World War Two.

Thank you,

Danusha V. Goska, PhD

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.