The Polish government criticized an article published in the New Yorker regarding Poland’s role in the Holocaust during World War II and ongoing legal battles against two holocaust historians, the Associated Press reported Sunday.
The Article, which was posted on March 26, centered around two Polish historians researching the Holocaust who were appealing a guilty verdict by a court for “defaming a long-deceased Polish village official,” the Associated Press reported.
The article included a subtitle that accused the Polish government of punishing scholars for defamation in an attempt to “exonerate the nation of the murders of three millions Jews,” the Associated Press reported.
Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek, strongly criticized the article on March 27 through Twitter.
Próba stworzenia obrazu, w którym przypisuje się Polakom odpowiedzialność za śmierć 3 mln Żydów jest czymś niebywałym.
Ta manipulacja będzie przedmiotem zdecydowanej reakcji polskiej dyplomacji.https://t.co/CS7pt52tqI— S Szynkowski vel Sęk (@SzSz_velSek) March 27, 2021
“This manipulation will be the subject of a strong reaction from Polish diplomacy,” vel Sek stated in the tweet. (RELATED: 100-Year-Old Concentration Camp Guard Charged With Accessory To Over 3,500 Murders)
The director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau state museum in Poland, Pitor Cywinski, sharply criticized the article’s portrayal of the country’s role, according to the New York Post, stating that there were “so many lies and distortions that I find it a bit hard to believe that it is a coincidence.”
????@AP: ‘The @AuschwitzMuseum has sharply denounced an article in @NewYorker that looks at Holocaust scholarship in Poland, accusing the magazine of publishing lies and distortions of Poland’s role during World War II.’ https://t.co/1WmMAfM0gv | @DavidHarrisAJC
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) March 28, 2021
“Furthermore, when it concerns the Holocaust, any distortion of historical truth is very dangerous” Cywinski told the Associated Press.
In 2018, the country repealed a law that included jail sentences of up to three years for citizens who accused the government of being complicit or aiding the Nazi regime during the holocaust.