To the previous poster,
It was not my intention to dwell too much on cmaprison, but I would say that Russia was more anti-Jewish than France or most Western European countries.
I don't think an examination of history will bear that out.
Came across this in the Congressional record (there's also an interesting summary on religious regulation in Russia)
The rule in Russia has always been toleration, though limited by an arrangement which seems to a stranger very peculiar....This regulation seems rather the result, on the whole, of organized indifference than of zeal, its main purpose being undoubtedly to keep down any troublesome religious fervor. The great body of the Russian peasantry, when left to themselves, seem to be remarkably free from any spirit of fanatical hostility toward religious systems differeing from their own...While some priests have undoubtedly done much to create a more zealous feeling, it was especially noted during the fierce persecution of the Jews early in the present reign [Nicholas II] that in several cases the orthodox village priests not only gave shelter to Israelites seeking to escape harm, but exerted themselves to put an end to the persecutions. So, too, during the past few days the papers have contained a statement that a priest very widely known and highly esteemed, to whom miraculous powers are quite generally attributed-[St.] Father John, of Cronstadt [sic]-has sent some of the charity money, of which he is almoner, to certain Jewish orphanages under the control of Israelites.
http://books.google.ro/books?id=rHoe7PlyK_YC&pg=PA174&lpg=PA174&dq=John+Cronstadt+Orthodox+Isrealites&source=bl&ots=75uM_s3jxo&sig=wvf3KdN0UJ6ltdHwdyrwO9gWww4&hl=ro&ei=ynb5SviCN8yknQeAkY38DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false But that may be like saying Southerners were more racist towards Blacks than other Americans.
Not sure that's true. The largest KKK organiazation was the one which ran Indiana.
No one in question is terribly innocent. My point was more of a declaration about one group than its comparison to another.
Second point,
From what I remember many Ukrainians sided with the Nazis, in their genocide as well as fighting the Red Army.
And France had many collaborators. Btw, the Poles under the Vatican aren't nearly as anti-Semitic as the proud west likes to portray them either. For one thing, Poland is the only country in Europe which never expelled the Jews from its realm.
Much of Western Europe did and not just in the occupied countries. The UK and the US both had visible Nazi parties at least before the war.
That said, Antisemitism had roots that ran deep in Eastern Europe well before the Second World War. The Tsarist pogroms into Jewish areas such as the Pale are an example. Meanwhile such actions had ceased for a long time in Western Europe.
Poland the 'only' country? I find that a little hard to believe. Please show me where the Netherlands, France, Italy, Greece, and Scandinavian countries all banned Jews. On the contrary I remember Reformation era Netherlands allowing Iberian Jews to settle there (prior to the Reformation the Netherlands had not existed for all intents and purposes).
Lastly, and not that it is ultimately that important to the subject at hand, the era of the KKK that you cited was more xenophobic than racist. Jews and Catholics were seen as a greater threat than blacks were.
