New Polish School of Holocaust Scholarship

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On 21-22 February 2019 a conference titled The New Polish School of Holocaust Scholarship (French: Nouvelle école polonaise d’histoire de la Shoah) devoted to the work of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research took place at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) Paris. The conference was disrupted by Polish nationalists.

Background

The conference titled New Polish School of Holocaust Scholarship (French: Nouvelle école polonaise d’histoire de la Shoah) devoted to the work of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research was scheduled for 21-22 February 2019 at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris. The conference was organized by the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah, EHESS, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Polish Center for Holocaust Research, Polish Academy of Sciences (Paris branch), Strasbourg University, and the L'Histoire journal.

The Polish Center for Holocaust Research has published a two-volume study titled "Dalej jest noc" which covered the role played by Poles in killing Jews as well as turning them over to German authorities. The nationalist regime governing Poland has pushed back against such research. While not denying the Holocaust, Polish authorities prefer to put a spot light on German actions. The 2018 Polish Holocaust law, which threatens those who "undermine the image of Poland" and whose criminal provisions were vacated following international protest (leaving civil law provisions), was prompted in part by the publications of the new school.

Polonia groups wrote in a latter that they viewed the conference as xenophobic and anti-Polish. According to Holocaust scholar Yehuda Bauer the work of the Polish researchers of the new school, some 28 researchers, is groundbreaking.

According to University of Warsaw sociology professor Dr. Izabela Wagner, Polish scholars face two dangers: first the possibility of injury by groups present at their public appearances, and second being accused of "damaging the good name of Poland". These dangers are present in fields such as Marxism and gender studies, however Holocaust scholars face the highest risks. According to Wagner, protesters at Holocaust conferences take note of statements by Polish Holocaust researches with the aim of initiating judicial proceedings for harming the "the good name of Poland". According to Wagner, the best organized Polish emigre group is Roman Catholics who enjoy institutional support from the Church that reinforces Polish national identity. Wagner states that the Catholicism practiced in Poland and diaspora often differentiates between "us" and "them", with antisemitism being a feature of cultural identity in recent years. According to Wagner, protesters indicated in interviews to Polish state TV and right-wing media that a Polish Catholic Mission priest was a central figure in organizing the disruption.

Program

Speakers at the conference included:

• Jan Grabowski: Why did so few Jews survive? Results of a comparative study
• Alina Skibinska: Jews' chances of survival in the occupied territories 1942-1944
• Karolina Panz: The case of Nowy Targ
• Sidi N'Diaye: Reflections on hate imagery (Poland, Rwanda)
• Agnieszka Haska: The fate of Jews as seen by foreigners in Warsaw
• Barbara Engelking: Communists and Jews in Warsaw 1941-1943
• Jakub Petelewicz: Databasing and mapping the Holocaust – Warsaw ghetto and ‘aryanside’ database and map project
• Jan T. Gross: Journey of a Holocaust historian in Poland
• Barbara Lambauer: Oświęcim before the war
• Tal Bruttmann: Polish Jews in Auschwitz
• Anna Bikont: Irena Sendler revisited
• Karolina Szymaniak: Rokhl Auerbakh: Chronicle and Archive of the Catastrophe
• Fleur Kuhn: The literary and the political in the writing of Lily Berger
• Jean-Yves Potel: Re-hearing the voices of the witnesses
• Audrey Kichelewski: 1968 in Poland
• Ewa Tartakowsky: Teaching Holocaust History in Poland since the 2017 Education Reform
• Valentin Behr: The Institute of National Remembrance
• Krzysztof Persak: From Jedwabne to Jedwabne
• Elzbieta Janicka: Participatory observers of the Shoah: a new descriptive category
• Andrzej Leder: The past and present of Polish society

Intimidation prior to the conference

Polish right-wing groups, including the Coalition of Polish Americans, the World Union of Polish Patriots, Polish Media Issues, and the Polonia Institute demanded cancellation. In a joint protest letter they wrote: "As descendants of Poles who fought and died en masse in the fight against Nazi Germany on all fronts ... we cannot accept the fact that the prestigious EHESS lends its scientific authority to anti-Polish, unreliable characters from the world of science" and further described the speakers as bearing "a clear xenophobic and anti-Polish character". The letter specifically named Jan Grabowski, Jan Gross, Barbara Engelking, Jacek Leociak, Joanna Tokarska-Bakir, Agnieszka Haska as "dishonest" in their research, and complained that speakers from the Auschwitz Museum, Pilecki Institute, IPN and the Polish Historical Society were not invited. These groups are opposed to research finding by historians which show some Polish participation in the murder of Jews in the Holocaust.

According to Times Higher Education, the protest "is a further sign that Polish nationalists are seeking to intimidate historians whose work argues that Poles were complicit in the Holocaust."

The Polish Institute of National Remembrance criticized the conference on social media prior to its opening. The messages were repeated on twitter by the Embassy of Poland, Paris and by the Polish ambassador to Switzerland Jakub Kumoch. Polish state TV, Telewizja Polska, labelled the conference as "a festival of anti-Polish lies".

Prior to the conference beginning, agitators attempted to intimidate the organizers with e-mails demanding cancellation. According to EHESS, they received numerous e-mails and phone calls demanding the cancellation of the conference. These messages often included extensive quotations of an essay by IPN house historian Tomasz Domanski titled "Correction of the (historical) image" which the IPN addressed at EHESS and co-organizers via twitter. Historian Claire Zalc, who presided over a session, said she was intimidated by an insult laced telephone call to her home as well as several e-mails. According to EHESS researcher Olga Byrska an individual showed at EHESS demanding to speak with the organizers.

Disruption at conference

The conference was disrupted by Polish nationalists based in France, as well as some who came from London and Poland to Paris, who repeatedly disrupted the conference by vocal interjections. According to French education minister Frédérique Vidal and EHESS director of studies Judith Lyon-Caen, the group of some 30 nationalists were associated with the right-wing "Gazeta Polska" weekly, and supported by Polish state representatives. Agitators stalked conference speakers in Paris, shouting insults such as "dirty Jew" that hark back to interwar antisemitism.

Historian Jacek Leociak received death threats in online messages, his speech at the confeence was disrupted by shouting and he was insulted as he left the conference.

A group of Polish nationalists shouted "shame on you, you dirty Jew!" at historian Jan Grabowski as he left EHESS. The Warsaw based Pilecki Institute tweeted that Grabowski made "controversial and outrageous statements". According to Grabowski in the past such disruption would've been unthinkable, however due to "the support of the Polish state, they are ready to show their faces and to confront scholars on their own ground".

According to Jan T. Gross, he was handed a leaflet that described "lies" in his research that included a quote from a fabricated "uncle". Gross stated that the protesters "had no scholarly qualifications or intent".

According to EHESS director of studies Judith Lyon-Caen, pirated recordings of the event were made by the YouTube channel suwerenny.pl. The YouTube channel cut out of context fragments of statements made by researchers and distributed them online.

According to Audrey Kichelewski, a member of the organizing committee, the first day was particularly violent with protesters regularly booing and shouting interjections. Kichelewski notes the distribution of a French language leaflet describing the position of the Polish protesters, which while not being incorrect on historical facts was notable in what it chose to omit. According to Valentin Behr, his colleagues recognized some of the Polish protesters from a previous event with Jan Gross in 2016. Per Behr, the protesters would heckle each time the Catholic church or antisemitism was mentioned in the conference. A 5 page leaflet on "The Lies of Jan Gross" was also distributed by the Polish protesters.

Clippings from the conference were posted online, accompanied by antisemitic comments. A far-right television station interviewed Polish individuals outside of the EHESS conference. More mainstream Polish media also covered the events, with Polish state TV broadcasting pictures of four Polish participants on their 23 February newscast. According to Izabela Wagner, Polish state TV labelled the conference as a "Sabbath of Witches".

According to literary historian Elżbieta Janicka the protesters inside the conference itself were mostly women who gathered around a Polish Catholic Mission priest. Janicka stated that they made interjections such as "Learn Polish before giving lessons to Poles", "Liars", and antisemitic remarks on the Talmud. According to Janicka conference attendants were surrounded, harassed, and questioned outside the conference in a pogrom like atmosphere. Inside the conference the protesters distributed, per Janicka, antisemitic propaganda as well as a pseudo-scientific booklet by the IPN. According to Janicka, as she made her own presentation at the conference one of the protesting women made a gesture of cutting her throat in a manner similar to that in the Shoah documentary film by Claude Lanzmann.

Historian Antoine Marès observed multiple women using a thumb's down signal as if they were spectators in gladiatorial games indicating the death of the orators as well as a woman repeatedly gesturing across her neck indicating decapitation or slaughter. Izabela Wagner notes that after hoots and howls by protesters led to a request for silence, protesters turned to non-verbal gestures: the repeated use of the thumb's down signal as well as protesters dragging their thumb across their throats in a threatening gesture.

Aftermath

EHESS management condemned the disruption during the conference. EHSSS president Christophe Prochasson said he could not recall such a violent disturbance at any scientific conference. EHESS submitted a report to the Paris public prosecutor regarding antisemitic discourse during the conference.

The Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah issued a statement on 25 February 2019 indicating its support for conference participants. Human rights ambassador, François Croquette, also indicated his support for academic freedom. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance also released a statement condemning the disruption.

The Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) which had made social media postings during the conference and sent a delegate, was criticized by French education minister Frédérique Vidal. Vidal sent a letter to Polish Minister of General and Higher Education Jaroslaw Gowin asking that Polish authorities take a public stance distancing themselves from the antisemitic and highly regrettable disturbances at the conference. Vidal stated the conference was disrupted in "a very organized way by activists of the weekly Gazeta Polska", and that the disruption "could appear to be supported by representatives of the Polish state" due the IPN's delegate to the conference not condemning the attacks as they happened and due to social media posts by the IPN and the Polish embassy in Paris which criticized the conference.

In response to Vidal, Jaroslaw Gowin condemned any acts of antisemitism, whether in France or Poland, and issued a statement saying that he could not identify in the transcripts provided any antisemitic attacks, while pointing out that conference organizers had deviated from the original topic of the conference and had attacked Polish authorities. IPN President Jarosław Szarek requested full transcripts of the event and promised to take any necessary actions.

The nationally distributed right-wing Polish newspaper Only Poland (Polish: Tylko Polska) printed alongside a headline tilted "Attack on Poland at a conference in Paris" (with a picture of Jan T. Gross, who is frequently the target of attacks by Polish nationalists) an article titled "How to spot a Jew". The article described "disinformation activities" as well as "names, anthropological features, expressions, appearances, character traits, methods of operation" which according to Only Poland could be used to discern Jewish individuals. Following distribution of the newspaper in the Sejm, Polish politicians complained that texts of such nature were present in the Sejm.

External links

• Disruption of the International Symposium "The New Polish School of History of the Shoah" at Journal of the Association of Contemporary Historians of Higher Education and Research.
• Sweet elites always remain in the shadows. On the first line are those who have nothing to lose, Joanna Tokarska-Bakir in Gazeta Wyborcza