P.The oland nationalists have won their last battle to defend the country’s wartime reputation. On Tuesday, the Warsaw court ordered two leading historians to apologize to a woman for defaming a family member in their book on the Holocaust. The historic ruling has serious implications for academic freedom and the future of Holocaust research, with historians around the world condemning the judgment.
“These are not matters to be judged by courts, this is a point that can be discussed by scientists or interested readers during the exchange of views. In that sense, it’s really scandalous, ”said Jan Tomasz Gross, whose seminal book Neighbors was a turning point in Poland’s public discussion of the Holocaust more than 20 years ago. “It is part of a wide-ranging effort to quell any investigation and in particular the complicity of the local population in the persecution of Jews at the time.”
In Night Without End, a forensic two-part history totaling nearly 1,700 pages, Professors Barbara Engelking and Jan Grabowski focus on the fate of the Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland after the Nazis began liquidating the ghettos in 1942 . The book contains a short passage based on the testimony of a survivor, Estera Siemiatycka, who accused Edward Malinowski, a village elder in Malinowo, northeastern Poland, of cooperating with the Nazis and denouncing a group of Jews in hiding .
Malinowski’s niece, 81-year-old Filomena Leszczyńska, sued the historians. The Polish League Against Defamation funded the case, claiming in a lengthy statement that the historians had “damaged not only the reputation of Edward Malinowski but other Poles, or even Poles”, accusing them of “careless use of historical sources.” The League is a maidservant to the political agenda of the Polish Law and Justice Party to polish the country’s wartime image. With a mission “to initiate and support actions aimed at correcting false information about Poland’s history,” the League has filed lawsuits against those accused of defamation of Poland, including international media.
The Law and Justice Party crusade to promote Poland’s heroism under Nazi occupation and end what it calls “the pedagogy of shame” aroused international outrage three years ago when it passed legislation that prohibits the discussion of Polish responsibility in the Holocaust. Leszczyńska and her backers took a different legal path in their case against Engelking and Grabowski, claiming that the historians violated her personal rights. The court admitted that the plaintiff’s right to “respect the memory of a family member” had been violated, but dismissed the other claims and did not award damages, arguing that the verdict was not intended to trigger academic research. suffocate. Historians appeal the verdict.
“I have serious doubts about this judgment,” said lawyer Michał Jabłoński, who acted for the defense. “It’s dangerous for freedom of speech and academic research. It is unprecedented for the court to decide which historical source is reliable instead of investigators. This judgment requires that survivors’ testimonials be verified before they are published anywhere, that researchers must be 100% sure that testimonials are accurate before publishing conclusions, especially if they relate to someone’s misconduct. According to the court, the existence of other sources that contradict a survivor’s testimony should deter investigators from publishing their research if it violates a person’s personal rights. Such a standard makes historical research a dangerous job, impossible in fact, because in most cases the testimonies of survivors cannot be verified. “
International organizations and academics have also been quick to condemn the ruling. Israeli Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem said it was “deeply troubled by its implications.” Sascha Feuchert, director of the Arbeitsstelle Holocaustliteratur at the University of Giessen, Germany, said: “For many incidents in the Holocaust, we only have the testimony of survivors. Of course they should be monitored and discussed as much as possible in academic debates. But this court ruling and its conclusions not only threaten the foundations of research based on survivors’ testimonies, it could also be a gift to Holocaust deniers. “
Before World War II, Poland’s Jewish population numbered more than three million, which was the largest Jewish community in Europe at the time. Only 10% survived. But Poles saved more Jews during the war than any other country and are honored in Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations. Night Without End, however, shows that Poles participated in the murder of their fellow Jewish citizens more widely than previously believed, an estimated two out of every three Jews attempting to seek shelter with non-Jewish Poles. Poland’s war history includes acts of barbarism in addition to heroism, something bitterly opposed by ruling powers.
Estera Siemiatycka was among the minority who survived – and it is her testimony in Night Without End for which historians Engelking and Grabowski must now apologize. Her story is a devastating insight into the destruction of Poland’s Jewish community; Engelking has published a detailed account of her story, based on multiple sources, on the website of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research, where she is director.
Siemiatycka fled the Drohiczyn Ghetto in northeastern Poland after it was destroyed by the Nazis and most of the inhabitants were deported to the Treblinka extermination camp. She hid in a forest with her young son, who was less than two years old, her sister and her two children, all of whom were captured and murdered while Siemiatycka foraged for food. She then reached the village of Malinowo and turned to the village elder, Edward Malinowski, for help. He helped her escape from Poland to Prussia, Germany as a forced laborer.
After the war, Malinowski was tried for alleged collaboration with the Nazis and for betraying a group of Jews in hiding. Siemiatycka presented evidence in defense stating that he had saved her life and helped other Jews, and he was acquitted. However, in an interview with the Shoah Foundation in 1996, under her new name Maria Wiltgren, she accused Malinowski of collaboration and robbery. Engelking, who recorded Siemiatycka’s testimony in Night Without End, found this later testimony to be the most reliable in reconstructing the story.
Given Siemiatycka’s contradictory testimonies, it is a complex story. However, as Engelking has noted, the passage in her book gives the survivor’s account; it is a matter of recording. The judge stated that the historians should have limited their trust in Siemiatycka because of the discrepancies.
In the run-up to Malinowski’s trial, an anti-communist gang of witnesses intimidated and assaulted, some of whom changed their testimonies. This could explain why Siemiatycka’s own accounts are in conflict. She may also have, as Engelking suggested, simply been grateful to Malinowski for saving her life at the time of the trial.
There are fears that the courts, rather than the academic community, have become the arena for scholarship testing, and that threats against academics and journalists in Poland are becoming routine. Earlier this month, police questioned journalist Katarzyna Markusz for writing that “dislike of Jews was widespread among Poles, and Poland’s participation in the Holocaust is a historical fact”.
Mikołaj Grynberg, a writer who has documented Polish Jewish records in his books, believes the state’s agenda to promote Polish heroism runs counter to historical truth. “The goal is to feel good and be a chosen people – we are the only nation that has only noble people among us,” he says. “That’s the thinking of adolescents and bad news that we’re not growing into an adult country. So it will stay that way for years. “
Siemiatycka’s story is just a side note in Night Without End; the book’s focus is on the fate of Jews in Poland, while Siemiatycka survived by fleeing to Germany. But for the nationalists, this case is ammunition in their attempt to intimidate anyone who dares to investigate the truth. In the upcoming English translation of Night Without End, Engelking and Grabowski hope that their work will no longer make it possible to discuss Poland’s past based on “feelings, resentments or myths, but will be based firmly on solid historical knowledge”. Their cause – and their profession – is the first test.