Future of Holocaust research in Poland hinges on libel case
Vanessa Gera
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1943 AP
FILE - In this 1943 photo, a group of Polish Jews are led away for deportation by German SS soldiers, during the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto by German troops after an uprising in the Jewish quarter. Two Polish historians are facing a libel trial for a scholarly examination of Polish behavior during World War II, a case whose outcome is expected to determine the fate of independent Holocaust research under Polands nationalist government. A verdict is expected Feb. 9. (AP Photo, B/W File)
WARSAW – Two Polish historians are facing a libel trial for a scholarly examination of Polish behavior during World War II, a case whose outcome is expected to determine the fate of independent Holocaust research under Poland’s nationalist government.
Future of Holocaust research in Poland hinges on libel accesswdun.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from accesswdun.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Since it won power in 2015, the conservative ruling party, Law and Justice, has sought to discourage investigations into Polish wrongdoing during the wartime German occupation, preferring instead to almost exclusively stress Polish heroism and suffering. The aim is to promote national pride but critics say the government has been whitewashing the fact that some Poles also collaborated in the German murder of Jews.
The Israeli Holocaust museum Yad Vashem said the legal effort “constitutes a serious attack on free and open research.”
A number of other historical institutions have condemned the case as the verdict nears, with the Paris-based Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah describing it Tuesday as a “witch hunt” and a “pernicious invasion into the very heart of research.”
Future of independent Holocaust research in Poland hinges on libel case theglobeandmail.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theglobeandmail.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
(JTA) â The city of Warsaw has accused an Israeli Holocaust museum of being involved in the smuggling out of Poland of Jewish prayer artifacts that the museum said were found inside an old bunker in the Polish capital.Â
A bunker containing one hundred-year-old tefillin (phylacteries) hidden from the Nazis in World War II was discovered in the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto. In recent years, Polish authorities have begun to demolish buildings inside the Warsaw Ghetto to turn them into residential buildings in a process of urban renewal. Following one such demolition, construction workers discovered an entrance to a bunker dug in preparation for the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. One of the Polish construction workers on the site who entered the bunker to clear it out discovered 10 phylacteries that had been hidden behind books and other items.