Center's statement regarding the planned changes to the law about the Institute of National Remembrance from September 2016

28.01.2018 07:06:06

In September 2016 Polish Center for Holocaust Research has already protested against planned changes to the law about the Institute of National Remembrance. Unfortunately last Friday, January 26, 2018 Polish Sejm voted this law.

The Polish Center of Holocaust Research of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences wishes to express its deep concern over the adoption by the government, on August 16, 2016,  of changes to the laws enabling the defense of the good name of the Polish Republic and the Polish Nation.  The envisaged changes introduce fines and sentences of up to three years of imprisonment for those who “attribute to the Polish Nation or to the Polish State, the participation, organization, responsibility or complicity, in crimes committed by the III German Reich, or other crimes against peace and war crimes”.  The only limitation of the opportunistic character of the proposed changes is the formula “against the facts” which has been added to the text. 

The proposed formula of the “defense of the good name” is equally spacious as it is imprecise, and may well be interpreted according to the current needs of the state and the prosecuting and police authorities, which act on its behalf.  This lack of precision of the adopted legal terms ushers the threat of criminalizing historical research which focuses on the actions of Poles during World War II.  It is a threat to an entire sphere of public life and to the ongoing debate about the Polish past.  The proposed laws will give the authorities a possibility not only to intervene in areas such as journalism, education or  into the broadly defined popularization of knowledge about the attitudes of Poles during WW II, but also  - despite assurance to the contrary -  into the domain of artistic expression and sovereign academic and scientific life.

An idea to criminalize debates about the past and threatening their participants - should they stray from the official and required interpretation - with jail terms, brings to mind the worst periods of red and brown totalitarianism.

In the face of these threats, the Polish Center for Holocaust Research wishes to express not only its deepest concern, but also its firm protest. We demand an end to the acts which lead to the destruction of democracy, and which will make Poland a pariah among the democratic nations. We call upon the parliamentary opposition and all those who are targeted by the planned legislation to oppose its adoption by the Parliament.  

Members of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research
/Barbara Engelking/
/Jan Grabowski/
/Agnieszka Haska/
/Marta Janczewska/
/Jacek Leociak/
/Małgorzata Melchior/
/Dariusz Libionka/
/Jakub Petelewicz/
/Alina Skibińska/
/Andrzej Żbikowski/