A new draft law about the Holocaust, already passed by both houses of the Polish parliament and which President Andrzej Duda said he would sign, is jeopardizing the country’s relations with Israel, Jews around the world, the United States, and Ukraine.
In doing so, the governing Law and Justice party is squandering the great gains the country has achieved since 1989. It is turning its back on Poland’s post-communist period, during which a main political objective was to anchor the country in the Euro-Atlantic organizations of NATO and the EU. This goal was complemented by a narrative of rapprochement and reconciliation with Israel, Ukraine, and Germany, Poland’s important and most Western neighbor.
But now, because of this legislation, the Polish narrative is being rewritten in a way that it is becoming seeped in patriotism, victimhood, and revenge. This toxic combination has unleashed on social media an anti-Semitism reminiscent of the spring of 1968. That was when the ruling communist party launched a campaign against the country’s small Jewish community. Over 15,000 Polish Jews fled the country.
Polish governments and many Poles have protested or intervened for years when a journalist or a politician referred to “Polish death camps.”
But now, the new law states that “whoever accuses, publicly and against the facts, the Polish nation or the Polish state, of being responsible or complicit in the Nazi crimes committed by the Third German Reich…or other crimes against peace and humanity, or war crimes, or otherwise grossly diminishes the actual perpetrators thereof, shall be subject to a fine or a penalty of imprisonment of up to three years.” Any reference by journalists, politicians, or other individuals of “Polish death camps” will face fines or a prison sentence. The new law also allows criminal proceedings for “denying the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists.”
Artists and academics will be excluded but not journalists or individuals that do their own local research about the past. But even the former cannot be taken for granted.
The United States, Israel, and Ukraine have each reacted to this legislation. The State Department did not mince its words. A spokeswoman said the draft law could undermine free speech and academic discourse. But more importantly, if enacted, it would have “repercussions… on Poland’s strategic interests and relationships— including with the United States and Israel. The resulting divisions that may arise among out allies benefit only our rivals.” No guessing who Washington was referring to. Israel and Ukraine have sharply warned Poland against meddling with the truth and have asked Warsaw to abandon the proposed law.
The Polish government has shrugged off the criticism as if it does not understand the consequences. During a conference in Warsaw on February 5, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, implying victimhood, said over the past 25 years, Poland “has become a convenient whipping boy.”
On the contrary.
Over the past quarter of a century Poland won plaudits for its economic development and ambitious foreign policy. Soon after 1989, Warsaw embarked on a painful and difficult path of reconciliation with Ukraine. Both sides had to deal with the ethnic cleansing of Poles in western Ukraine and the ethnic cleansing of Ukrainians in south-eastern Poland that occurred during and after World War II. Going on the logic of the new legislation, any generalization of these Polish acts would be deemed a criminal offense. And decades of reconciliation in which Poland staunchly supported Ukraine’s integration with Europe would be seriously undermined.
Successive Polish governments also managed to build a close relationship with Israel, which was an immensely emotional and complex task given the degree of complicity by some Poles with the Nazi occupiers’ objectives of getting rid of the Jews. This was followed by the pogroms in Krakow in 1945, and in Kielce in 1946, and the anti-Semitic campaign in 1968. That relationship has now been very badly damaged.
In Israel, Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, runs a program called “The Righteous Among The Nations,” which recognizes the enormous risks that were taken to save Jews during the Holocaust. 6,700 Poles have already been honored, the biggest number in Europe. The Poles rightly point out that compared to many other countries, there were no Quislings in Poland. However, during the war, many Poles denounced Jews in hiding—and the Poles who sheltered them—to the Germans. Many also participated in the killing themselves. The attitude of the great majority toward the Jews ranged from indifference to hostility.
Poland’s foreign policy was also anchored on returning to Europe by joining the EU and NATO. Germany, in the meantime, embarked on its own reconciliation with Poland, which was based on apology and responsibility for the occupation of the country during World War II and the destruction of Europe’s largest Jewish community. In short, this foreign policy was linked to a very difficult assessment of Polish-Jewish relations, Polish-Ukrainian relations, and Polish-German relations. But Morawiecki’s statement reflects a narrative that Law and Justice is propagating: that Poles were and continue to be victims. If Poles were victims then the issue of guilt, responsibility, and truth run up against each.
“This crisis is about the TRUTH. The truth about what happened seventy years ago and the facts which are still disputable,” wrote Andrzej Rojek, chairman of the Jan Karski Educational Foundation based in New York. “There would be no concept of ‘political history’ if the facts were established beyond reasonable doubt.” For Rojek, “it is a bad game to let politicians play with historical facts.”
Morawiecki, however, stated that “finding the truth is in our national interest.” But who defines the national interest when it comes to dealing with the past? Prosecutors and judges, according to this new law.
Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of Law and Justice, is intent on imposing a specific nationalist agenda on interpreting the past. It’s not just about what happened during World War II and its immediate aftermath. It is about what happened after 1989.
Even though Kaczyński and many other Law and Justice activists were part of the anti-communist Solidarity movement, Kaczyński holds onto the belief that the liberal intellectuals of Solidarity did not complete the transformation of Poland after 1989 because they did not “de-communize” the system. And because they sought reconciliation at home and with Ukraine, Germany, and Israel, the narrative of patriotism and nationalism was marginalized. Law and Justice is now seeking to control the new narrative—ironically, just as the communists tried to do.
It’s hard to see Law and Justice backing away from the law. Duda, disingenuously, said he would send it to the Constitutional Tribunal because of the many objections. But isn’t the Constitutional Tribunal controlled by Law and Justice as part of the so-called reform of the judiciary? In the meantime, the governing party faces three big elections in the coming year—local, national, and in the European Parliament. Its popularity, at 47 percent, is at an all-time high as its nationalist and patriotic narrative gains traction, particularly among young voters. At the least, such a narrative brings with it a loss of influence among its very close allies—which Russia will surely welcome. At the most, it undoes everything Poland had striven for after 1989.
Comments(11)
Poland is squandering the gains that international capital made at its expense. The extent of extreme child poverty was scandalous - and yet it was actually part of the plan to keep on providing cheap labor to western Europe. No social security system, you see, under the corpo fascism that allied itself to the Old Commies, who were left to run the media, judiciary and tax system. But it's all falling apart - and the crony capitalists can't believe that democracy is breaking out. It's nightmarish for them that they are paying tax for the first time and that Poles have stopped emigrating. As for the Holocaust Bill - the wording was agreed in advance with the Israeli government in consultations that started in July 2017. The perfidious nature of the Israeli govt has been a subject of sadness for the Israeli ambassador to Poland, who has been very apologetic since making her Holocaust Day speech. She said she was forced to say it. Shame on the Jews for trying to incite a wave of anti-Polish racism worldwide - after all Poles have done for them. The Chief Rabbi of Poland reported 2500 Jews died at Polish hands during and imediately after the war - which is far fewer than died at Jewish hands. The Judenrat and Jewish Gestapo (Zagiew) killed more. 30,000 Poles were recorded as executed for helping Jews.
Polish victimhood? It is amazing how fashionable it is now for the"educated elite" to demonize Poland for its right to defend itself from the misguided and misinformed. Poland is far from playing a victim. After being erased from the map of Europe fro 123 years to reemerge as a strong and proud nation, is this victimhood? This article is a prime example why Poland has every right to set the record straight.
Poland had been one of the most anti Semitic countries way before Hitler invaded it. A very popular and recurrent reference to the Jew was "parchszywe zhydy jedzcie do palestiny. meaning scabby jew go to Palestine. The jew was referred to as the devil and frequent subject to being beaten up by the poles, particularly their youth and particularly after they came out of services in the church. In spite of the fact that now Jews afraid to return to their homes after the war lest they be killed by the Poles, as they had learned was the fate of those who did return, and now Poland is almost free of Jews it was not surprising that Poles burned a Jew in efegy as soon as the country started turning right or populist. The perennial Polish scapegoat, although for many generations prior living in Poland they were not considered Polish. They were always parchshywy zhyd told to go to Palestine. I was one of those who suffered those anti Semitic indignities and persecution even as a small child prior to the wae.. My life,; along with those of some family members was saved not by the Poles, but inadvertently by The Soviet Union.
Poland was absolutely devastated by world war 2. The Nazis not only had Jews as their target, but the whole Polish population and Polish nation. Occupation did not stop after World War 2, with an imposed Communist regime. Polish Death Camp is an offensive term and it is right to fight this. Poland having to share responsibility for the Holocaust is also a stretch. Poland did not conceive or implement this. But Poland should be historically reminded that individuals were participants - from the Jedwabne massacre, Poles who turned in Jews and even Poles who operated Holocaust trains. The guilt of selected individuals belongs not just to Poland. Someone turned in Anne Frank's family in Amsterdam. The law should be reworked to address the concerns, especially those of Israel. Those two nations have great relations and an important shared heritage. Israel shares this tragic time with Poland. And Poland needs to be reminded of the history of antisemitism in its country. Drumming up anti-Polish or antisemetic feelings is about the worst thing that can happen to these two countries.
Not surprised about Poland's current anti- Semitic stance. The country hardly needed Hitler's propaganda against Jews. The Jew in Poland way before the arrival of Hitler, was often referred to as "parchshywy zhyd", meaning scabby Jew and I as a small child would hear a frequent refrain "parchshywe zhydy jedzcie do Palestiny' scabby Jews go to Palestine. Not infrequently, Polish young men coming out of church, would beat up on Jews, calling them "Christ killers" Fearing our demise from the Polish pp after Hitler:s army arrived, we fled and inadvertently my life and that of some of my family members was saved in the Gulag of the Soviet Union. Our dreams of some day returning "home" never materialized. After the war, upon returning to Poland, our transport was greeted by Poles with stones and the familiar refrain: "parchszywe zydy jedzcie do Palestiny. After the war's end Informed of the danger of returning "home" that Jews who had returned were murdered . We never saw our home again.
Well said! Not only squandering, but damaging the hard-won image. They are a party of ruiners, nepots, and isolated half-wits, from whom intelligentsia turned away very quickly. They are spoiling the political scene, and even the opponents of their government are turning into helpless caricatures, it is soaked with irony, attacks, hypocrisy and pathetic bickering that is below any standards of a polis, least to say human standards. As the saying goes, "when things are boiling, the scum goes to the fore"
I do not need 2,5000 words. Not even one hundred.Good to see good YOUNG Judie Dempsey stayed both good AND young.
The brotherhood of man transcends the sovereignty of nations. Let us put away the ignorance of the past and walk into the future hand in hand as free men an women on our precious planet earth.
It is really regrettable to see accomplished writers like Ms Dempsey not being able to present readers with fair picture of what is going on in Poland. Nobody would really mind the new Polish legislation if it was not chosen as a convenient topic in the upcoming elections in Izrael, where opposing parties compete with each other to demonstrate their dedication to the historical policy. The new law is a desperate measure to counteract narrative which skilfully detracts any mentions of the involvement of Germany and Germans in the Holocaust, blaming it first on the mysterious Nazi and then upon nationalism in general with particular place reserved for the Polish - under guise of the "purely geographical term". It is worth to emphasise that the law does not forbid mentioning of individual acts of collaboration with Germans or complicity in the Holocaust, but aims at criminalisation of the purposeful defamation of the Polish State and Nation, which never capitulated to the Nazi Germany, never had any anti-Jewish legislation, spend enormous resources on helping Jews was the only government who tried to stop Holocaust, arguing in vain with its Allies since 1942 (and yes it includes US). Poland's voice was effectively silenced since the end of WW2, first by the Soviets, who did not want to link Eastern Germany - a member of the communist camp - with war crimes and atrocities, then by the post-communist elites who preferred to placate unified Germany after 1989. In the same time Germany and Russia was free to spun their own narratives. Obviously there was no place therein for the any mention of the scope of Poland's wartime losses and sufferings. Now, years after it tried to influence Western press and politicians by informative actions, Poland decided that more drastic measures are necessary, The same happened with the Holocaust denial - soft measures being ineffective one had to weigh need of the penalisation against the dangers of the limitations put on free speech. How the law which is explicitly excluding academics and academic research can "undermine academic discourse"? How the law which is penalising statements done "against facts" may be accused of "meddling with the truth"? These statements are beyond comprehension unless one assumes they were done with pure political goals behind them. Further down, reader will find blatant example of the scale of the ignorance of what happened in Poland during WW2. How one may end up equalling "the ethnic cleansing of Poles in western Ukraine and the ethnic cleansing of Ukrainians in south-eastern Poland that occurred during and after World War II"? The ethnic cleansing of Poles were brutal, sadistic and barbarian murders of up to 100 000 Poles, mainly elderly, women and children (as men were imprisoned and deported by Germans and Soviets) - its aim being wiping out of the Polish presence in Ukraine. The so called "ethnic cleansing of Ukrainians" were mainly deportations of populace to Ukraine or to northern Poland, with primarily objective being removal of support to the armed resistance along the actions done by British in the Malaya Emergency.
Dear Madam Dempsey, I read your text very carefully. The general conclusion is as follows: what you have written proves that your knowledge of the events described in Poland is dramatically incomplete. I have no premises to say that the nonsense contained in the text was deliberately placed there; I believe that you wrote "from the heart". However, as you well know, writing "from the heart" does not guarantee the reliability and objectivity of the report. With kind regards, etc. Andrzej Kocikowski, Poland.
As a pre WW2 Jew in Poland, I (a small child then) witnessed and was subject to "parchszywe Zhydy jedzcie do Palestiny " meaning scabby Jews go to Palestine as well as beating up of Jews by Polish (Christian) youth in particular and particularly as they were coming out of church services. Post war, transports ofJews returning to Poland were greeted with the same slogan of parchszyve Zhydy... We were advised not to return to our home town and that many Jews who had done so were murdered by the Poles in fear, I guess, of having to relinquish their occupied Jewish property, or otherwise be subject to contamination by us. Although I had longed for my home of my birth neither I nor any of my family returned there.
Comment Policy
Comments that include profanity, personal attacks, or other inappropriate material will be removed. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, steps will be taken to block users who violate any of the posting standards, terms of use, privacy policies, or any other policies governing this site. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.