Polish Memory Law

Polish Memory Law, officially called the Amendment to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance of 2018 in Poland, is a partly repealed law that would have made it criminal to claim that Poland was responsible for the Holocaust. The terms that made such speech criminal were removed after international protests.

Overview

Scholars worldwide see the Law as part of the Law and Justice party-led government's policy to present ethnic Poles as the only victims and heroes in Nazi-occupied Poland, 

 Robert Rozett, “Competitive Victimhood and Holocaust Distortion,” The Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, XVI (2022); “Distorting the Holocaust and Whitewashing History: Toward a Typology,” XIII: 1 (2019); Yehuda Bauer, “Creating a “Usable” Past: On Holocaust Denial and Distortion,” XIV: 2 (2022); and Jan Grabowski, “The Holocaust and Poland's 'History Policy'” X: 3 (2016).
 Joanna Beata Michlic, “The Politics of the Memorialisation of the Holocaust in Poland: Reflections on the Current Misuses of the History of Rescue,” Jewish Historical Studies—Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England, LIII: 1 (2022); Piotr Forecki, Po Jedwabnem: Anatomia pamięci funkcjonalnej (Kraków, 2018); Jan Gross, Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne (Princeton, 2001). 

 Piotr Forecki, “Domestic ‘Assassins of Memory’: Various Faces of Holocaust Revisionism in Contemporary Poland,” presentation at a symposium in honor of Professor Antony Polonsky called “The Holocaust in Eastern Europe: sources, memory, politics,” March 16, 2021, UCL, London. and a violation of freedom of speech due to its potential of suppressing discussions on Polish collaboration in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Bill

The proposed law changes a previous law known as the Act of 18 December 1998 on the Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (Dz.U. 1998 nr 155 poz. 1016). Articles added in February 2018 included:

 Article 53o:

Protecting the reputation of the Republic of Poland and the Polish Nation shall be governed by the provisions of the Civil Code Act of 23 April 1964 (Polish Journal of Laws of 2016, items 380, 585 and 1579) on the protection of personal rights. A court action aimed at protecting the Republic of Poland’s or the Polish Nation’s reputation may be brought by a non-governmental organisation within the remit of its statutory activities. Any resulting compensation or damages shall be awarded to the State Treasury.

 Article 53p:

A court action aimed at protecting the Republic of Poland’s or the Polish Nation’s reputation may also be brought by the Institute of National Remembrance. In such cases, the Institute of National Remembrance shall have the capacity to be a party to court proceedings.

 Article 55a:

1. Whoever claims, publicly and contrary to the facts, that the Polish Nation or the Republic of Poland is responsible or co-responsible for Nazi crimes committed by the Third Reich, as specified in Article 6 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal enclosed to the International agreement for the prosecution and punishment of the major war criminals of the European Axis, signed in London on 8 August 1945 (Polish Journal of Laws of 1947, item 367), or for other felonies that constitute crimes against peace, crimes against humanity or war crimes, or whoever otherwise grossly diminishes the responsibility of the true perpetrators of said crimes—shall be liable to a fine or imprisonment for up to 3 years. The sentence shall be made public.

2. If the act specified in clause 1 is committed unintentionally, the perpetrator shall be liable to a fine or a restriction of liberty.

3. No offence is committed if the criminal act specified in clauses 1 and 2 is committed in the course of one's artistic or academic activity.' 

 Article 2a:
The crimes of Ukrainian nationalists and members of Ukrainian organizations collaborating with the Third German Reich, as defined in the Act, are acts committed by Ukrainian nationalists in the years 1925–1950, involving the use of violence, terror or other forms of violation of human rights, against individuals or ethnic groups. One of the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists and members of Ukrainian organizations collaborating with the Third German Reich is their involvement in the extermination of the Jewish population and genocide on citizens of the Second Polish Republic in Volhynia and Eastern Lesser Poland."

Amendment

The US Department of State opposed the bill, and the Polish government removed Articles 55a and 55b from the bill, meaning that it would not become criminal to claim that Poland was responsible for the Holocaust. In June 2018, the Polish parliament took merely 8.5 hours to pass the bill. The bill's passage makes it a civil offence for someone associated with Poland to make the said claim.

Reactions

Poland

According to a survey from February 2018, 40% of Poles supported the criminal penalties in the bill, while 51% believed that the issue should be handled differently.The amendment to the Institute of National Remembrance act Centre for Public Opinion Research Research showed that the Law had the opposite effect of raising global searches for the phrase "Polish death camps" ninefold, while increasing antisemitic speech on social media.

Scholars

Legal scholars Aleksandra Gliszczyńska-Grabias, Grażyna Baranowska, and Anna Wójcik state that with the revised bill, "the risk of violations of individual rights and freedoms remains high". Meanwhile, legal scholar Patrycja Grzebyk said:

Legal scholar Uladzislau Belavusau said:

Legal scholar Tomasz Tadeusz Koncewicz also said:

Furthermore, constitutional law scholar Wojciech Sadurski said:

In addition, mathematician Stanisław Krajewski, co-chair of the Polish Council of Christians and Jews, said:

Religious groups

The Polish Bishops' Conference noted a rise in antisemitism after the bill was passed, declaring the phenomenon "contrary to the Christian tenet of loving one's neighbor". The Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland said the bill had led to a "growing wave of intolerance, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism", making many members fearful for their safety.

United States

Government

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was disappointed with the bill, saying that the "enactment of this law adversely affects freedom of speech and academic inquiry." The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum said that the Law could not secure a future for Holocaust education, scholarship, and remembrance, hinting at the chances of intimidation, politicization and self-censorship. 

Scholars

In February 2018, the American Historical Association (AHA) stated that the bill was "a threat both to historians' freedom of speech and to the future of historical scholarship". The AHA was supported by 50 academic organizations. The Polish Center for Holocaust Research called the Law an "unprecedented intrusion into the debate about the Polish history". Jurist Alexander Tsesis said:

A letter signed by prominent figures in February 2018, including American historian Anne Applebaum and the third President of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski, read:

Advocacy groups

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) said:

Canada

Scholars

In his book Intimate Violence: Anti-Jewish Pogroms on the Eve of the Holocaust, Jeffrey Kopstein of the University of Toronto said:



Israel

Government

The law damaged Israel–Poland relations. Israel's Foreign Ministry director-general Yuval Rotem said that preserving the memory of the Holocaust takes priority over international relations, saying: 



Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Poland of Holocaust denial. Israel's Education and Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett said:

Israel's ambassador to Poland opposed the bill, saying that antisemitism in Poland was rising. In response, Jan Żaryn, then a Polish Senator and nationalist historian who made controversial claims about Polish-Jewish history, called for the Israeli ambassador's expulsion.

Holocaust museums

Yad Vashem condemned the bill:

International

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) expressed regret over Polish President Andrzej Duda's signing of the Law into power, adding that the Law would harm the right to free and open research.

Subsequent events

Repeal of Article 2a

In January 2019, the Constitutional Tribunal of Poland ruled the Article 2a void and non-binding.

Some misconceptions about the Holocaust in Poland are summarized as follows:

 Type  Summary Death toll Myth 1: "3 million non-Jewish Poles were killed in WWII."Wikipedia article, “Rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust,” Wikipedia, revision from 8:06, May 24, 2022,Fact: The number was claimed in 1946 by Jakub Berman, the head of the Polish communist secret police, to create a false equivalence between Jewish and Polish victimhood.Karyn Ball and Per Anders Rudling, “The Underbelly of Canadian Multiculturalism: Holocaust Obfuscation and Envy in the Debate about the Canadian Museum for Human Rights,” Holocaust Studies, vol. 20, no. 3 (2014): pp. 33–80. The death toll of non-Jewish Poles was 1.8 million according to the most recent estimates.C. Łuczak, “Szanse i trudności bilansu demograficznego Polski w latach 1939–1945,” Dzieje Najnowsze 2 (1994): pp. 9–15. Scale of helping Jews Myth 2: "Thousands of Poles were executed for helping Jews."Fact: 800 Poles were executed for helping Jews according to the most recent estimates.Ryszard Walczak et al. (eds.), Those Who Helped: Polish Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust (Warszawa: IPN, 1997).Martyna Grądzka-Rejak and Aleksandra Namysło, (eds.), Represje za pomoc Żydom na okupowanych ziemiach polskich w czasie II wojny światowej, vol. 1 (Warsaw: IPN, 2019), p. 464. Scale of hiding Jews Myth 3: "450,000 Poles hid Jews in their houses during the Holocaust."Richard C. Lukas, Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1989), p. 15.Fact: The number was promoted by Władysław Żarski-Zajdler, a writer propagandizing for the Polish communist regime during the 1968 antisemitic campaign. Fewer than 30,000 Polish Jews survived the Holocaust.Natalia Sawka, “Antysemita Leszek Żebrowski poprowadzi wykład o ‘żołnierzach wyklętych,’” Gazeta Wyborcza, March 1, 2016 Scale of Polish collaboration Myth 4: "<1% Poles collaborated with Nazi occupiers."The “Israeli War Crimes Commission” statistics seem to originate from an essay from the 1960s by one Leo Heiman, which provides no footnote. Leo Heiman, “Ukrainians and the Jews,” in Ukrainians and Jews, Articles, Testimonies, Letters and Official Documents Dealing with Interrelations of Ukrainians and Jews in the Past and Present: A Symposium (New York: The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, 1966), p. 60.Fact: Several independent research showed otherwise.Machcewicz and Persak, (eds.), Wokół Jedwabnego; Jan Grabowski and Barbara Engelking, (eds.), Dalej jest noc: losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski (Night Without End: The Fate of Jews in Selected Counties of Occupied Poland), 2 vols. (Warsaw: Polish Center for Holocaust Research, 2018). Polish Blue Police Myth 5: "Many Polish Blue Police were executed for refusing to follow Nazi orders to arrest Jews."Engelking and Grabowski, (eds.), Dalej jest noc; Grzegorz Rossolinski-Liebe, “Polnische Bürgermeister und der Holocaust im Generalgouvernement Besatzung, Kollaboration und Handlungsmöglichkeiten,” Bulletin des Fritz Bauer Instituts, (2021), pp. 26–35.Fact: Proven cases have not been found by mainstream historians yet. Instead, the Polish Blue Police helped Nazi occupiers kill Jews enthusiastically. 

  Polish Underground State Myth 6: "The Polish Underground State's court investigated 17,000 suspected Polish collaborators and sentenced 3,500 to death."Fact: No more than seven collaborators were sentenced to death by the Polish Underground State's court,Andrzej Żbikowski, Polacy i Zydzi pod okupacja niemiecką, 1939-1945: Studia i Materiały (Warsaw: IPN, 2006), pp. 482–84. despite desperate requests from the Committee to Aid Jews (Żegota). Policies against helping Jews Myth 7: "Poles were specifically targeted by the Nazis for helping Jews. The Nazis imposed death penalty on Poles because of this."Fact: Nazi laws against helping Jews were applied equally to millions of non-German subjects under Nazi occupation.The Third Decree of General Governor Hans Frank concerning restrictions on residency in the Generalgouvernement and introducing the death penalty for aid rendered to Jews, October 15, 1941; Verordnungsblatt für das Generalgouvernement. Dziennik Rozporządzeń dla Generalnego Gubernatorstwa, Cracow, October 25, 1941, p. 595. The death penalty was introduced on October 15, 1941, long before any obvious help could have been noticed. Revelation of the Holocaust Myth 8: "Polish Army officer Witold Pilecki told the Allies about the Holocaust via Polish government-in-exile courier Jan Karski."Fact: Jan Karski did not tell the Allies about the Holocaust.Adam Puławski, “Revisiting Jan Karski’s Final Mission,” Israeli Journal of Foreign Affairs, vol. 15, no. 2 (2021): pp. 289–97; Adam Puławski, Wobec niespotykanego w dziejach mordu. Rząd RP na uchodźstwie, Delegatura Rządu RP na Kraj, AK a eksterminacja ludności żydowskiej od wielkiej akcji do powstania w getcie warszawskim (Chełm: Stowarzyszenie Rocznik Chełmski, 2018). Karski left Poland in fall 1942, while Pilecki did not write a report about the Holocaust until summer 1943, when most Polish Jews had already been killed. Pilecki could not have given Karski a report that did not exist when Karski left.  Nazi reprisals against Poles helping Jews Myth 9: "The Nazi murdered 20,000 Polish villagers in Białka over some of them helping Jews."Wikipedia article, “Nazi Crimes Against the Polish Nation,” Wikipedia, revision from 14:14, June 15, 2022,Fact: It is true that individual shootings of Białka's Polish villagers happened, but the confirmed death toll was 96.Geoffrey P. Megargee, ed., Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945, vol. 1: Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA) (Washington: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2009), p. 692. Post-war pogroms against Jews Myth 10: "The July 1946 Kielce pogrom was planned by the Soviet occupiers."Fact: The claim has been roundly rejected by mainstream scholars, including Joanna Tokarska-Bakir who won the 2019 Yad Vashem International Book Award for a book that disproved the claim, which is only held by some Polish nationalists and conspiracy theorists.

Victimization of historians

2021

Prof. Jan Grabowski is a prominent historian strongly opposed to the Law, which has made him a target of threats. 



  In February 2021, Profs. Jan Grabowski and Barbara Engelking were sued in a Polish court over a book in which they discussed the role of Catholic Poles in the Holocaust. 



  In August 2021, the Warsaw Court of Appeal dismissed the lawsuit against them. 





2023

In June 2023, Grabowski held a seminar on Poland's history of antisemitism in Warsaw. Grzegorz Braun, a far-right MP, smashed Grabowski's microphone and forced the seminar to be cancelled. 



  During the 2023 Hanukkah, the same MP put out a menorah with a fire extinguisher in the Polish parliament, who was expelled by the parliament and charged with hate crimes. Braun's behavior caused a global uproar,  


  while being praised by pro-Palestinian users in Reddit's subreddit r/Poland (1.1M subscribers) who claimed to be "only anti-Israel".Examples:


  Despite Braun's actions, he was elected to the European Parliament in June 2024. 



Related pages

 Kraków pogrom
 Jedwabne pogrom
 Szczuczyn pogrom
 Holocaust uniqueness debate

Footnotes

References

Category:Law
Category:Nationalism
Category:Controversies
Category:The Holocaust
Category:History of Poland
Category:Politics of Europe
Category:Antisemitism in Europe