Topics of Interest

TOPICS OF INTEREST

In this section one can find the international echos of and reactions to the debates and issues raised by the Polish Centre for Holocaust Research

News:

• Creation of the Polish National Foundation [Polska Fundacja Narodowa]
  
  The media in Poland report the creation of the Polish National Foundation [Polska Fundacja Narodowa], an organization funded by state-controlled enterprises, with an annual budget of 100 million zlotys (25 million $).
  The Foundation's mandate is to promote a positive image of Poland abroad. According to Jackiewicz, the former Secretary of Treasury: "Poland is a country which is being hurt by false, unnecessary and stereotypical information" which is spread abroad by "various media, organizations and respected people around the world". Cezary Jurkiewicz, the chief of the PNF, is one of the leaders of the right-wing "Gazeta Polska" clubs and an activist of the ruling Peace and Justice party. His deputy, Maciej Swirski is the founder of the Redoubt of Good Name - Polish Anti-Defamation League.  Swirski and his Redoubt acquired certain notoriety last year, protesting the Oscar-winning film "Ida", alleging that it: "can make people falsely believe that the Poles murdered European Jews". Swirski also requested that president Duda of Poland strip Jan T. Gross of his Order of Merit of the Polish Republic. The leader of the Polish National Foundation described professor Jan T. Gross of Princeton as a: "particularly dangerous slanderer [who] under the guise of academic pursuits leads a campaign of slanders and insults against Poland".  More recently, Swirski declared that the European Commission, instead of worrying about the state of democracy in Poland, should "study the breach of treaties by the Germans who let into Europe an unknown number of terrorists".
  
  For more info (in Polish), see:  http://wyborcza.pl/7,75398,21216898,kto-wyda-100-mln-zl-na-promocje-polski-w-swiecie-teolog-menedzer.html
  
  
• Joan Sangster writes to the Polish Prime Minister to voice the CHA's opposition to a new law that would introduce harsh punishment to historians or members of the public referring to “Polish death camps” or “Polish concentration camps.”
  
  
• The Ina Levine Annual Lecture at the United Staets Holocaust Memmorial Museum in Washington, ​"THE POLISH POLICE COLLABORATION IN THE HOLOCAUST"
  

Varia:

• Letter regarding session "Helping the Jews in German-Occupied Poland. Zegota and Others" at University of Toronto
  

• Maclean's writes about "The danger in Poland’s frontal attack on its Holocaust history"
  
• Holocaust Educational Trust of North Western University in an open letter to the President of the Republic of Poland condemns Threat to Academic Freedom

• “Polish ambassador in Ottawa requested that the term “Polish SS” be removed from a book published in Canada. There is more to the story than it meets the eye” - Jan Grabowski to the publishers of "Fligt to Freedom. Stories of Escape to Canada"

The Polish Righteous Monument Controversy:

• http://politicalcritique.org/cee/poland/2016/monument-history-of-polish-jews-museum/

• Should the Monument honuring the Righteus Poles be placed in the former Ghetto - Facebook Page

• FORWARD: Poland's Dueling Holocaust Monuments to 'Righteous Gentiles' Spark Painful Debate
• FORWARD: Warsaw Ghetto Memorial to Righteous Suffers New Setback as Design Is Tossed
• FORWARD: Polish Jews Protest Monument to Righteous Gentiles in Warsaw Ghetto
  
• FORWARD: Warsaw Ghetto Memorial to Righteous Gentiles Hits New Snag
  

OPINIONS AND COMMENTS:
The voices of the members of the Centre abroad

• forward.com/news/327387/poland-turns-hard-right-and-hits-the-jews/
• www.wnd.com/2015/04/after-70-years-honoring-righteous-gentiles/
• www.cruxnow.com/faith/2015/08/30/polands-mixed-feelings-over-a-memorial-to-the-rescuers-of-jews/               

BOOK REVIEWS
Publications of our members as reviewed abroad and a choice of reviews penned by the members of the Centre

• www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/review-the-warsaw-ghetto-a-guide-to-the-perished-city-by-barbara-engelking-and-jacek-leociak/article4293663/
• holocaust-center.haifa.ac.il/index.php/dapim-journal-studies-on-the-holocaust/48-dariusz-libionka--the-attitudes-of-the-union-of-armed-combat-
• www.macleans.ca/culture/books/polands-dark-hunt/
• www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-libionka-weinbaum-s06.htm
• www.thenation.com/article/noble-and-base-poland-and-holocaust/
• www.nybooks.com/articles/2012/12/20/hitlers-logical-holocaust/
• www.welt.de/geschichte/zweiter-weltkrieg/article142180592/So-halfen-polnische-Bauern-beim-Judenmord.html

OUR STAND

           
ABOUT US

Prof. Jan Grabowski about the “Margins of the Holocaust”

Prof Jacek Leociak - Europe and the Holocaust: Shifts in Public Debates in Poland, Germany and the United Kingdom from UCL European Institute.

• www.ushmm.org/research/competitive-academic-programs/fellows-and-scholars/all-fellows-and-scholars/dr-barbara-engelking
• www.sprawiedliwi.org.pl/en/cms/news-archive/409,meeting-with-jacek-leociak-during-the-open-day-of-the-center-of-yiddish-culture/
• www.sztetl.org.pl/en/cms/knowledge/1117,about-golden-harvest-an-interview-with-alina-skibinska/