WI Britain told Poland in 1939 "You're on your own." ?

[MSZ]

Snip

That is a nice and informative wall of text. Unfortunately, the same text clearly has it that:

anti-Jewish laws similar to those enacted in Nazi Germany, Horthy’s Hungary, or Vichy France were not passed by the Polish parliament.

Which is the crucial element, as it signifies that while anti-semitism did exist in Poland, it didn't have state approval. 118 Jews killed is a lot, but out of 3 million doesn't strike as much, especially if we take into account how many were killed in "simple" manslaughters, murders, etc. where anti-semitism wasn't a motive. Compare that to Nazi Germany, or even the Weimar Republic.

Anti-semitism was a private issue. People didn't like Jews, so they bought things at Polish shops (Would "Buy Polish" campaigns be anti-semitic?). Same went for private organizations, companies, autonomous universities, etc. which had the right to establish who can join and who can't - the state can't force them change their statues. Not giving preferential treatment is not equal to discrimination. Nor are animal protection bills, even if ones religion has animal mutilation as part of its rituals.

Most importantly, in March 1938 the Polish government announced a new "Citizenship Law." This law stated that as of October 30, 1938, the passports of Polish citizens who had lived abroad for more than five years would be revoked if those citizens had not "maintained contact with the [home] country".[3] Although this law did not target Jews specifically, its effect had a dramatic impact on Jews who had lived outside of Poland. One such community of Jewish expatriates were the tens of thousands of Polish Jews residing in neighboring Germany. The Polish action would have effectively rendered these people "stateless" on German soil, making them a German problem.

I'll go past the part of the law not being aimed against the Jews. Point is, annuling passports =/= revoking citizenship. The author here is plain wrong (like in other parts of those texts, like the Madagascar plan being "seriously concidered", but his one I feel needs clarification). Passport annulment is not equal to denying citizenship. So there was no threat of people "becoming stateless", there was the threat of people losing valid passports and thus having troubles with immigration services. Ever been to a country without a valid visa or passport? Happens often to many people, and doesn't always mean immidiate evacution to country of origin, since without a passport, it might be difficult to determine that country of origin.


Also note that the anti-semitic actions were carried out by the Nationalists, who were NOT in power in Poland at the time.

So statements such as "Discrimination of Jews in Poland is harsher than in the Third Reich" may have a certain tune to it, implying "the country" is at fault, but they are still untrue, as the "discrimination" is the result of private initiative, not state-sponsored.

That is because, in addition to the high cost of emigration, there was the extreme difficulty Jews had obtaining entry almost anywhere because of the verylimited quotas imposed. It is worth looking at the statements of the various national delegates to the Evian Conference of July 1938 for an idea as to just how restrictive the quotas were.

Yet despite that, when hundreds of thousands Jews escaped Germany (from a much lower population than in Germany), less than that fled from Poland, which had a Jewish population many times larger. That is telling as well, as despite the anti-semitic sentiment among the population, the Jews also enjoyed many freedoms in the country, as it did not legislate anti-jewish laws. That does make a difference.