Friday, April 9, 2021

The Wall Street Journal Joins "The Political Battle Over Poland’s Holocaust History"


 It is a sad day when you realize that a political fight between the “right” and the “left” can determine what truth is and what is not. Unfortunately, that is my conclusion reading the American press. 

Two days ago, another “opinion maker” decided to add his opinion, this time on the pages of The Wall Street Journal, about the court’s decision to order “two prominent historians, Jan Grabowski of the University of Ottawa and Barbara Engelking of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research, to issue a public apology.”

“The decision” - the author writes - “represents the latest step in the ruling Law and Justice Party’s campaign to control how Poland’s wartime history is written. The suit against Profs. Grabowski and Engelking was paid for by the Polish League Against Defamation, a right-wing organization closely associated with the party.” The author, Lawrence Douglas, omits here the fact that in Poland the suing party has to pay a hefty fee to sue anybody, and not everyone can afford to do so. That explains why the suit was paid for by the third party.

If I read the article correctly, that means that once you become a “prominent” person, or historian in this matter, there is no way you can be wrong. That also means that there is absolutely no way that what you do can be malicious even when it hurts other people’s reputations.

Apparently, when the “wrong” party wins democratic elections, nothing they, or the country they govern, do from that point is legal or democratic. 

It is the second article in about a week and a half about the ruling from February. I will use the same logic the author of the piece used and point out that it suspiciously coincides with news that Greece is demanding billions of dollars for World War reparations from Germany and there is a pretty good chance that Poland will do the same soon.


An important voice on the campaign to smear wartime Poland as the accomplice of Adolf Hitler in the extermination of Jews

Holocaust survivor to the New Yorker: "Check the facts before publishing such lies!"

A Very Short History of Jews in Poland

Unbelievable attack on victims of Nazi Germany by The New Yorker