The Dark Consequences of Poland's New Holocaust Law

The Atlantic ^ | February 8, 2018 | Rachel Donadio

[beaversmom]

PARIS—The Polish scholar Jan T. Gross, an expert on the country during World War II, didn’t mince words when I asked him about Poland’s new law that would criminalize mentioning the complicity of “the Polish nation” in the crimes of the Holocaust. “It’s terrible,” he said by phone from Berlin, where he lives. “It criminalizes all survivors of the Holocaust. Every Jew who is still alive and comes from Poland could be prosecuted.” That might be going a bit far—it’s still quite unclear how the law would be applied, and it’s hard to imagine extradition cases for discussing Polish war crimes outside Poland. But his concern is worth heeding.

Gross isn’t the only one who’s upset. Israel’s government is up in arms. A visit by Israel’s education minister, Naftali Bennett, to Poland was canceled this week after he criticized the law. (“The blood of Polish Jews cries from the ground, and no law will silence it,” he said later.) U.S. Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson said the law would affect “freedom of speech and academic inquiry.” The leadership of Warsaw’s POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews issued a critical statement. So did the International Auschwitz Council, a board of advisers to the death-camp-turned-museum. And so did dozens of Polish historians, writing in The Guardian.

I can understand how Poles would be upset by the notion of “Polish death camps”—a term the new law criminalizes—since the camps were set up and run by Nazi Germany on Polish soil. (Germany and Israel have in fact called that phrase inaccurate in official statements.) But this law isn’t about the finer points of history. It is aimed at shoring up the right-wing base of the governing Law and Justice party—and it has done so at the expense of Poland’s standing on...

[beaversmom]

Survivors walk in Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oswiecim, Poland, in 2017.

[BobL]

I struggle with which country is handling their past the right way. Germans learn every bit of their sordid Nazi past and are now in the process of national suicide, due to collective guilt. Japan’s past is whitewashed, but they’re doing fine, with a totally cohesive society, with the only exception being their population declining. Also in Japan, crime is next to zero - in Germany, thanks to their collective guilt which resulted in millions of ‘new arrivals’, women are now locked-in at night - and it will get worse, much worse, as many millions more enter due to chain migration, and the population growth rate of their ‘new arrivals’ is through the roof.

Morally, the German approach was right - but in today’s world, it is quickly destroying their country.

[beaversmom]

I get what you are saying, but I think the truth is always best.

I have a lot of anger toward Germany...for what they did to Europe/The World in the 20th century, and for what they are doing now.

I watched British historian Martin Gilbert the last few days on various interviews via You Tube. He wrote a book a few years back about the heroes in some of these countries during WWII. I want to purchase it so I can get a more balanced perspective. I’ve delved a lot into the evil. Now I want to know more about the good.

The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust

[DuncanWaring]

All true.

But it doesn’t explain, for example, Sweden.

[BobL]

“All true. But it doesn’t explain, for example, Sweden.”

Yea, I know, nor does it explain Britain, France, and some other countries doing the same.

But even so, Germany is the heart of Europe, and any chance of fighting off this bunch needs German support - and now they’re on the other side.

[BobL]

I guess another aspect is how long do we punish the countries. No one in America today appreciates being blamed for slavery, so how long must Germany ‘pay’ for what they did long ago? It’s tricky.

It’s also interesting how McCarther let the Japanese keep their Emperor and his set up, when he knew just how horrific the Japanese were during the war (much, much, worse than the Germans, when it came to POW treatment, for example). He saw something that scared him - maybe the fear of a collective suicide (like Germany) if he completely ripped out their past. Who knows.

[BobL]

Thanks - I don’t get much support for my position, but you summed it up perfectly.

As to Churchill, was Neville the PM in 1939 when Poland was attacked and when the UK/France declared war on Germany?

[Verginius Rufus]

The British had made a commitment to Poland earlier, when Winston Churchill was not the Prime Minister.

If France and Britain had failed to declare war, Poland would have been conquered by Germany and Russia just as quickly (since the Brits and French gave no help to Poland), but then Hitler would have looked around for another country to invade.

If Britain had stayed out of the war in 1914, the Germans probably would have defeated the French quickly, and millions of lives would have been saved...and there never would have been a Nazi regime in Germany later.

[Chewbarkah]

This is a competition for most malignant concept:
1) Criminalizing thoughts and expressions of opinion.
2) Collective guilt/innocence.

[Zhang Fei]

No one in America today appreciates being blamed for slavery, so how long must Germany ‘pay’ for what they did long ago?

---

Slavery was universal. What the Nazis did was unique. Muslim conquerors might demand conversion or death. But one could convert. The Japanese Emperor demanded fealty or death from his newly conquered subjects. So most pledged to at least not rebel or aid the resistance, and they were spared. There was nothing a Jew, a gypsy or a Slav could do to avoid being exterminated by the Nazis.

[liberalism is suicide]

Cultural or collective guilt condemns unborn generations for things they didn’t do. White Americans have been conditioned to feel guilty about slavery, Indian dispossession, and other things that occurred before they were born. Before we point the finger at other nations we need to consider that. Collective guilt is a Leftist lie.

[littleharbour]

Wow. So Churchill ignored the olive branch from that great peacemaker Hitler who had already taken over Austria and the vital parts of Czechoslovakia and had already started exterminating the Jewish people? I’m sorry if I missed the /s on this little bit of insanity. Can’t we just all agree that Hitler, like Mao and Stalin, was pure evil?

[dfwgator]

Hitler offered peace several times, but he refused.

Yeah, all Hitler wanted was PEACE...PEACE.....PEACE.

A little 'peace' of Poland
A little 'peace of France

A little 'peace' of Austria
And Hungary perchance

A little slice of Turkey
And all that it entails

then a piece of England, Scotland, lreland and Wales

[Grzegorz 246]

“The Polish scholar Jan T. Gross, an expert on the country”

Gross isn't Polish and definitely he isn't any expert.

“Every Jew who is still alive and comes from Poland could be prosecuted”

Utter nonsense. One can find the law and put it into friggin google translate.

The difference is like between saying that “Jews are greedy bastards” and “Bernard Madoff is a greedy bastard”. The first remark is racist and one could end up facing criminal charges in most of civilized countries for saying that, while the second one is a proven fact.