Current statement Center's regarding the changes to the law about the Institute of National Remembrance
29.01.2018 12:02:22
Statement of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research regarding the changes the law about the Institute of National Remembrance voted by the Polish Parliament on January 26, 2018
The Polish Center for Holocaust Research expresses its deep concern with the changes to the law regarding the Institute of National Remembrance, as adopted by the Polish Parliament during the January 26, 2018 sitting, which would penalize those who „ascribe to the Polish Nation or to the Polish State responsibility or co-responsibility for the Nazi crimes committed by the Third German Reich”.
We consider the adopted law a tool intended to facilitate the ideological manipulation and imposition of the history policy of the Polish state. The new legislation would constitute an unprecedented (and unknown in a democratic system) intrusion into the debate about the Polish history.
Historical truth, which becomes known in the course of thorough, document-based historical research, cannot be decreed. The law which has been voted is an instrument which can muzzle discussions surrounding independent scientific inquiries which shed light on the complex history of the Holocaust. The popularization of this research cannot be subject to control and political pressures.
Polish Center for Holocaust Research
statement in PDF format