Fury in Israel as Poland proposes ban on referring to Nazi death camps as ‘Polish’
The Telegraph is running a free article on the Israeli reaction to Poland’s government seeking to ban the reference to the wartime concentration camps on its soil as “Polish”.
Israel has also summoned its Polish envoy to show its displeasure with the proposals, which could see those who blame Poles for Nazi war crimes fined or even jailed.
The bill, which still still needs approval from Poland’s Senate and president, has sparked outrage in Israel, which declared independence in the wake of the Holocaust and is home to the world’s largest community of Holocaust survivors.
Israel’s foreign ministry has also expressed concern over the timing of the bill, which was passed on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and said it expects the draft to be amended before final approval.
“The legislation will not help continue exposing the historical truth and can impede the freedom of research,” a spokesman said.
For decades, Polish society avoided discussing the killing of Jews by civilians or denied that anti-Semitism motivated the slayings, blaming all atrocities on the Germans.
A turning point was the publication in 2000 of a book, “Neighbors,” by Polish-American sociologist Jan Tomasz Gross, which explored the murder of Jews by their Polish neighbors in the village of Jedwabne. The book resulted in widespread soul-searching and official state apologies.
But since the conservative and nationalistic Law and Justice party consolidated power in 2015, it has sought to stamp out discussions and research on the topic. It demonized Gross and investigated whether he had slandered Poland by asserting that Poles killed more Jews than they killed Germans during the war.
I wrote about the Jedwabne narrative back in 2009. Readers may also find this article on Naliboki of interest. It is also from 2009.
Posted by David Cole Stein on Mon, 29 Jan 2018 04:12 | #
David Cole / Stein talks with Ryan Dawson