PAINTED BIRD

Jan Peczkis Unmasks the Fraudulent Claims of Jerzy Kosinski on Fugitive Jews and the German Occupation

The BLACK BIRD-MONSTROSITY is the title of this book. (My review is based on the 1994 edition). The book consists of a series of interviews with people who remembered Jerzy Kosinski and his family, and the actual turn of events. The Kosinski’s (Lewinkopfs) were an assimilated, fairly well-to-do family. (p. 18).

Jerzy Kosinski originally claimed that everything in the PAINTED BIRD was true. (p. 11).

Far from it!

He didn’t wander from town to town (p. 46), nor live in an orphanage. He spent the entire German occupation, living among Poles, in the town of Dabrowo Rzeczycka. In fact, not only wasn’t he maltreated, he practically lived like a king. (p. 146). All the lurid attempted-drowning incidents are bogus. (p. 143, 152). He never lost his voice. Some boys–boys being boys–did try to pull down Jerzy’s pants to see his circumcision (probably more out of curiosity than malice). But evidently they were half-serious, as he, not being particularly strong, never got exposed, and always managed to get away. (p. 143).

Much has been said about Polish anti-Semitism and how Poles supposedly didn’t see Jews as part of their sphere of moral obligations. But this went both ways. After Nazi Germany defeated Poland in 1939, some Polish Jews, innocent of eventual Nazi intentions, actually mocked the Poles, telling them: “Your time has passed!” (p. 22). (This fact also adds refutation to the claim that the Jewish-Soviet collaboration further east was motivated by Jewish anticipation of Nazi extermination.)

Neo-Stalinist Jan T. Gross and his fans would have us believe that Poles were habitually willing to incur the German-imposed death penalty for the unauthorized slaughter of animals, but much less so in the hiding of Jews. This is an absurd comparison, as the former is much more discreet than the latter. As it turns out, the Poles in this area didn’t engage in illegal slaughter until after Stalingrad, at which time the Germans noticeably slacked their policies (p. 63), and became chronically receptive to bribes (p. 85).

Also, Jan T. Gross and his fans assert that Poles could count on their neighbors’ secrecy in underground activities, but not in the hiding of Jews. Actually, underground involvement was usually kept secret from neighbors. As it turns out, Dabrowo Rzeczycka is yet another town where everyone knew that Kosinki’s family, and other Jews, were being housed, yet they all trusted each other in this secret (p. 70). In fact, the Jewish children, despite their obvious Semitic features, freely played outdoors. Once, when Germans unexpectedly paid a visit, the Poles, with nerves of steel, innocently called the children indoors on some pretext, and nothing happened. (p. 54).

Bandit bands, impersonating the AK, sometimes raided the village (p. 58). (How many cases of “the A. K. killing fugitive Jews” were actually the deeds of such bandit bands?)

Armed conflicts were going on between anti-Communist (NSZ, post-AK) guerillas, and pro-Communist ones (GL/AL) in this area. Karol Liebeskind, a local fugitive Jew and actual AL member (p. 55), was assassinated. Meanwhile, the family housing the Kosinski’s was inclined to protect them regardless of politics. (p. 117). (Upon the arrival of the Red Army, Jerzy’s father, Moishe Lewinkopf, became actively Communist, thus becoming complicit in the Soviet subjugation and oppression of the very Poles that had saved them. See the detailed Peczkis review of Jerzy Kosinski: A Biography)

When Kosinski visited Poland in 1989, he was noticeably cool to his rescuers and their descendants, who had eagerly come to see him again (pp. 133-145). During his public appearances, he never once thanked the town of Dabrowo Rzecycka for saving his life. (p. 130). For shame!

There are many other Kosinski-type tales of Polish atrocities in existence, notably those compiled by Jan T. Gross in his Polonophobic screeds. Most lack independent corroboration. Siedlicka’s book serves as a valuable model of the kind of studies needed to evaluate these Jewish accusations.

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