Moderates’ favorite Polish Party, Liga Polskich Rodzin (League of Polish Families, that most Catholic of Catholic Parties), has recently moved to rid Poland of a source of immorality and anti-Polish sentiment: the works of Jan Brzechwa. All reference to this Jew propagandist are to be removed. First step — remove his filthy name (His real name was Lesman — the horror) from street names in Wraclaw, then in all of Poland. Next, his ungodly, unpatriotic works are to be banned from school.
What kind of garbage was this guy writing?
On the bank of a sky-blue river
live many small sorrows.
The first is sad because
he can’t play in the garden.
The second — that water doesn’t want to be dry.
The third — that a fly flew into his ear.
And what’s more, that cats scratch,
That he can’t catch the hen,
That he can’t bite the neighbor’s leg,
and that it never rains sausages,
And the last sorrow is that
People travel by cars, and a pup has to go on foot.
But just give him a little milk,
and bye bye sorrows.
I know most are probably shocked that I would put such pornography on this site, but — horror of horrors — K even read it to L and we filmed it! How sick.
Those who read Polish can read the article here.
Fortunately, the LPR is going to save us. They have pointed out that Lesman’s Jewish propaganda verse (let’s just call a spade a spade) teaches kids to be lazy and to lie — just like Lesman himself. And naturally, his works are not sufficiently Catholic and Polish, but what can you expect from a Jew?
All sarcasm aside, this is seriously happening in Poland — a suggestion to ban a poet known and loved for his children’s verse, essentially because he’s Jewish. The League of Polish Families has ties to Radio Maria, a deeply anti-Semitic religious radio station in Poland. Additionally, Marcin Giertych, a Polish representative at the Council of Europe and an LPR member himself, wrote and published with EU money a book suggesting that all of Jews’ problems throughout history are their own fault. He is the father of the current Minster of Education, Roman Giertych.
And so father and son are on a mission to rid Poland of any reference to those “godless Jews” and make sure Poland is a beacon of proper Catholic patriotism, all in the name of the most famous Jew in history…
dear Gary! Americans are oversensitive. of course we live now in “the time of absurd”. but everybody knows – the best way of fighting with nonsense is nonsense. do you know polish tradition of Prima Aprilis? please read again this article (onet.pl?) and see the date!;)))) sorry for mistakes and Å›ciskam!
Well, it was published well before April First, and if it is a joke, J, K, and I don’t seem to be the only ones taken into it.
Given the ridiculous anti-semitic rantings of the LPR, one could hardly be blamed for taking it seriously.
Some can think that these situations are harmeless and supposed to be interpreted as a joke but you can’t loose sight of the fact that Europe was the focus one of the most horrendous attempts at Jewish genocides in recent history.
At best it would have to fall into the category of “sick” jokes.
Well, there’s more than that — if it is a joke, it’s a joke about a political party that makes such ridiculous proposals, a party that is all but openly anti-Semitic.
I’ll also add that both K and J (who read it before me) didn’t immediately think it was a joke.
I’m still not convinced. Such is the idiocy of Liga Polskich Rodzin that I wouldn’t put it past them. Plus, it was published four days before 1 April. If it is an April Fool’s joke, it’s timed terribly, not to mention, as mes said, tasteless.
Gary, first of all, internet is full of ridiculous, not funny and tasteless jokes, you have to carefully check the source of published text before you start to comment. this text was from april eddition of “Odra”. “Odra” – is a magazine of modern polish literature and a modern lietrature all over the world is quite tasteless;).
humour and jokes were our strongest weapon in dark ages of comunism (and even before) and now still is the strongest weapon against new enemies – The Two Potato Bross (and their servants).
it is difficult to explain here, everything what I want to say about the context of this
commented article. I don’t think it’s great work but your opinion was built on ignorance of many facts – for exemples antisemitic jokes of Julian Tuwim (our great polish jewish poet), “casus Marzanna” – meaningless accident from polish news or latest discussion in polish media about biographies of polish writters (we could watch very interesting tv series – with the most interesting epsiode about Jan Brzechwa). by all above I don’t mean that there is no anti-semitism in Poland but it is at most minor problem of this country.
p.s. I have to admit, however, not only you, K and J but probably also onet.pl, which quoted this article from “Odra”
didn’t think it was a joke:)
It seems that the folks at Trojka didn’t think it’s a joke either, as they did a segment about it as well…
If it is a joke, those responsible need to come out and say, “Look, it’s a joke.”
As far as jokes go, I think it’s pretty bad. April Fool’s pranks are supposed to be obviously pranks — like the BBC’s piece on the Swiss spaghetti harvest from 1957.
LPR politicians criticize Brzechwa not because he was a Jew, but because he glorified stalinism in some of his poems written before 1956.
Here is one of those pro-communist poems, with dedication to all Americans:
Tu mowi Nowy Jork! Slyszycie glos Ameryki!
Glos tej Ameryki, co swiat dolarem mierzy,
Ameryki gieldziarzy, lgarzy i szalbierzy
Ameryki bezprawia, chamstwa i ucisku,
Ameryki gangsterow zadnych krwi i zysku,
Ameryki groz?cej palaszem Goliata,
Ameryki zbrodniczych podpalaczy swiata
Enjoy!
Thanks for the information. Given LPR’s cozy relationship with Rydzyk and the views of Giertych Sr., I’m sure that the Jewish portion of the equation doesn’t help Brzechwa’s case at all…
Besides, in which way do any of Brzechwa’s poems for children exhibit pro-Stalinism?