That day commemorates the liberation of the Nazis’ largest death camp, Auschwitz, by the Red Army.
Jews from more than 20 countries were deported to their deaths there. But in that talk I remarked that the prime focus on Auschwitz obscures a key aspect of the Holocaust that needs to be assimilated: that, on the eve of the Nazi invasion, half of the Jews who would be murdered in the Holocaust were citizens of Poland.
Jews comprised 10 per cent of Poland’s entire pre-war population. In Poland’s capital, Warsaw, and its textile centre, Lodz, Jews formed one-third of the population.
Future of Poland s Holocaust research hangs on court case, academics say Reuters 2/9/2021
By Alan Charlish and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk
WARSAW, Feb 9 (Reuters) - The fate of future research into the actions of Poles during the Holocaust could be set on Tuesday, academics say, in a court ruling on a case that pits two leading historians against an elderly litigant.
In a country where close to 3.2 million Jews are estimated to have died during more than five years of Nazi rule, the events of World War Two remain politically charged.
A significant body of research suggests that, while thousands of Poles risked their lives to help Jews, thousands also participated in the Holocaust.
Court rules Barbara Engelking and Jan Grabowski disseminated false information and harmed the honor of a man they said helped kill Jews in WWII; his niece brought the suit
By Alan Charlish and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk
WARSAW, Feb 9 (Reuters) - A Warsaw court ruled on Tuesday that two historians tarnished the memory of a Polish villager in a book about the Holocaust and must apologise, in a case some academics warn could deter impartial research into Poles actions during World War Two.
More than seven decades on, the conflict remains a live political issue in Poland, where the ruling nationalists say studies showing complicity by some Poles in the killing of Jews by Nazi Germany are an attempt to dishonour a country that suffered immensely in the conflict.
The court ruled that Barbara Engelking and Jan Grabowski, editors of the two-volume work Night without an end. Fate of Jews in selected counties of occupied Poland , must apologise for saying Edward Malinowski gave up Jews to the Nazi Germans.
The Globe and Mail Vanessa Gera and Monika Scislowska WARSAW, Poland Bookmark Please log in to listen to this story. Also available in French and Mandarin. Log In Create Free Account
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The Associated Press
A court in Warsaw ruled Tuesday that two prominent Holocaust researchers must apologize to a woman who claimed her deceased uncle had been slandered in a historical work, citing alleged inaccuracies that suggested the Polish man helped kill Jews during the Second World War.
Lawyers for 81-year-old Filomena Leszczynska argued that the scholars had unfairly harmed her good name and that of her family, violating the honour of the uncle. The family says he saved Jews during the German occupation of Poland during the Second World War.