The controversy that swirled around the Polish government’s plan to adopt legislation making it illegal to accuse the “Polish Nation” or the “Republic of Poland” of complicity in the Holocaust came to somewhat of a head on Tuesday when Poland’s president signed the proposed measure into law.
But the international uproar the proposal triggered caused him to announce that he was referring the question of the law’s constitutionality, in terms of freedom of speech, to Poland’s constitutional court.
However, that review process is expected to take years and result in a decision upholding the law. The new law was ardently pushed by Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party and the judges on the constitutional court are mostly its appointees. And therein lies an important tale.
The genesis of the notion of a libel law covering Poland’s role in the Holocaust was ostensibly Polish ire at casual references to concentration camps run by the Nazis throughout Poland as “Polish death camps.” Poles have long argued that this unfairly blames Poland for the camps since Poland was overrun and occupied by Germany and the camps were established, operated, and controlled by the Nazi authorities.
So there certainly is an argument to be made that it is off the mark to so strongly link the camps with Poland, if only because it obscures the central role of the Nazis. Yet the new law is not limited to addressing that concern and appears to be much broader in its reach, aiming to obscure any Polish role in the Holocaust, which is plainly an attempt at whitewashing history.
Thus the law provides, in pertinent part, that:
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 the peace, crimes against humanity or war crimes, or whoever grossly diminishes the responsibility of the true perpetrators of said crimes – shall be liable to a fine or imprisonment for up to 3 years….
Of course, the use of the terms “Polish Nation” and “Republic of Poland” together creates a certain ambiguity: is the assistance provided by Polish civilians to the Nazis meant to be covered or only that of Polish authorities? The way most legal and political observers are interpreting this is that accusing any Polish citizens of complicity with the Nazis in the Holocaust would violate the law.
Indeed, when he signed the law, President Duda referred to its mandating fines or imprisonment for those who accuse the Polish “population” of responsibility. Yet there is no denying that individual Poles did aid and abet the Nazis, and not a few historians have in recent days noted the country’s history of anti-Semitism and the anti-Jewish pogroms carried out by Poles during and after the Holocaust.
As a statement from Yad Vashem put it, no legislation can “blur the historical truths regarding the assistance the Germans received from the Polish population during the Holocaust.”
The new law is insulting given what it is meant to achieve. But the context in which it was developed is at least equally troubling. State-controlled media outlets have characterized Jewish opposition to the law as part of a plot to pressure Poland into surrendering Jewish property confiscated during World War II and to secure reparations from the Polish government.
Some have also taken to questioning the patriotism of Jewish Poles who are not willing to fully support efforts to erase any notion of Polish compliance with the Nazis.
In fact, the Polish legislation was sparked to a significant degree by a growing nationalism throughout Europe – a nationalism that is all too comfortable with invoking Jewish conspiracies. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is on a tear against Jewish billionaire George Soros, whom he blames for trying to import immigrants into Europe. Marine Le Pen, the French National Front leader, regularly speaks of a powerful “Rothschild cartel” that opposes her.
Time will tell how the new Polish law will be implemented. But its message is clear. And we dare not lose sight of the anti-Jewish feeling it has encouraged.