FORHolland’s nationalists won their last battle to defend the country’s reputation during the war. On Tuesday, the Warsaw district court ordered two leading historians to apologize to a woman for defaming a relative in her book on the Holocaust. The historic decision has serious implications for academic freedom and the future of Holocaust research, with historians around the world condemning the trial.
“They are not matters to be judged by the courts, it is a point that can be discussed by scholars or readers interested in exchanging opinions. In that sense, it’s really scandalous, ”says Jan Tomasz Gross, whose seminal book Neighbors was a watershed in Poland’s public discussion of the Holocaust for more than 20 years. “It is part of a broad effort to stifle any investigation and, in particular, the complicity of the local population in the persecution of Jews during that time.”
In Night Without End, a two-volume forensic story totaling almost 1,700 pages, Professors Barbara Engelking and Jan Grabowski focus on the fate of Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland after the Nazis began liquidating the ghettos in 1942. The book includes a brief passage based on the testimony of a survivor, Estera Siemiatycka, who accused Edward Malinowski, a village elder in Malinowo, northeast Poland, of collaborating with the Nazis and denouncing a group of hidden Jews.
Malinowski’s niece, Filomena Leszczyńska, 81, has sued historians. The Polish League Against Defamation financed the case, claiming in a long statement that historians had damaged “not only Edward Malinowski’s reputation, but also that of other Poles, or even Poland” and accusing them of “careless use of historical sources ”. The League is a servant of the ruling political agenda of the Justice Party and Polish Law to polish the country’s image during the war. With the mission of “initiating and supporting actions aimed at correcting false information about the history of Poland”, the League has conducted proceedings against those accused of defaming Poland, including international media.
The Law and Justice Party’s crusade to promote Poland’s heroism under the Nazi occupation and end what it calls a “pedagogy of shame” drew international protests three years ago, when it passed legislation banning the discussion of Polish responsibility in the Holocaust. Leszczyńska and his sponsors took a different legal path in their case against Engelking and Grabowski, claiming that historians had violated their personal rights. The court recognized that the claimant’s right to “respect for a relative’s memory” had been infringed, but he rejected the other claims and did not award damages, stating that the sentence was not intended to stifle academic research. Historians are appealing the trial.
“I have real doubts about this trial,” said lawyer Michał Jabłoński, who served in the defense. “It is dangerous for freedom of expression and academic research. It is unprecedented for the court to decide which historical source is reliable instead of researchers. This judgment requires that the survivors’ testimonies be verified before they are published anywhere, that the investigators are 100% sure that the testimonies are accurate before publishing the conclusions, especially if they consider someone’s misconduct. In the court’s opinion, 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 someone’s personal rights. Such a pattern makes historical research a dangerous job, in fact impossible, since in most cases the testimonies of the survivors cannot be verified ”.
International and academic organizations were also quick to condemn the decision. The Holocaust memorial in Israel, Yad Vashem, said he 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 only have the testimonies of survivors. Of course, they need to be verified and discussed in academic debates as much as possible. But this court decision and its findings not only threaten the foundations of the research based on the testimony of survivors, but can also be a gift to Holocaust deniers. ”
Before the Second World War, Poland’s Jewish population numbered over three million, Europe’s largest Jewish community at the time. Only 10% survived. But the Poles saved more Jews than any other country during the war and are honored in Yad Vashem as Just among the Nations. However, Night Without End provides evidence that Poles participated in the murder of their Jewish fellow citizens on a larger scale than previously believed, estimating that two out of three Jews who tried to seek shelter among non-Jewish Poles died. Poland’s wartime history includes acts of barbarism alongside heroism, something that is strongly contested by the governing powers.
Estera Siemiatycka was among the minority that survived – and it is her testimony in An Endless Night for which historians Engelking and Grabowski must now apologize. His story is a devastating vision of the destruction of the Jewish community in Poland; Engelking published a detailed account of her history, based on various sources, on the website of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research, where she is the director.
Siemiatycka fled the Drohiczyn ghetto in northeastern Poland after it was destroyed by the Nazis and most of the inhabitants were deported to the Treblinka extermination camp. She hid in a forest with her son, who was less than two years old, her sister and their two children, all captured and murdered while Siemiatycka searched for food. She then arrived at Malinowo village and asked for help from the village elder, Edward Malinowski. He helped her escape from Poland to Prussia, Germany, as a forced worker.
After the war, Malinowski was put on trial for allegedly collaborating with the Nazis and betraying a group of Jews who were in hiding. Siemiatycka testified in his defense, claiming that he saved her 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 stealing from her. Engelking, who included Siemiatycka’s testimony in Night Without End, found that later testimony more reliable for reconstructing history.
It is a complex story, given Siemiatycka’s conflicting testimonies. However, as Engelking pointed out, the passage in his book relates the survivor’s account; it is a matter of record. The judge said historians should have limited their confidence in Siemiatycka due to discrepancies.
Before Malinowski’s trial, an anti-communist gang intimidated and beat up witnesses, some of whom changed testimony. This could explain why Siemiatycka’s own accounts are conflicting. She may also, as Engelking suggested, simply have been grateful to Malinowski for saving her life at the time of the trial.
There are fears that the courts, not 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, the police questioned journalist Katarzyna Markusz for writing “antipathy towards Jews was widespread among Poles, and Polish participation in the Holocaust is a historic fact”.
Mikołaj Grynberg, a writer who has documented reports of Polish Jews in his books, believes that the state’s agenda to promote Polish heroism runs counter to 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 teenage thinking and bad news that we are not growing up to be an adult country. So, it will stay that way for years. “
Siemiatycka’s story is only a side note in Night Without End; the focus of the book is on the fate of the Jews in Poland, while Siemiatycka survived by fleeing to Germany. But for nationalists, this case is ammunition in its attempt to intimidate anyone who dares to investigate the truth. In the next 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 be firmly based on solid historical knowledge”. Your case – and your appeal – is the first test.