First Round Perceptions A ndrzej Folwarczny wants to improve Polish-Jewish rela- tions one step at a time. Folwarczny, 35, Polish parliament member of the liberal Union For Freedom Party from 1997-2001 and current president of the Forum for Dialogue Among Nations, works out of a small Warsaw office with one staff member and 30 vol- unteers. He knows that Poland, a new mem- ber to the European HARRY Union, considers KI RS BAUM itself the biggest Columnist European friend- to Israel — but Jews, as a whole, perceive Poland as a dan- gerous place with a long history of anti-Semitism. He bristles at the negative description of his country, especially from the reference point of the March of the Living, the annual tour of Jewish teens to the death camps of Poland, where Folwarczny Poles line the walk- way shouting anti-Semitic epithets. Still, Folwarczny is on the road, reaching out to Jewish communities around the country in conjunction with the American Jewish Committee, touting the forum's programs to help Jews and Poles come together here and in Poland. In 10 years, the forum brought together 100 exchange students in one program and two American rabbis to meet with Polish clergy and govern- ment officials in another. Soon, the forum will bring together Catholic seminary and Jewish rabbini- cal students. Next year, 10,000 copies of Difficult Questions will be published and sold in America and Poland. In the publi- cation, professionals answer questions such as "Why were Poles so compla- cent during the Holocaust? And "Why do American Jews think that all Poles are anti Semitic?" He hopes the book will become part of the Polish school curriculum, a counter to the rose-tinted lenses of the Soviet educational system that told two generations of his country- We've never met a man we could not fit! 10 minutes from the border! 1526 Ottawa Street Windsor, Canada -877-5-FREEDS www.freeds.com • • VOLVO for life New 2005 S40T5 $34,515 All wheel drive, power moon roof, leather, premium sound system, heated seats, automatic Save $4,000 Includes 3 yr/36,000 free maintenance 2005 + tax, license • while supplies last DWYER AND SONS - Family owned since 1959. • (2413) 624-0400 9/22 2005 10 Volvosales@dwyerandsons.com www.dwyerandsons.com On Maple Rd., W. of Haggerty OPEN SATURDAYS 102608C Harry Kirsbaum's e-mail address is hkirsbaum@thejelvishnews.com . men that Poles weren't complicit in killing Jews in World War II, but res- cued them. After all, more Poles than other nationalities have been honored as Righteous Gentiles at Yad Vashem. Yet anti-Semitism still exists in Poland, due to ignorance more than discrimination, he said. Folwarczny's Poland is basically a homogenous nation, with a popula- tion of 39 million — only 5,000 to 20,000 of them Jews. He knows how long the road to success will be, and he knows he has little help, but someone has to try. My father came from a wealthy fami- ly in Lodz. He managed an apartment building owned by his father, and he lived in one of the corner apartments until the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. My mother also came from Lodz, but she came from a poor family. Her father was cobbler. She played soccer after school and the fights that broke out usually involved the fact that she was Jewish. She fought a lot back then. That was long before the Nazis entered the picture. My parents met on the road back from the death camps. They traveled in a group back to Lodz, where they placed their names on a list in the center of town and regularly checked the list for family members and friends, with no results. Almost every- one they knew was dead. My father returned to his apartment to find someone else, a Pole, living there. "Go away, Jew; you don't live here anymore," he told my father. "If you , stay, we'll kill you.' When my parents packed what little they had after the war and left their "homeland," they never looked back. They settled in Germany until they could afford to come to the United States. I grew up listening to similar stories from neighbors, and these days I can hear more stories of cruelty and violence at the Holocaust Memorial Center. Folwarczny has good intentions, but the roadblocks are huge b The survivor generation won't forgive, and my generation won't either. It will take generations for Jews to get to a place where the Holocaust is a history lesson, and Poland is just another European country. But right now the wounds are just too deep. ❑ .