Declaration concerning the conference in Paris

24.02.2019 20:05:18

A conference ”The New Polish school of history of the Holocaust” (La nouvelle école polonaise d’histoire de la Shoah) held on February 21-22 in Paris, brought together dozens of scholars, including several members of our Center. Due to numerous lies, manipulations and open attacks directed at the conference we feel obliogated to speak up.
 

Declaration of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research of IFiS PAN

Due to numerous attacks in Polish state media on scholars of the Holocaust and on the independence of research in our area, we feel obligated to speak up. A conference held recently in Paris (”The New Polish school of history of the Holocaust”) organized by the leading French research institutions such as École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) brought together scholars from France and Poland. They presented the results of their research and the results of the most recent insights into the question of the destruction of Polish Jewry. They also made references to the dangers associated with the so -called Polish “history policy”, or the “official” narrative in this area of study, promoted and defended by the Polish state.

What we now see in the media is a stream of distorted and outright false information about the content of the lectures; the speakers are accused of having made statements which have never been made and pieces of recordings are commented in such a way as to distort and falsify the intent and the message delivered by the speakers.  The public, state-owned TV, in its main evening newscast went as far as calling the conference : “a festival of anti-Polish lies”.  The credibility of these reports can be judged also by the fact that the state media attack even these scholars who never took part in the Paris meeting. 

Unfortunately, in addition to scholars, the prestigious halls of the EHESS saw the arrival of many people whose sole purpose was to shout and to interrupt the lectures. The presenting scholars were verbally abused, as were the French volunteers who helped the organizers.  Some of the verbal abuse had a distinctly antisemitic character.  Such a behavior is not only a violation of all principles    Of academic gatherings but is absolutely unacceptable in any public space.    We deeply regret that our French hosts and the French public had to experience themselves this outrage.  We, the scholars of the Holocaust, are deeply worried that the current study of history of the Shoah would again be shaped by forces of evil, division and hate. These attacks are, at the same time, a clear indication that  further efforts are needed in order to shed light on Polish-Jewish history without any official pressures related to ideological and political forces.

Members of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research