Pthe Dutch nationalists won their last battle to defend the country’s reputation for war. On Tuesday, the district court in Warsaw ordered two leading historians to apologize to a woman for defaming a relative in their book on the Holocaust. The benchmark has serious implications for academic freedom and the future of Holocaust research, with historians around the world condemning the trial.
“These are not issues that need to be judged by the courts, this is a point that can be discussed by researchers or interested readers in the exchange of opinions. In that sense, it is truly outrageous, ”says Jan Tomasz Gross, whose seminal book Neighbors was a pool of water in Poland’s public discussion of the Holocaust more than 20 years ago. “It is part of a comprehensive effort to suppress any investigation and especially the complicity of the local population in the persecution of Jews at that time.”
In Endless Night, a two-volume forensic history totaling nearly 1,700 pages, professors Barbara Engelking and Jan Grabowski focus on the fate of Nazi-occupied Polish Jews after the Nazis began liquidating ghettos in 1942. The book includes a short passage. based on the testimony of a survivor, Esther Siemiatycka, who accused Edward Malinowski, an elder of the village of Malinowo in northeastern Poland, of collaborating with the Nazis and denouncing a group of hidden Jews.
Malinowski’s niece, 81-year-old Filomena Leszczyńska, has sued historians. The Polish Anti-Defamation League funded the case, claiming in a lengthy statement that historians had damaged “the reputation not only of Edward Malinowski, but also of other Poles, or even Poland” and accused them of “negligent use of historical sources.” ”. The league is a girl on the political agenda of the Polish Law and Justice Party to burn the country’s image during the war. With the mission “to initiate and support actions aimed at correcting false information about the history of Poland”, the League pursued cases against those accused of defaming Poland, including the international press.
The Crusade of the Law and Justice Party to promote Poland’s heroism under Nazi occupation and end what he calls “the pedagogy of shame” drew an international outcry three years ago when it passed legislation banning discussion of Polish responsibility in the Holocaust. . Leszczyńska and her supporters took another legal action in their case against Engelking and Grabowski, claiming that historians had violated his personal rights. The court acknowledged that the applicant’s right to “respect the memory of a relative” had been violated, but rejected the other claims and did not award compensation, stating that the judgment was not intended to stifle academic research. Historians are suing.
“I have serious doubts about this decision,” said defense lawyer Michał Jabłoński. “It is dangerous for freedom of expression and academic research. It is unprecedented that the court decides which is the historical source of trust instead of the researchers. This judgment requires the verification of survivors’ testimonies before they are published anywhere, researchers must be 100% sure that the testimonies are correct before publishing the conclusions, especially if they concern someone’s misconduct. In the court’s view, the existence of other sources that are contrary to the testimony of a survivor should prevent researchers from publishing their research if it interferes with one’s personal rights. Such a standard makes historical research a dangerous job, in fact impossible, because in most cases the testimonies of survivors cannot be verified. ”
International organizations and academics rushed to condemn the ruling. Israel’s Holocaust Memorial, Yad Vashem, said it was “deeply disturbed by its implications.” Sascha Feuchert, director of the Arbeitsstelle Holocaustliteratur at the University of Giessen, Germany, said: “For many Holocaust incidents, we have only the testimonies of survivors. Of course, they need to be checked and discussed in academic debates as much as possible. But this ruling and its conclusions not only threaten the foundations of research based on the testimony of survivors, but could also be a gift to Holocaust deniers. “
Before World War II, Poland’s Jewish population numbered over three million, the largest Jewish community in Europe at the time. Only 10% survived. But the Poles saved more Jews than any other country during the war and are honored at Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations. However, Endless Night provides evidence that Poles participated in the killing of fellow Jews on a larger scale than previously thought, with two out of three Jews trying to seek refuge among non-Jewish Poles having died. Poland’s wartime history includes acts of barbarism along with heroism, which is bitterly challenged by the ruling powers.
Esther Siemiatycka was among the surviving minorities – and it is her testimony in Endless Night that historians Engelking and Grabowski must now apologize for. Her story is a devastating prospect of the destruction of the Jewish community in Poland; Engelking has published a detailed account of his story, based on several sources, on the website of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research, where he is director.
Siemiatycka fled the Drohiczyn ghetto in northeastern Poland after being destroyed by the Nazis and most of the people 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, who were all captured and killed while Siemiatycka was looking for food. Then he reached the village of Malinowo and turned to the village elder, Edward Malinowski, for assistance. He helped her flee Poland to Prussia, Germany, as a forced laborer.
After the war, Malinowski was tried for collaborating with the Nazis and betraying a group of Jews who were hiding. Siemiatycka gave evidence in his defense, claiming that he saved his life and helped other Jews and was acquitted. However, in an interview with the Shoah Foundation in 1996, under her new name Maria Wiltgren, she accused Malinowski of collaborating and robbing her. Engelking, who included Siemiatycka’s testimony in Endless Night, found this subsequent testimony the most reliable in reconstructing the story.
It is a complex story, given Siemiatycka’s conflicting testimonies. However, as Engelking pointed out, the passage in her book reports the story of the survivor; it is a matter of registration. The judge said historians should have limited their confidence in Siemiatycka because of discrepancies.
Prior to Malinowski’s trial, an anti-communist gang intimidated and beat witnesses, some of whom later changed their testimony. This could explain why Siemiatycka’s own conflicts of accounts. Also, as Engelking suggested, she could have been grateful to Malinowski for saving her life at trial.
There are fears that the courts, rather than the academic community, have become the arena for testing scholarships and that threats against academics and journalists in Poland are becoming routine. Earlier this month, police questioned journalist Katarzyna Markusz for writing that “antipathy for Jews was widespread among Poles, and Polish participation in the Holocaust is a historic fact.”
Mikołaj Grynberg, a writer who has documented Polish-Jewish Jews in his books, believes that the state’s agenda for promoting Polish heroism goes against 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. “This is the thinking of teenagers and bad news that we are not becoming an adult country. So it will stay that way for years. ”
Siemiatycka’s story is just a side note in Endless Night; the book focuses on the fate of Jews in Poland, while Siemiatycka survived by escaping to Germany. But for nationalists, this case is ammunition in their attempt to intimidate anyone who dares to investigate the truth. In the forthcoming English translation of Night Without End, Engelking and Grabowski hope that their work will no longer make it possible to discuss Poland’s past on the basis of “feelings, resentments or myths, but will be firmly based on solid historical knowledge.” Their case – and their appeal – is the first test.