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Editorial Review Product Description
In this controversial study, Goska exposes one stereotype of Poles and other Eastern Europeans. In the ''Bieganski'' stereotype, Poles exhibit the qualities of animals. They are strong, stupid, violent, fertile, anarchic, dirty, and especially hateful in a way that more evolved humans are not. Their special hatefulness is epitomized by their Polish anti-Semitism. ''Bieganski'' discovers this stereotype in the mainstream press, scholarship, film, in Jews' self-definition, and in responses to the Holocaust. Bieganski's twin is Shylock, the stereotype of the crafty, physically inadequate, moneyed Jew. The final chapters of the book are devoted to interviews with American Jews. These reveal that Bieganski and Shylock are both alive and well among those who have little knowledge of Poles or Poland. ... Read more Customer Reviews (9) 
A Necessary Book
Dr. Danusha Goska's book was painful for me to read.The truths she discusses about the way Poles are stereotyped as brutal, filthy, stupid, and anti-Semitic are not easy to hear.
As a child, I grew up as a Displaced Person, a refugee, in Chicago following World War II.My parents had both been Polish-Catholic slave laborers in Nazi Germany, and we came to the US because my parents had lost their families during the war and were afraid of returning to Poland.My parents saw America as a promised land, a place where they would find a haven from the brutally and hatred that they experienced in the camps.What they discovered was that this was to some extent just BS, an acronym for one of the first American words they learned.
We discovered we weren't Poles, and we definitely weren't Polish Americans.We heard in the streets and the factories and the schools that we were Dirty Polaks. We were the people who nobody wanted to rent a room to or hire or help. We were the "wretched refuse" of somebody else's shore, dumped now on the shores of America, and many people we came across here wished we'd go back to where we came from--and that we'd take the rest of the Dirty Polaks with us.
Dr. Goska examines and analyzes this ongoing stereotype of the brutal Pole with the care and precision it deserves but has never received.As a graduate student studying American literature and culture many years ago, I remembering looking for books that would explain why Poles were depicted in this negative way, and I found nothing.It was almost as if America did not recognize that its immigrants were often treated as if they were garbage, dangerous garbage.
I am grateful, therefore, that Dr. Goska has had the courage to pursue and publish her study of this stereotype.I only hope that analyzing and discussing it will provide us with the means of making it go away.
Necessary
This is an important and necessary book. Someone has finally stepped-up to the plate and tackled this complex and ignored story. Bieganski is a book that was hard to put down and is written with intelligence and fairness. Although the book is unconformable to read at times (because it calls Poles, Jews and other people of fair mind and good-will into action), it also leaves the reader with hope for healing and understanding. My conclusion after reading Bieganski is that the majority of people are fair; some just unclear of the facts. But there is a hateful minority who thrive off of anti-polish bigotry. Good people of all persuasions must not allow bigotry...hateful speech and actions to go unchallenged.
Slated to become a classic in the Polish-Jewish dialogue.
"The everlasting hope and resilience of the Polish people rises above the terror, forced labor, torture, executions and deaths of millions of Poles (and Jews) during Nazi occupation of Polish towns and villages, particularly at Majdanek (and Auschwitz) and other detention centers during World War II. Despite the repeated ravaging and takeover of Poland by outsiders throughout the centuries, the Polish people's will to determine their own destiny continually furnishes them with the fortitude to rebuild what others destroy. As Michener puts it, "A Pole is a man born with a sword in his right hand and a brick in his left. When the battle is over, he starts to rebuild.""
Stereotyping the Poles
As with most kids that I knew in Grade School in 1950's New Mexico, the first awareness of anything Polish was the Polak joke.To me, a Polak was some distant, undefinable, stupid ethnic group that, initially, I didn't even associate with Poland.I didn't even know where Poland was. We also recited the very un-PC version of "Eenie, meenie, mynee, mo," but after awhile, as my consciousness expanded and I learned who Poles really were, I disliked the jokes and the stereotyping.My Finnish grandfather used to call me a "stupid Svede" whenever I accidently spilled or broke something, and he used to tell Swedish jokes that I recognized as the old Polak jokes I used to tell.Same tired old jokes, different ethnic group.
I realized that every culture probably has its "Polak," someone lower than them, someone to be the butt of their jokes. I wrote about this to the author and then asked her, "Who are Poland's 'Polaks'?"And she responded, "There is no one lower than a Pole."
Chilling words for me to hear, but it wasn't until I read this fine book that I fully realized their full import. Goska cites poet John Guzlowski and his parents living in a D.P. camp (for Displaced Persons) after WWII, coming to America as a D.P., and growing up with that stigma... how it affected his entire life. She cites example after example of Poles whose entire existence has been under the boot of ostracism.
Throughout my life I've had many Jewish and Polish friends, but not a single one of them gave me any hint of animosity toward any ethnic group.Perhaps it's because I'm a musician, as are most of my friends, and we just don't harbor those sort of attitudes.Maybe the bandstand is the true melting pot, the gathering of equals, where one's musicianship is the only thing being judged. Color and ethnicity don't exist.So, it was a revelation for me to learn of Polish anti-Semitism and the degree to which some Jews hate Poles. It was heartbreaking to hear of how, in the eyes of many, the identity of an entire country can be reduced to having hosted Nazi death camps.
For me, however, the best part of the book is Goska's analysis of the bohunk role in the films "A Street Car Named Desire," "The Deerhunter," "The Fugitive," and "The Apartment"--the first of which is nothing short of brilliant. For anyone who has seen the film, this essay reveals incredible insights into Tennessee Williams' wonderful screenplay.
"Bieganski" is a book I highly recommend.
Excellent and Insightful
Bieganski is a well-researched, well-written, and really darn interesting view of a topic that I came to without a lot of prior knowledge or assumptions. Danusha Goska's comprehensive approach to the topic stimulated my thinking not just of Poles and Jews, but of broader questions about how we interpret, judge and interact on many levels, with all peoples.
Dr Goska paints a full, rich, multi-dimensional picture of the Polish people and introduced real humans, like Cardinal Glemp, who I'd love to meet. The work engendered in me interest in better understanding my Polish-American acquaintances and exploring their perceptions of my Jewishness.
Beyond that, I find myself examining what assumptions I have about other groups.This is the sign of a great work, and I appreciate Dr Goska for what she has produced
A Mixed Bag
Fifteen years ago, when Goska was a struggling grad student, I used to look forward to her emailed arguments against the defamation of the Poles, as they made their rounds among Polonian activists. Their substance, crystalline logic and restrained emotion made them unlike what anyone else was writing on this topic.
In fact, these contacts were how Goska came into possession of my letters, briefly cited in Bieganski, which witness that Academic Freedom in America, like much else, operates on a double standard.
Thus, one professor may teach tolerance (49) - without conscious irony - through a Pulitzer Prize-winning comic book and icon of Jewish-American culture that graphically depicts Polish people as swine. But a colleague's well-reasoned protest invokes vicious reprisal, culminating in loss of employment.
The ethno-sensitive road signs may be tacitly observed, but traffic on the US Interstate to a base in the Academy moves strictly in one direction.
Now Goska has arrived as a professional academic in her own right, and she's written a book, under the imprimatur of a distinguished collection about the Jews of Poland. Her book takes on the ugly, Polonophobic stereotypes commonly held and liberally expressed by Jews. But I am disappointed. This conclusion may reflect how much distance our learning curves and life trajectories have put between the author and myself over the course of fifteen years.
On the one hand, Bieganski makes a strong case for Goska's thesis - that a whole range of stereotypes about Poles and Poland, cherished and propagated by Jews, are hurtful, unfair, inconsistent and weakly grounded in fact. The strength of her book is in the historic, folkloric and pop-cultural material she's gathered to this effect. Goska's diligence and scholarship are evident.
Ultimately, however, Bieganski fails because its author pulls too many punches. There would be little injury in the stereotypes she contests were it not for the outsized influence of the offending group. Goska steps with exaggerated caution around the understandable resentments of many Poles, in the face of painful libels secured by an impunity that's as great as the malice that drives them at their source.
By way of contrast, she twice refers to anti-Semitism as a "crime" (32, 91). The Thought Police have indeed diminished American liberties, but I'm not aware they've gone quite so far yet as to criminalize an attitude - leaving aside all question of what is meant by "anti-Semitism"; that's a whole discussion in itself. The unwarranted hyperbole suggests how far Goska is bending over backwards to demonstrate an outlook unblemished by any hint of attitude that might be in any way offensive to Jews.
Bieganski bristles with concessions of this nature. The anti-Semitic "fantasy" around Bernie Madoff (37), the "fabrication ... that Jews controlled the African slave trade" (83), "the lynching of Leo Frank" (102), the "[b]lood libel ... folklore items" (189) and "organ theft legends" (191) refer to questions which, explosive though they be, merit cool and close examination - not the one-size-fits-all, knee-jerk dismissal they receive from Goska.
Likewise, the "favorite conspiracy theory" (10) of "some" who challenge Goska's position deserves study. The jury may still be out on whether or not "'The Jews' [in truth] control the world," but evidence of inordinate - and abusive - Jewish power is simply too conspicuous to ignore. After all, it's this very power imbalance between Jews and Poles that buttresses the stereotypes Goska herself disputes. She backs off much too readily from pointing towards the obvious, apparently frightened of saying anything that would be construed as anti-Semitic.
Yet Goska takes issue with the "politically correct," racial stereotyping in contemporary Hollywood films (141). One might point out that the field in which she holds her academic position, Women's Studies, is quintessentially p.c. So are her numerous dismissals - as inexcusable "stereotypes" - of anything that in any way might reflect unfavorably on a certain highly empowered ethnicity. One can't help but wonder if Goska's tunnel vision in this regard is not shaped by a reluctance to jeopardize the material rewards and respectability she's worked so hard to attain.
Though she quibbles with him on certain points, I find it significant that Goska rates the work of that arch-Poland-basher Jan T. Gross as "excellent and needed" (188). Egged on by the lavish promotion it was getting, and by the indignation of many Poles, I read one of Gross's books, Fear, and judged it an exercise in sophistry. I once admired Antony Polonsky - who's been like a "father" to Goska (13) - for his editorship of the Polin Series on Jewish Civilization, and for a judgment he made at the end of his foreword to Pogonowski's Jews of Poland. But after seeing Gross and Polonsky at the Jewish Museum in New York several years ago, when Gross was promoting his Fear, I came away with a very different impression.
The audience that evening consisted of Jews and Poles, the latter having attended in order to challenge Gross. These were not Goska's stereotypical "brute Polaks." They were the holders of university degrees, well traveled, sensitive, people with the courage and integrity to be at some pains to advance their convictions with good will in an unreceptive, if not hostile, setting. Yet when the cards bearing their questions for Gross were collected, Polonsky shuffled through the whole stack - twice - never said a word, thought for a long time, then shifted the discussion to other channels. Not one question from the audience was entertained. These two lauded scholars ended the event by jeering at their critics, with thinly veiled contempt, clearly enjoying their control of the forum, and one-sidedly critiqued the attitudes of Polish people.
This is the mindset that Goska ingratiates herself to, and this fainthearted disposition has everything to do with why Bieganski fails to achieve the impact it strives for and why it falls short of any very meaningful attainment.
Her two chapters based on interviews with several dozen Jewish volunteers are too anecdotal to bear much weight and, in any case, stray from the book's central thread. I don't know why they were included.
Fiercely contested perceptions in the overlapping histories of Poles and Jews remain intractable, as far as I can tell, notwithstanding Danusha Goska's book and its seal of Jewish approval. There are people of good will among both groups, though proportionally many more of them are Polish, which must reflect, at least in part, the disparity in power between the two ethnicities. Members of the favored caste can anticipate no liability for being unreasonable, and many enjoy the exercise of their license. In the long run, people of either persuasion will stick to their established views - facts, logic and argument having, as usual, little effect.
Here are a few suggestions about where Goska could have gone further.
She begins to generalize from the "brute Polak" stereotype to the denigration of whites in general - bohunks, white trash, trailer trash. This is a valid line of thinking. Regrettably, she doesn't appear to perceive a tectonic shift here in the ethnic power base of America. The writings of Dr. Kevin MacDonald are a good place to gain an overview, through both his books and his topical contributions to The Occidental Observer.
Since much of the stereotyping Goska argues against has emerged from popular representations of World War II and the Holocaust, it's worth looking more deeply than she does into the underlying politics of that event. Goska's views are entirely conventional. This is not to suggest that unconventional views are necessarily more truthful; deceptions abound on every hand. But Henry Ford - whatever one makes of his reputation as an anti-Semite - was correct when he observed that "history is bunk." Jim Condit's online video, "The Final Solution to Adolph Hitler," is an eye-opener. It's within a larger context, such as this, that the victimization of all peoples can be properly understood, and the real perpetrators of evil identified behind the shadow play of conventional history.
The manipulation of money and finance is key to the nefarious exercise of political power on a grand scale. The online video "The Money Masters" provides a good introduction to this topic. Stephen Zarlenga's superb The Lost Science of Money is more comprehensive. Understanding the Federal Reserve is critical to getting at the root of America's now obvious demise. Secrets of the Federal Reserve by Eustace Mullins is the definitive work on this subject.
John Coleman's Committee of 300 is the best single introduction I know of to conspiracies. (Yes, there is a conspiracy.) All of Coleman's books are worth reading. I started with the one on the Tavistock Institute. It's highly persuasive, accounting for so much about what's happened over the past century, worldwide, in both the engineering of culture and what's broadly understood as political .
Barbarians Inside the Gates by Donn de Grand Pre, somewhat similarly, though with different emphasis, reveals the hidden underside of US history over the past century. I am grateful to "The French Connection" website of Daryl Bradford Smith for directing me to this book, along with a wealth of other, outside-the-box, social and historical analysis.
Regarding the blood libel and such, Trance Formation of America by Phillips and O'Brien documents shocking practices that really occur. It says nothing about "the Jews," but Satanic beliefs and observances - regardless of whether one takes them as valid or not - do play a central role in the subversion and perversion so ascendant in the world today. Henry Makow, along with much else of real insight, offers additional material on Satanism through an article posted on his website last July 25th.
How to respond in the teeth of such blatant wickedness is addressed by Michael Hoffman's Judaism Discovered - a book that was banned from amazon when it came out two years ago. Hoffman's answer is relevant to much of what Goska deals with in Bieganski. As a Catholic, he advocates the teachings of Christ: we are to love our enemies, to forgive and do good unto those who have injured us. That's a tall order, but if you're up for it, it appears to be as viable a policy as any I've encountered yet.
To sum up, Bieganski contains a lot of good material demonstrating that Poles are meanly and endemically maligned in our culture. Unfortunately, the author, being certified politically correct, stifles the merest hint of any innuendo regarding a particular, libel-mongering ethnicity's baneful appropriation of power, which has made this injustice both outrageous and - so far at least - impossible to redress.
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Poland light
COLD, HORRIBLY DEMEANING TO POLES & CHRISTIANS