Everything begins with the drawings - The exhibition of 'Alien and unpleasant'

Different attempts to be a (half)polish man

It is always … to be continued

 Note 9

 A goon, fat Jewish man carries his own belly with a wheelbarrow. A rabbi treads a map of Poland unmercifully. A group of Hebrew men are laughing at the crucified woman who symbolizes Poland itself. These are cartoons which became cruel prejudicies. And after becoming prejudicies turned into false facts which celebrate their reneissance today.

A new exhibition in Warsaw displays about 300 caricatures from period between 1919 and 1939. The exhibition, which is being hosted by the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, tries to highlight the use of the cartoons which were published in Polish press like Gospodarka Zydów or Pod Pregierzem in the middle of the time when the antisemitism was common in Europe.

How can we descibe this exhibition? If we would pay attention to the way the exhibition is set we could notice the history of antisemitism itself. Not just here in Poland. I'm speaking about the evolution of antisemitism in general. For example the way the Jews were depicted in the early 20's: the exploitation of poor people by ugly and fat Jews. It seemed to me that the irony and the act of mocking Jews were more important than aggression. But we woudn't say the same about the pictures which were made in the 30's. Jews were depicted rather as serpents, worms, spiders, vermins, wolves etc.

These pre-war pictures were made almost 90 years ago. Are they old? Yes, of course. The cartoons are very old. Are they already a part of the past? We cannot answer this question so easily. 

The well-known picture of Anna Frank. She is smiling. And the text which is written in the photo says: „What's that burning...Oh it's my family”. An another picture of Hitler: „Three Jews walk into a bar...I lied it was a gas chamber.” These examples were posted on Facebook. There are thousands of pictures appear day by day, not to mention the drawings, caricatures, videos and manipulated photographs. The cyperspace gives the best forum to share this kind of „opinions”.

Where is the line between the past and the present? We are able to feel the continuity, not the incompletion. As we see today these kind of caricatures has appeared again. I'm thinking mainly about the Muslim-Jewish conflict in the Middle-East. The Muslim antisemitism is inspired by the old Europian drawings, and this „new antisemitism” is leaking back to Europe. This kind of hatred is a strange mixture of Christian, European and Muslim antisemitism. On the one hand there are Palestinians who are identifying themselves as „collective Jesus” who were crucified by Jews. And on the other hand there are Europeans who are blaming Jews and Izrael, the „satanic” state, for the present crisis. Jews are responsible for the financial meltdown of 2008, for 9/11, for Iraq War and for almost every loss which had happened all around the world. They are controling the United States, the media and almost everything. They are not human beings. They have no moral values. They are bloodthirsty monsters. We know these prejudicies very well. They were borned as cartoons almost 90 years ago. These thoughts has affected the modernity, they are shaping the public understanding and they have became parts of normal and ordinary people's „normal” thinking. Mostly, they were and are not bad and evil people, just vulnerable and desperate, ready to think accordingly to the rules of propaganda. If we want to find the evil, we have to find the place where this propaganda was born.

But today it is almost impossible. Nowadays it is not difficult to find a good material to share and strengthen the speeches of hatred. There are websites. There are blogs. There are the digital technology. There is the phenomenon of cyber antisemitism. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube are potencial to spread antisemitism and other forms of hate. These websites allow anyone to create a page for any purpose. We are witnesses of comeback of the caricatures which are hanging on the walls of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. The spirit which meant inspiration for these cartoons is alive, but not just in the form of antisemitism. Jews must hide their identity, warn their own children not to exhibit any signs or indications of being Hebrew in public because it is too dangerous. Jews from a lot of European countries reported that they might travel abroad because their countries, where they are living, are not safe any more.

You can take off your kipa easily, but not your skin. I am speaking about the form of hatred against minorities in the developing coutries, and the hatred against emigrants in the developed countries. Hatred has became the key factor of the majority. There are even more right wing parties which offer radical solution for the problems with creating enemies and conspiracies for desperate people. This is the result of new and strong nationalism: create stranger, create aliens and after that we have to destroy them in order to protect our own safe. The hatred of „stranger” everywhere focused overwhelmingly on the unknown next door, who might be cheating and poisoning us. These parties managed to enter the parliaments all around Europe in 2009, 2010 and 2011 elections thanked to the wide group of supporters: Norway (2009, 22.9%), Netherland (2011, 17.6%), Italy (2010, 12.7%), Belgium (2010, 7.8%), Finland (2011, 19%), Hungary (2010, 16.71%), Austria (2010, 25.77%). The numbers are getting bigger, not to mention the existence of admittedly neo-nazi parties and groups on the fridge. The key issue is usually antisemitism, fueled by its anti-Israel core, immigration, the claim of free market, euroskepticism, Islam, law enforcement, capitalism, globalization, multiculturalism, national values, cultural identity, crimes od minorities, euro bail-outs and so on. In the countries of former Soviet Block like Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania or Slovakia the antisemitism and hatred againt Gypsies is huge, even if the number of minorities is so tiny there, for example in Poland. Lots of Gypsies are forced to commit crimes because of their extreme misery and poor living conditions. The picture of them is extremly negative, Facebook and Youtube are full of texts and photos which strengthen the hatred against them. The public sphere is competely poisoned by propaganda.

The caricatures, which are exhibited in Warsaw, are not part of any museum. Somehow they are alive. The forums have changed, of course, but not the intention which became stronger than ever before.