Poland Indicted

than the other minorities, but our modesty should not be used to make a rope for us! From this it should not be gathered that no sins are committed against us.

On the contrary: I declare that in this respect the greatest sins are committed against us, and in the presence of the Sejm and of the government I appeal to the minister to right the wrong. It is time that we should also be treated like other nations.

POLAND’S FLIRTATION WITH NAZI GERMANY

And now, despite my customary habit, I shall turn to a field which I have always avoided in my public utterances, both at the foreign ministry and at the Sejm councils ever since I’ve had the great pleasure of belonging to the Sejm. More than once I have had the opportunity of speaking from the Sejm tribunal and putting forth various charges and complaints. In so doing I have, however, always avoided foreign politics.

But in the present case I think that I would be committing a wrong against the country if I were to keep silent. By this I mean our monstrous flirtation with present-day Germany. Whether I say this merely as a Jew?—I admit that as a Jew I am particularly pained by it.

Certainly it is not pleasant to see somebody near to one in the society of Mephisto. The government should not do it even for the ten per cent of its population which is Jewish. Whether one is pleased by it or not, the fact is, however, that there are three million Jews in Poland. And such a minority should be reckoned with, if only because of the feeling and sentiment of so large a minority Poland should not have associated with the most bitter enemy of that minority, with him whose name it is practically forbidden to mention in Poland and, indeed, the chief prosecutor should be just about ready to confiscate me altogether if I were to mention it explicitly.

But believe me, as an honest person I am now speaking with pain and regret, not only as Jew but also as Polish citizen.

HAVE SAVED THE REICH FROM TOTAL ISOLATION

We have saved Germany from complete isolation. No one in Europe, America or Asia wanted to have anything to do with the Hitlerite government, each got as far away as possible. Are we alone to save them? Why?

It’s true, France has sinned much against Poland. I admit that I have more than once been glad that our foreign ministry reacted sharply against France’s trifling attitude towards Poland. But it is one thing to react and something else again to go over to the enemy’s camp, from which, by the way, one gets nothing.

Today there are two camps in the world: One in which is the whole of the cultured civilized world, and a second, to which every once in a while some little discontented realm is added. Where, then, should our place be—in the first camp or in the second?

There is a Jewish proverb about those who make unnecessary trouble for themselves: “He laid a well head in a sickbed!” Do we have to lay our sound heads in a sickbed?

I consider uniting with present-day Germany very bad policy leading to very bad consequences. Therefore Poland should withdraw as quickly as possible.