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The Origin of the “Polish Joke”
Polish “jokes” came from Nazi German propaganda that was then pushed ironically by Soviet communist sympathizers in Hollywood.
The racist stereotype that Poles are intellectually inferior or have subhuman intelligence, originated from Nazi German propaganda and Soviet propaganda.
For example, the myth that Polish horses were used to attack German tanks in World War II was total
Nazi German propaganda that the Nazi Germans repeated over and over until it took a life of its own using the “Big Lie” technique. (Click on link for more on the Nazi propaganda on Polish Calvary attacks). The
Big Lie is defined as "the intentional distortion of the truth, especially for political or official purposes." This tactic of trying to deceive a country's citizens was written about by Adolph Hitler.
["The great mass of people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one." Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), Mein Kampf, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, 1925].
The Soviet Communists saw the value of this myth and the racist notion that Polish people have subhuman intelligence, so they had their Left-Wing sympathizers in Hollywood
push it to the American public using Anti-Polish Television and Movie imagery.
The image of Polish people having subhuman intelligence was useful to the Soviet Communists too, since then, people would not mind too much if Poland is occupied by the
Soviet Union if Poles are portrayed as having a Slavic culture that is inferior and less then human.
Nazi German Hatred of Polish People
As for the German Nazis (and even the Soviets) they killed off the educated class of Poland first to make their racist
stereotype of “Poland having inferior intelligence” a reality. The Nazi Germans also felt “Poles only had the intelligence for Nazi slave labor”.
Polish "jokes" were in Hitler's two speeches after he invaded Poland.
Hitler ridiculed Poles in his Sept. 19, 1939 speech in Danzig (today called Gdansk) and in his Berlin speech in Oct. 6, 1939 with these hate-through-humor anti-Polish
“jokes” and references.
Nazi Anti-Polish propaganda/Polish “jokes” in Nazi Death Camps
Michael Preisler who was a Polish-Catholic survivor of the German Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz (Auschwitz prisoner #22213), has stated on many occasions how the Nazis
ridiculed the Polish people as having less then human intelligence. Polish jokes were quite popular among Nazi guards in the parts of the Nazi death camps where there were Polish Catholic prisoners being tortured
and killed.
Ironically, Left-wing Hollywood and the TV Networks (like NBC-TV) pushed these racist Polish “jokes” even though Hollywood claimed to hate Nazis. Hollywood and
NBC-TV evidently hate Nazi propaganda but not when its applied to Poles. Hollywood and Network-TV (NBC) have a deep hatred for Anti-communist, Pro-American, Pro-Catholic Poland. The Polish American Guardian Society
has documented NBC-TV’s attacks on Poland with racist Polish “jokes”.
The recent movie “Katyn” shows the German Nazis and Soviets killing the educated Polish class in Poland in order to make Poland “intellectually
inferior” and easier to rule. This was during the time Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia were Allies, and were collaborating with each other to destroy Poland as per their Molotov-Ribbentrop pact to destroy
Poland together.
Although there were degrading jokes about all ethnic groups in the United States due to assimilation problems when they arrived, the jokes that portray Poles as having
subhuman intelligence, did not predate the 20th Century in America, since it was introduced by left-wing bigots in Hollywood and TV networks like NBC-TV in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Many Polish Americans who lived before this time have reported that they never heard these racist subhuman intelligence jokes about Poles, until after they were introduced
by Left-Wing networks like NBC-TV in conjunction with Hollywood. NBC-TV launched Polish-bashing shows such as “Laugh In” which ridiculed Polish people constantly. Polish Americans felt the producer of
“Laugh In,” George Schlatter, was an Anti-Polish bigot. In addition late night bigots were encouraged to bash Poles with “jokes” that portrayed the Polish people as having subhuman
intelligence. Therefore the power of Television and motion pictures was used to demean and dehumanize Polish people with repetitive Big Lie type propaganda.
Anti-Polish movies such as “The End” were some of the earliest movies meant to degrade Poles with racist humor. In addition other anti-Polish shows such as
“All in the Family” were used to degrade the Polish people even though the left-wing producer claimed the ruse that the show was suppose to be “against bigotry”. “All in the
family” was filled with racist anti-Polish sound bites such as “Dumb Polak” in an attempt to influence its viewers to have the same anti-Polish prejudice, that the Left-wing producer of the show
(Norman Lear) had.
So basically, Polish “jokes” were part of a Hollywood/TV media hate campaign against Polish people.
Hitler’s Two Speeches after Invading Poland (parts of speeches)
From Hitler’s speech of Sept. 19, 1939 in Danzig (Gdansk Poland):
At this moment we want to give the Polish soldier absolute justice. At many points the Pole fought bravely. His lower leadership made desperate efforts, his
middle-grade leadership was too unintelligent, his highest leadership was bad, judged by any standard. His organization was — Polish...
http://www.hitler.org/speeches/09-13-39.html
Note: What Hitler fails to talk about is the tremendous help Nazi Germany got from Soviet Russia in invading Poland. Soviet Russia provided Nazi Germany
millions of tons of war aid to be used in Germany’s invasion of Poland as per the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement between Germany and Soviet Russia. Of course Hitler didn’t talk about that or
how Polish troops held the Germans back well until Nazi Germany’s ally Russia attacked Poland from the Eastern side.
From Hitler’s speech of Oct 6, 1939:
Towns as well as villages are in a state of neglect. The roads, with very few exceptions, are badly out of repair and in a terrible condition. Anyone who travels
in that country for two or three weeks will get the proper idea of the classical German term 'Polnische Wirtschaft,' meaning a 'Polish state of affairs!'
http://www.hitler.org/speeches/10-06-39.html
What Hitler failed to say in his speeches about Poland is that much of the problems Poland had in the early part of the 20th century was because of Poland
being destroyed and pushed off the map from 1795-1917 by Germany and Russia.
Poland was basically licking its wounds and catching its breath in the early part of the 20th Century when it was back on the map.
Hitler’s Anti-Polish hate was sadly a continuation of Germany’s prejudice towards Poland/Slavic nations although Hitler’s hatred of
Poles/Slavic people went far beyond prior German Anti-Polish/Slavic prejudice.
In conclusion its disgusting that Nazi Anti-Polish hate-through-humor subhuman intelligence “jokes” about Poles would be introduced (and pushed) by part of the
Hollywood and “American” TV media such as NBC-TV in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Polish “jokes” started to decline in the United States when Polish Americans put aside their good nature and aggressively spoke out against this Anti-Polish
hatred. This does not mean Polish jokes have been eradicated as there are many who take pleasure in making themselves feel better by making fun of other groups.
Polish people, and people of decency everywhere, should always speak out against these racist Polish jokes as well as degrading ethnic jokes of all
nationalities.
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