Another Crisis in Polish-Jewish Relations is on the Horizon
Statement of Victor Markowicz, Chairman of the American Friends of POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Inc. from Wyborcza.Pl
The fate of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, "Polin" is close to my heart. After all, I did contribute to its creation. Today a storm is brewing around the Museum. The mere fact that the Minister of Culture, Piotr Gliński appointed Bronisław Wildstein to the Board of the Museum despite his humiliating emails says a lot. It’s clear from the emails between Wildstein and Prime Minister Morawiecki that were leaked to the press, what their plan is - to replace the management and top staff of all Jewish institutions in Poland with people loyal to the ruling PiS party and to change the historical narrative of how Poles behaved during the German occupation. Discourse on this topic has been ongoing since 2000 when Jan Gross’ book, "Neighbors," was published, about Polish townspeople setting fire to a stable packed with hundreds of their Jewish neighbors in the town of Jedwabne in 1941. At times this discourse grows into an international scandal, as it did when a law was proposed that that would criminalize all statements that showed Poland in a bad light during WWII. The Polish government’s current plan to rewrite Holocaust history is troublesome, as are Wildstein’s plans, which may provoke another unnecessary international conflict.
Wildstein began implementing his plan by giving an interview to the online "TVP Weekly." Wildstein stayed in our New York apartment years ago and seemed to me an intelligent young person, who couldn’t possibly believe the opinions he’s voicing today. He presents himself as a protector of Polish identity, which he claims is threatened by foreign superpowers: Russia, Germany, France, but above all by Polish liars and slanderers. The enemy is lurking – Where have I heard this before?...
When it comes to Polin, Wildstein says he will make sure "that the museum won’t be used for ad hoc political games" which is why he wants to check if the exhibition, "accurately and impartially approaches the problem." The exhibition, which is the result of careful work by dozens of historians from Poland and other parts of the world and has been the subject of hundreds of reviews and opinions will now be verified by Mr. Wildstein. It’s terrifying.
Wildstein is particularly irritated by the actions of the Center for Research on the Extermination of Jews, (PAN) and calls its members, Jan Grabowski and Barbara Engelking, "enemies of the state" in his e-mails to Morawiecki. He calls Grabowski, who is a longtime professor at the University of Ottawa and a member of the Royal Society of Canada, a pseudo researcher who, "isn’t a real researcher but a fellow who hates Poland and plans to show it in a bad light, spreading lies about hundreds of thousands of Jews who were killed by Poles during WWII. He has no documents to back up his stories, which still manage to get quite a lot of attention. "
He doesn’t, however, mention Barbara Engelking. Perhaps that would be too hard of a nut to crack. After all, Barbara is the undisputed authority on matters concerning the Holocaust in Poland – and she herself doesn’t have Jewish ancestors. She was also the main designer of the "Holocaust" Gallery in Polin. She devoted her life to studying the fate of Jews during WWII , which she writes about in her shocking books. The Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) contacted Barbara a few years ago asking her to give them the names of Poles who lost their lives hiding Jews. It’s unclear how many there were, but it’s certain that in many cases they were denounced by their neighbors, other Poles.
In "TVP Weekly" Wildstein trivializes the role of the Szmalcownicy/Blackmailers. He says: "There were criminals who hung around the Warsaw ghetto, the so-called Blackmailers who blackmailed Jews who were trying to get to the other side of the wall, so they could obtain financial benefits, or they handed them directly over to the Germans. The possibility of easy and unpunished earnings attracted social scum. It’s unclear how many of these disgusting people there were – whether it was several hundred or close to a thousand. For a city with a population of one million, it isn’t such a large number."
Wildsten makes it sound as if a Jew who managed to bypass these several hundred blackmailers would have felt safe among other citizens of Warsaw. Does the statement, "it isn’t such a large number" mean that the handing of Jews over to the Gestapo was a trivial topic?
I was also disturbed by Wildstein’s disregard for the testimonies of the Jews. "Victims are victims, and for that they deserve our compassion and respect. They are very particular witnesses whose memories are greatly distorted by their trauma. We should therefore approach their testimonies very carefully." And he continues, "If we focus on the memory of people who suffered a terrible trauma due to the blackmailers they came across, then we’ll get an absolutely distorted picture of history."
So, it turns out that these poor Jews were so terrified that they had no idea what they were saying. I guess then it’s better to rely on the testimonies of blackmailers… Does Wildstein want to change the narratives of the Polin Museum based on the blackmailers’ stories?
The important part of the interview are the words he used to open it: "The Holocaust in Poland was the work of the Germans, they are the only ones responsible for this terrible crime and no one else." I agree with the first sentence, but I believe that many countries should feel a sense of responsibility for their or their citizens’ complicity in the Holocaust or for their passive response to it.
The United States indirectly contributed to the deaths of many Jews by refusing to allow people fleeing Nazi Germany into the country – (such as the 937 refugees from the St. Louis ship) and for refusing to bomb the railroad to the death camps since they weren’t considered strategic targets.
The British government, which thanks to decoding the Enigma, knew the exact number of Jews murdered each day in Poland, didn’t share information about the launch and scale of the "Final Solution" plan with the Allies – information that could have changed the course of the war.
The governments, along with ordinary citizens in France, and other countries in Western Europe collaborated with the Nazi occupiers in rounding up the Jews and sending them to death camps. In many Baltic and Eastern European countries, there were instances of the local population assisting in the Einsatzgruppen’s liquidation units, and mass murders of Jews occurred without German involvement.
Not one of these countries has been held adequately accountable for the past – the nightmares of the Holocaust remain unspoken, rarely making headlines. Nevertheless, Poland is the only country that’s trying to rewrite history by glorifying their society’s attitude towards Jews during the war.
Wildstein’s mission, coordinated with Prime Minister Morawiecki, is to do just that. I believe that any attempt at a controversial "reform" of the Polin Museum, which up until now has contributed immensely to creating a positive image of Poland, may lead to another crisis in Polish-Jewish relations that will be felt around the world.
Victor Markowicz - mathematician, entrepreneur, the first "Distinguished Benefactor of the Polin museum, and its active supporter since the 90s. He emigrated from Poland in 1964. He’s been living in New York for 50 years.