Polish Jews invalidate The New Yorker’s accusation that Poles killed 3 million Polish Jews
Masha Gessen’s 25 March 2021 article “The Historians Under Attack for Exploring Poland’s Role in the Holocaust†published in The New Yorker on 25 March 2021 caused considerable outrage from Poles and Polish Jews alike by presenting an all-too-familiar recitation of anti-Polish falsehoods.
Dr. Piotr Cywiński, an historian and director of the Auschwitz Museum and Memorial, Head of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, and Head of the Programme Council of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, replied to Ms. Gessen’s offensive charge that Poles were responsible for murdering 3 million Polish Jews. His reply is presented below. Another notable Polish Jew, Paweł Jędrzejewski, the currentaffairs commentator with the Forum of Polish Jews, also replied here.
Dr. Piotr Cywiński’s reply:
STATEMENT OF THE AUSCHWITZ MUSEUM DIRECTOR
The article published in The New Yorker contains so many lies and distortions that I find it a bit hard to believe that it is a coincidence. Furthermore, when it concerns the Holocaust, any distortion of historical truth is very dangerous. This applies to all forms of denial, revisionism, and deformation of historical truth.
When I read the lead sentence of the article, which says ‘to exonerate the nation of the murders of three million Jews, the Polish government will go as far as to prosecute scholars for defamation,’ I am less inclined to notice that the lawsuit to which the author refers to is, in fact, a private lawsuit under civil law, to which everyone is entitled.
It is utterly shocking to assume that it is the nation (explicitly named in the same sentence that refers to the Polish government) responsible for the murder of 3 million Jews.
Piotr Cywiński: Memory must come hand in hand with responsibility
History was very complex, but to reduce the entire country of Poland to the story of collaborators, blackmailers, informers, or murderers is a historical lie. I do not know what the author’s knowledge of World War II is and the Holocaust is, but just as I do not talk about quantum physics (as I do not know much about it), Masha Gessen should remain silent if that is all the author has to say. Otherwise, Masha Gessen denies the existence of the perpetrators who introduced the Nuremberg Laws in Germany, who invaded almost the entire Europe, who made arrangements during the Wannsee Conference, who confined Jews in ghettos, who starved and robbed them, who deported entire families to Kulmhof, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau and many other places of murder.
Yes, there were cases of denunciation, collaboration, or outright murders perpetrated by Poles. Nevertheless, such reckless fiddling with the fates of three million victims can only arouse opposition. In this case, it offends the vast majority of victims of the Holocaust and offends many Survivors, just two weeks before Yom ha-Shoah… It also offends the last living American veterans who, with great sacrifice, moved towards Berlin. Not towards Warsaw.
A real journalist, a professional analyst, should know that stating such lies as in the above quote destroys the truth.
Interestingly, in several moments in the article, the author nearly notices the role of Nazi Germany in the history of the Holocaust. However, most readers will notice and remember the lead sentence. This is what they are for. At least in honest journalism.
Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński, historian, director of the Auschwitz Museum and Memorial, Head of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, Head of the Programme Council of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.
