Features
Forms of hostility toward Poles and Polish culture include:
- organized persecution of the Poles as a nation or as an ethnic group, often based on the belief that Polish interests are a threat to one's own national aspirations;
- racist anti-Polonism, a variety of xenophobia;
- cultural anti-Polonism: a prejudice against Poles and Polish-speaking persons—their customs, language and education;
- stereotypes about Poland and Polish people in the media and popular culture.
A historic example of Polonophobia was polakożerstwo (in English, "the devouring of Poles") — a Polish term introduced during the 19th century in relation to the annexed areas of Poland. It described the forcible suppression of Polish culture, education and religion, and the elimination of Poles from public life and from landed property in east Germany under Otto von Bismarck, especially during the Kulturkampf and up to the end of World War I. Similar policies were implemented, mainly under Tsar Nicholas II, in the Polish territories that had been annexed by the Russian Empire.
Historic actions inspired by anti-Polonism ranged from felonious acts motivated by hatred, to physical extermination of the Polish nation, the goal of which was to eradicate the Polish state. During World War II, when most of Polish society became the object of Nazi genocidal policies, German anti-Polonism led to a campaign of mass murder.
At present, among those who often express their hostile attitude towards the Polish people are some Russian politicians and their far-right political parties who search for a new imperial identity.
Read more about this topic: Anti-Polish Sentiment
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