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Fear of the Graves. "As for the Polish intellectuals, they are very stubborn, too. There are even leftist Cabinet ministers here who hate Russia. We must somehow make all Poles understand the need for friendship with Russia—even if it is more with the brain than from the heart."
Then Radziwill turned to the subject of anti-Semitism in Poland:
"Before the war, Poland had some 3,500,000 Jews or about one-tenth our population—about the same percentage as Negroes in your population. The children of peasants and workers and the poorer intelligentsia did not have much opportunity, partly because the Jews had all the small shops and many of the small key positions. So all these groups were strongly against the Jews. The landowners were not; we often helped the Jews because they often helped us.
"Of course in the war nearly all Poland's Jews were slaughtered. A new Polish bourgeoisie took over their little shops and businesses. Now, when an occasional Jew does come back from concentration camp or other exile and reclaims his place, his successor hates him. And every other member of the new Polish bourgeoisie fears that his predecessor might return from the grave.
"The Nazi mass killing of Jews had a very bad effect in Poland. Once Poles knew it was that easy to kill Jews, the tendency and temptation was there. I will never forget the day that the Nazis killed 17,000 Jews at Maidanek while I was in another part of that concentration camp. That evening many of my Polish fellow prisoners got drunk to celebrate. That's terrible. But it's true."
* Before World War II the Radziwills, who once owned several million acres, were down to their last couple of hundred thousand.