November 29, 2004
19. BOOK - The Paderewski Memoirs (excerpt)
[Paderewski and the Jewish attacks]
... ... "But the dreadful situation in connection with the Jewish persecution was still upon me, still going on, for while I was in Paso Robles [California] an official of the Administration in Washington came to me and said that I must now make an affidavit stating that these accusations of the Jews were unfounded. But I asked, 'Why do you come to me now about it ? I have made no complaint.' 'No', he replied, 'you have not, but the Administration at Washington is now aware of all these regrettable things that have happened, all these threatening letters, all the circulars, which were current and are still current all through the country, and besides you must now be informed that there has been a strong petition sent to the President by some of your influential friends from New York (and among them some of the notable Jews) asking the President to put an end to that propaganda which is unworthy of a civilized country'. That was President Wilson. So I had to make an affidavit at once that I had not established a newspaper, that I had nothing to do with organizing pogroms and that all these accusations were absolutely false", p. 389.
Here is the affidavit signed February 5, 1914:
"Ignace Jan Paderewski, being first duly sworn, deposes and says: My home is at Morges, in Switzerland; I am temporarily sojourning at the Hot Springs at El Paso de Robles, California. During the last year I have been publicly subjected to many unjust charges which have caused many of my friends indignation and concern. For the satisfaction of these good friends, and for such use as they may make of this affidavit, and to all whom it may concern, I hereby swear and declare:
"That I never gave money to any anti-Jewish newspaper whatsoever.
"That the establishment of the newspaper of which I am accused of being the founder, was absolutely unknown to me and, in fact, I only heard of its existence for the first time some two months after the date upon which (as I am informed) it was founded.
"That I never initiated or supported the boycotting of the Jewish trade in Poland [which did not exist in 1914], being entirely out of, and not taking any pact in active politics in Poland.
"That affidavit was sent, I understand, to all the New York newspapers. I, of course, was not in New York at the time, but I was informed that THE EVENING POST was the only New York newspaper that published the affidavit. .. ...
"But the persecution continued as before. It was not stopped for the rest of the tour, and for all the consecutive tours the Jews continued to attack me violently. They never believed my statements. Never.
"Some of my friends in New York even went to a Jewish newspaper protesting against such treatment, saying it was not true. The only reply was, 'Oh, yes. We know it is not true, but it is good publicity ! It sells the newspaper.'
"The only result of the affidavit was that the promoters in Poland who were responsible for starting the paler got furious and turned on me and attacked me in that very paper ! My own paper, as they called it. What a fantastic situation ! . ...
"War was already in the air, and it was in the interests of certain Jews to have that propaganda continue, not personally against me, but against Poland. Even after the war, during my last few tours in America, I found these circulars still being distributed in some places. Still going about - still making mischief.
"But, for the moment, I shall leave it as that. At another time there is more to say but it does not belong to this year of 1914. At a much later period the attack was renewed. Ignace Jan Paderewski and Mary Lawton.
The Paderewski Memoirs (New York: Scribner's, 1938) pp. 390-391. The book only covers the period to 1914 closing with the note that "Later memoirs in preparation".
[See also http://www.papurec.org FUNDAMENTAL DOCS and BOOK #15]
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"PAPUREC"
papurec@papurec.org
POLISH-AMERICAN PUBLIC RELATIONS COMMITTEE
Dana I. Alvi - Chairwoman
www.papurec.org
I don't pretend to be an expert in the matter. Still, I have never heard about antagonism between Jews and Paderewski. On the contrary, I heard that the anti-Semites called Pilsudski and Paderewski "Jewish uncles".
Below is an excerpt based on writings collected on a page about William W. Hagen, Professor of History at the University of California-Davis (http://www.as.wvu.edu/history/CollabProject/CollabProject_hagen.htm):
"The recently formed Pilsudski-Paderewski government and the broad coalition of political parties supporting it denied official instigation or toleration of the Lwow and other pogroms, and blamed bandits, criminals, demobilized soldiers and deserters for the anti-Jewish violence."
I'm not very interested in those discussions because I never heard about a persistent inter-ethnic or inter-religious tolerance and even less about sympathy between ethnic and/or religious groups. There are very successful mixed marriages, but not too much harmony on a collective scale. Personally I like to live in a multicultural society, but I am aware of a latent potential danger because we cannot change the fact that we live in the Darwinian universe. The New Continent is multicultural but its History is still too young to serve as a model. In Lebanon the Muslims and Christians jumped at each other's throats after 1,000 years of coexistence. I heard that in former Yugoslavia almost everybody is of mixed blood but nobody wants to remember it. I know Polish-Ukrainian families in which the sons took the "national side" of the father, and the daughters of the mother. Harmony reigned inside the families but outside it was another story. I propose that we take with a grain of salt all the debates aimed at maintaining animosities, which don't need to be fed anyway. What should remain in memory is that living in the Darwinian Universe obliges all of us to maintain the spirit and tactics of self-defense or sooner or later pay the consequences. WM