Two Polish historians are facing a libel lawsuit for a scholarly study of Polish behavior during World War II, a case that is expected to determine the outcome of an independent Holocaust investigation under a national government. of Poland.
Judgment is expected in Warsaw district court on Feb. 9 in the case against Jan Grabowski and Barbara Engelking, historians with the Polish Center for Holocaust Investigation in Warsaw.
A group of Polish soldiers were evacuated by German SS troops when the Warsaw Ghetto was destroyed.
(Photo: AP)
This is the first major legal trial after the 2018 law that makes it a crime to falsely accuse the Polish country of crimes committed by Nazi Germany. The law caused a major diplomatic spat with Israel.
Since gaining power in 2015, the Conservative ruling party, Law and Justice, has sought to encourage investigations into Polish injustice during wartime German work, and would have preferred to emphasize on the heroism and suffering of Poland alone. The aim is to promote national pride – but critics say the government has been whitewashing that some Poles were also cooperating in the assassination of people in Germany.
Israeli Holocaust museum Yad Vashem said the legal effort is “a real attack on free and open research.”
Several other historical institutions have criticized the issue as the decision draws to a close, with the Paris-based foundation for Shoah’s memory describing Tuesday as a “witch hunt” and as “A pernicious attack into the heart of true research.”
The issue is based on a 1,600-page Polish two-page historical work, “Night Without End: The Fate of Chances in Selected Counties of Occupied Poland,” co-edited by Grabowski and Engelking. An abridged version of English is expected to be published in a few months.
Holocaust Historian Jan Grabowski at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum
(Photo: AP)
Grabowski and Engelking state that they see the issue as an attempt to disparage them personally and to encourage other researchers to explore the truth about disposing of arguments in the Poland.
“This is a Polish state case against freedom of investigation,” Grabowski told The Associated Press on Monday.
Grabowski, a Polish-Canadian who is also a professor at the University of Ottawa and the father of a Polish Holocaust survivor, has suffered much anti-Semitic harassment by nationalists, both online and offline. at lectures in Canada, France and elsewhere.
The daughter of a man in the town of Malinowo, who has a brief account of his wartime behavior, sues Grabowski and Engelking, demanding 100,000 zlotys ($ 27,000) in damages and an apology in newspapers.
According to evidence presented in the book, Edward Malinowski, an elder in the city, allowed a Jewish woman to live by helping her pass away as a non-Jew. But the survivor has also said he was a supporter in the deaths of several dozen units.
Polish President Andrzej Duda
(Photo: AP)
The girl, Filomena Leszczynska, has received support from an organization, the Polish League Against Registration, which receives funding from the Polish government.
That group argued that the two scholars were guilty of “disregarding the good name” of a Polish warrior, who they said had no part in causing harm, and by undermining the dignity and pride of all Poles. The trial was filed in court free of charge as permitted under 2018 law.
Mark Weitzman, director of government affairs for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, called “Night Without End,” a “carefully researched and discovered book … that chronicles thousands of cases of suffering with Poles in Holocaust murder arguments. “
“The talks against these two internationally renowned scholars are merely an attempt to use the legal system to stifle and intimidate Polish Holocaust scholarship,” Weitzman said.
Germany took possession of Poland in 1939, annexing part of it to Germany and ruling the rest. Unlike other German countries, Poland did not have a cooperative government. The Polish government and military fled before the war, with the exception of an underground defense force that was fighting against the Nazis within the country.
Israeli youths with their national flags march alongside the monument to about 900,000 European Americans killed by the Nazis between 1941 and 1944 at Treblinka’s death and labor camp
(Photo: AP)
But some people in Poland cooperated with the Germans in hunting and killing people, in many cases people who fled ghettos and tried to hide in the country.
Grabowski said that “Night without End” is multifaceted, and he talks about Polish virtues as well. He paints a realistic picture. “
“The Holocaust is not here to help Poland’s ego and confidence, it is a drama that kills the deaths of 6 million people – which the nationalists seem to have forgotten,” he said. .
Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski described the matter as a private matter.
“Everyone has the legal right to seek such treatment before (a) a court if they feel that their rights have been violated by another (person) or entity,” Jablonski told the AP in a statement Monday. “The government is not involved in the negotiations, it is a private matter to be decided by the court. “
But those who fear the case could undermine independent investigation have a different view.
“Being involved in this trial of a heavily subsidized publicly funded organization can easily be defined as a form of censorship and an attempt to scare away students from publishing the results of their research for fear of law and the costly lawsuit to come, “said Zygmunt Stepinski, director of the POLIN Museum of Polish History in Warsaw.