Poland’s ‘Death Camp’ Law Tears at Shared Bonds of Suffering with Jews
- 6 years ago
Poland’s ‘Death Camp’ Law Tears at Shared Bonds of Suffering with Jews
By the end of World War II, six million Poles had been murdered, including three million Jews — nearly half of all the Jews killed in the Holocaust.
Mr. Snyder, the historian, said the new law was strikingly similar to legislation adopted in Russia a few years ago
that made it a crime to speak of Russia as an aggressor in 1939, when Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union carved up Poland.
But it became a source of anger on Tuesday, when Poland’s president — over furious objections from historians, the Israeli government and others — signed legislation making it a crime to suggest
that Poland bore any responsibility for atrocities committed by Nazi Germany.
On Tuesday, the State Department called the phrase "painful and misleading," but added: "We believe
that open debate, scholarship and education are the best means of countering misleading speech." Jonathan Ornstein, the executive director of the Jewish Community Center in Krakow, said one of the sad side effects of the dispute has been that it obscured the "miracle" of the rebirth of Jewish life in Poland.
More troubling, historians say, is the second part of the law, which makes it a crime — punishable by a fine or up
to three years in prison — to accuse "the Polish nation" of complicity in the Holocaust and other Nazi atrocities.
Although many Poles risked their lives to save Jews, others energetically took part in pogroms, murdering at least 340 Jews in the village of Jedwabne in 1941
and killing 42 in the village of Kielce in 1946, after the war ended, to take two notorious examples.
By the end of World War II, six million Poles had been murdered, including three million Jews — nearly half of all the Jews killed in the Holocaust.
Mr. Snyder, the historian, said the new law was strikingly similar to legislation adopted in Russia a few years ago
that made it a crime to speak of Russia as an aggressor in 1939, when Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union carved up Poland.
But it became a source of anger on Tuesday, when Poland’s president — over furious objections from historians, the Israeli government and others — signed legislation making it a crime to suggest
that Poland bore any responsibility for atrocities committed by Nazi Germany.
On Tuesday, the State Department called the phrase "painful and misleading," but added: "We believe
that open debate, scholarship and education are the best means of countering misleading speech." Jonathan Ornstein, the executive director of the Jewish Community Center in Krakow, said one of the sad side effects of the dispute has been that it obscured the "miracle" of the rebirth of Jewish life in Poland.
More troubling, historians say, is the second part of the law, which makes it a crime — punishable by a fine or up
to three years in prison — to accuse "the Polish nation" of complicity in the Holocaust and other Nazi atrocities.
Although many Poles risked their lives to save Jews, others energetically took part in pogroms, murdering at least 340 Jews in the village of Jedwabne in 1941
and killing 42 in the village of Kielce in 1946, after the war ended, to take two notorious examples.