The Polish Holocaust Law is Poland’s Problem, Not Israel’s - by Alex Grinberg

While the Polish law calling for punishment of those accusing Poland for the Holocaust is problematic and undemocratic, it is more foolish than it is antisemitic.

Alex Grinberg..
MiDA..
04 February '18..
Link: http://en.mida.org.il/2018/02/04/polish-holocaust-law-polands-problem-not-israels/

The storm stirred in Israel and the world by the Polish law regarding Polish crimes during the Holocaust included quite a bit of rhetoric, superficiality and ignorance. It is important therefore, to set the record straight both historically and factually.

The lower house of the Polish parliament (the Sim) approved the bill authorizing the Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (Act of 18 December 1998 (Polish Journal of Laws of 2016, item 1575) – to impose a fine and imprisonment of up to three years for “distorting the historical truth about the Polish people and state”. The law requires the approval of the Polish Senate and the President.

This is the language of the bill:

“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, … 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. … Irrespective of the regulations in force at the location of committing the criminal act, this Act shall apply to Polish and foreign citizens in the event of committing the offences … .”

Opinions over the law are divided In Poland itself. Not only between nationalist anti-Semites and liberal-leftists by the way, though this division does exist of course. Wittek Duch of the “History” website, for example, supports the proposed law hesitantly, stressing that the punishment will apply to those who accuse the Polish people as a whole of complicity in the crimes of the Nazis, but not in specific cases of certain Poles such as in the Jedwabne Pogrom. In addition, the punishment will not be automatic because it applies to a violation of the historical truth that has no known and clear consent, and therefore the court will need the assistance of historians.

On the other hand, the liberal website Oko claims that the law is bad in every way: First of all, Poland got into trouble with Israel, with the Ukraine (the law also applies to Ukraine) and, indeed, to all of Europe. Second, the site mentions that only authoritarian states such as Turkey and Russia have a criminal penalty for “distorting historical truth.” Third, there is a fear that those who discuss the Jedwabne massacre may be sent to jail. It should be noted that the current version of the law, after the amendments, states that artists and researchers will be exempt from it.

Between Poles and Ukrainians

The attempt to shape historical memory through criminal law and punishment is indeed foolish and authoritarian. It will make Poland a mockery in Europe and place it closer to the provinces of Putin and Erdogan. No one in Poland is looking for a crisis with Israel either, especially when relations between the two countries are good and close.

However, it is important to adhere to the truth and not to be attributed to the law, foolish as it will be, that which it is not. It is neither anti-Semitic nor the rewriting of history, as stupid as it may be.

It is equally important to pay attention to the context in which such laws are created. The current Polish government is taking clearly non-liberal and undemocratic measures, but Poland is still a democratic country and the law is still expected to be discussed and amended, like other problematic laws. In Poland there are anti-Semitic and anti-democratic trends and anti-Semitism. This is a fact, but neither a surprising or exciting innovation. There is also the other side of the coin though, which usually escapes the eyes of the media.

The attitude of Israelis to Poland and Poles is superficial and ignorant. In the Israeli public perception, the Holocaust is perceived as a uniform black hole, with no special differences between nations. To many, there is no real difference between the peoples of Eastern Europe. Ukrainians, Poles, and Slovaks are all perceived as anti-Semitic and haters of Israel. The historical memory of Polish anti-Semitism is automatically transferred to a solid historical perspective on Polish crimes during the Holocaust.

Holocaust Revisionism - Haaretz Continuing Plummet to New Depths of Vileness

...Ultimately, the article’s target is not really the Holocaust. The author objects to the glorification of the glorified by the Zionist movement in the early years of the state. Perhaps the fighters should have awaited deportation and seen themselves as “sacrifices for peace,” to use the buzzword of the Second Intifada.

Eugene Kontorovich..
Commentary Magazine..
23 December '13..

A new level of vileness has been reached in the pages of Haaretz. It has already published work extremely critical of the State of Israel–even running columnists that support boycotting the state. But regardless of one’s opinions on the Palestinian issue, the paper has now shown that it exists in a world entirely divorced from any Jewish consensus, and cannot claim the title of loyal opposition. It has crossed all prior bounds of decency and published a criticism of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, calling it a “myth,” and accusing its heroes of being responsible for the ultimate liquidation of the Ghetto. Despite disagreements on diplomatic, territorial, and religious issues, the memory of the Holocaust–its heroes and victims–had been the great unifying porch in post-War Jewish consciousness. Now the Holocaust is fair game too.

The article’s argument is that maybe if the fighters had not been so uppity, if they had not made a fuss–then the Nazis, who had already murdered 500,000 Jews of Warsaw, might have let the remaining 50,000 live. Maybe! It is not a new argument. Rather, the author amazingly resurrects and endorses the arguments of the Judernat, the Jewish collaboration government of the Ghetto. With every new deportation, they urged restrain with increasing urgency–maybe they will let the rest of us live, and if you fight, all the past deportations would be a sacrifice in vain.

There can be no more terrible case of “blaming the victim” than laying any responsibility for the liquidation of the Ghetto at the feet of the fighters.

It is true, the Jewish “communal leadership”–and the rabbis–opposed the uprising. That is what made it brave. The Judenrat had no right to decide if residents of the Ghetto died in gas chambers or fighting for their freedom.

Of course, Haaretz wants to be “edgy,” “iconoclastic,” and debunk cherished myths. But despite the article’s headline–“The Warsaw Ghetto Myth”– it reveals no myths at all, only a lack of precision where we always knew it existed. It claims that it turns out that not many people participated in the uprising–a well-known fact. Then it attempts to introduce confusion by saying the precise figures are “murky,” and endorses the low-ball estimates based on the recollections of one person. Playing such counting games is vile. No one knows the number of participants, just as no one knows the number of Holocaust victims. And “revising” such vague numbers downward is now the standard canard of Holocaust deniers.

Again, the small numbers do not “debunk” any myths–they reinforce them. This was a small group of young people who bravely risked capture and death by slow torture, in contradiction with the collaborationist leadership that had thus far been wrong about everything.