The Polish dictatorship of myth

Heroism is rare and that is why it is given such a great honor. If an entire state becomes heroic, then the term would lose its meaning. Kaczynski and Morawiecki's arduous struggle to polish Poland's historical reputation is a futile effort.

You can't escape history in Poland. During a hastily organized session at the end of June, the Polish Sejm (Lower House of Parliament) passed an amendment to the Law on the Institute of National Remembrance, repealing the amendment approved in January of this year. Effective immediately, attributing guilt to Poland for World War II-era Nazi crimes would no longer be punishable by three years in prison.

The rapid repeal of the "law of remembrance" by the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) is not surprising. The original law had caused great outrage in the world, especially from Israel. Even the American president, Donald Trump - who is actually a close friend of the Polish nationalists - had given signals that he would not meet with the Polish leaders until the crisis was overcome.

However, the way the Polish Government approached the law change is nonsensical. First, the entire process was carried out in secret, to the point that Israeli-Polish relations were managed by the intelligence agencies of these countries, so that the main proponent of the law, the Polish Minister of Justice, Zbigniew Ziboro, would not understand what was happening.

Ziboro is the main rival of Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in the battle for influence over PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski. So when the new amendment was passed, Morawiecki did not hesitate to take credit for saving Poland's image. He and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed a joint statement, ending the dispute between their states; until the Polish Government bought advertising pages in the world's largest newspapers - including the three largest Israeli dailies - to promote the text of the declaration.

However, just when it seemed that the Polish Government was over the trouble, Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Center, Yad Vashem, as well as the Israeli Minister of Education and Diaspora, Naftali Bennett, strongly condemned the joint statement. As is usually the case, the initiative within Israel to condemn Poland's memorial law was launched by the Israeli opposition, and Netanyahu only supported it because he had no choice.

In this case, Netanyahu - a populist - wanted to resolve the conflict with the PiS Government, because he did not want to turn Israel's most loyal ally within the European Union into an enemy. This explains why the joint statement is so insistent on the point that the blame for the Nazi death camps lies solely with the Germans. Moreover, she even seems to imply that the evil of anti-Polonism is somehow comparable to anti-Semitism.

Interestingly, while the Polish version of the statement acknowledges individual cases of "cruelty against Jews" by Poles, the Hebrew version states that "we recognize and condemn every incident of cruelty." But both versions then recall "the heroic acts of many Poles who risked their lives to save the Jews".

In the next section there is a discreet reference to "szmalcowniks" who "regardless of origin, religion or point of view - exposed their darkest side". On the other hand, the language formulation related to Polish heroism is very concrete and emphasizes the whole people. "The Polish underground state, overseen by the Polish Government in Exile, created a mechanism for systematic aid to the Jewish people, while its courts convicted Poles of collaboration with the German occupation authorities, including denunciation of Jews."

This is a made up story. As Bennett points out, although some Poles helped the Jews, "these cases were few and not central". Consequently, the joint statement wrongly treats "rare cases of kindness" as a "general phenomenon", while "widespread occurrences of the surrender of Jews by Poles" are declared "rarities".

Bennett's report is supported by detailed research, including "Endless Night: The Fate of Jews in Certain Counties of Occupied Poland," a two-volume history edited by Barbara Engelking and Jan Grabowski of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research. . According to the book, in nine German-occupied Polish counties, two-thirds of the 250.000 Jews who fled during the "Nazi liquidation" of Jewish ghettos in 1942 were killed by 1945, most by Poles, or with Polish participation.

Of course, proponents of the joint declaration would point out that Yad Vashem itself recognized more Poles (6.863) than members of other nationalities as the "righteous among the nations" who helped the Jews. But this is a pure play on words. More than three million Jews lived in Poland before the war, and the Germans built their death camps on Polish territory. So, where would the "righteous" come from, if not from Poland?

The intention is not to say that Poles are collectively worse or better than any other nationality. Indeed, Yale University historian Timothy D. Snyder, who can hardly be accused of anti-Polish sentiment, has concluded that the Poles behaved more or less the same as any other people under similar circumstances.

Heroism is rare and that is why it is given such a great honor. If an entire state becomes heroic, then the term would lose its meaning. The arduous battle of Kaczynski and Morawiecki to polish Poland's historical reputation is a battle fought in vain. As Snyder reminds us, it was Polish anti-regime leader Wladyslaw Bartoszewski who said it best: "The individuals who worked on behalf of the Jews did not ask the permission of the Polish people to do so."

(The author, founder of the "Krytka Polityczna" movement, is the director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Warsaw and an associate at the "Robert Bosch" academy in Berlin. The review was written for the global journalism network, "Project Syndicate", a part of which it's also "Time of Day")