The fool doth think he is wise

In As You Like It, Shakespeare wrote: "The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool." Which, do you think, is Glenn Beck? He just announced plans to visit Auschwitz, one of six major extermination camps established in Poland by the Nazis. He wants to "figure out - how did this happen?" Though Beck claims to be studying the Holocaust in preparation, little appears to be sticking. "Poland, I didn't know this when I first started doing my research. Poland rose up, a lot of Poles rose up, to try to help the Jews but they had nothing left. They had no arms," Beck said, according to TPM. Where to start? Yes, a great many honorable Poles assisted Jews as the Holocaust unfolded during the war, sometimes at great personal risk. Perhaps as many as 450,000 Jewish lives were saved by these efforts. But not all Poles were known for their "passionate philo-Semitism," as TPM put it, particularly in Warsaw (see Szmalcownik and Volksdeutsche). Even when the war ended, returning Jews were sometimes met by hostility and anti-Semitic rioting. In short, it's complicated. Beck, the ultimate Ugly American, should keep his butt at home and his nose out of complex historic events beyond his feeble grasp.