Poland

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• SOURCE: Reuters
  1/3/2023
  

  Poland Claims Germany Refuses Participation in Talks for WWII Reparations

  Six million Poles, including three million Polish Jews, were killed during the second world war. Poland's nationalist government seeks to void agreements made under Communism to release Germany from liability. 

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• SOURCE: Associated Press
  9/1/2022
  

  Poland Seeking $1.3 Trillion in World War II Reparations from Germany

  The Polish government referenced a recently completed report documenting the costs to Poland of war, and argued that reconciliation between the nations could best be served by a payment. 

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  8/16/2021
  

  Appeals Court Sides with Polish Holocaust Historians

  The decision is seen as a victory for historians and academic freedom in a Polish political climate where denying Polish complicity in the Holocaust is part of right-wing politics. 

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• 6/6/2021
  

  Two Films Show the Historical Toll and Present Danger of Ethnic Violence

  by Walter G. Moss

  Two films show the dire consequences of ethnic antagonism during and after the second world war, and the potential for ideology to incite and justify violence.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/24/2021
  

  In Poland, an L.G.B.T.Q. Migration As Homophobia Deepens

  People leaving Poland for better economic opportunities within the European Union have been joined by gay and lesbian Poles who experience increasing hostility at home. 

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• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  4/15/2021
  

  Scholars Fear Impact of Poland's Law on the Holocaust

  Poland's right-wing government has sought to promote a narrative of national victimhood by the forces of Nazism and Communism. Historians who study the participation or complicity of Poles in the Holocaust face a threat of legal action that historian Audrey Kichelewski says is chilling. 

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• 4/4/2021
  

  Hidden Stories of Jewish Resistance in Poland

  by Judy Batalion

  I was fascinated by the widespread resistance efforts of Polish Jews, but equally by their absence from current understandings of the war. Of all the legions of Holocaust tales, what had happened to this one?

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• SOURCE: Associated Press
  2/9/2021
  

  Holocaust Scholars Ordered to Apologize in Polish Libel Case

  "The Polish League Against Defamation is ideologically aligned with the country’s ruling party, and the scholars see that as an indication the case is part of a government-backed effort to promote its historical narrative."

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• SOURCE: Times of Israel
  12/19/2020
  

  Historian: Polish Society Shunned Jewish Survivors Returning From Nazi Camps

  Historian Lukasz Krzyzanowski argues that most Poles today are “unwilling to accept the bitter fact that they live in a post-genocidal land.”

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• 9/6/2020
  

  A Coup of "Clerqs"?: Anne Applebaum's "Twilight of Democracy" Reviewed

  by David O'Connor

  Anne Applebaum's new book looks with concern at the rise of right-wing populism in Europe and the loyal party functionaries who enable its march. 

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• SOURCE: Jerusalem Post
  5/31/2020
  

  Polish Historian Ewa Kurek: Coronavirus is ‘Jewification’ of Europe

  Kurek is infamous for her radical arguments about the Holocaust, which include denial of Polish crimes against Jews. Now she invokes conspiratorial ideas about Jewish control of Europe.

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• SOURCE: TIME
  5/8/2020
  

  World War II in Europe Ended 75 Years Ago—But the World Is Still Fighting Over Who Gets to Say What Happened

  The Polish historian Jan Grabowski is one of many scholars whose work has been challenged and attacked by right-wing nationalists who wish to present a purely heroic version of how Poles acted during World War II. 

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• SOURCE: New York Post
  3/30/2020
  

  Helen Hunt Brings Trailblazing War Journalist to Life in "World On Fire"

  “I remember reading that she called her paper the next day and held the phone out the window [so they could hear the gunfire and chaos] and said, ‘It’s happening right now!'”

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• SOURCE: The Jerusalem Report
  2/11/20
  

  Poland’s forgotten civil strife and the struggle for Jewish statehood

  by Isabella Ginor and Gideon Remez

  Israel and the Russian-Polish War of Narratives: How the contest for control of post-WWII Poland intersected with the struggle for Jewish statehood as two early arenas of the Cold War.

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• 1/19/20
  

  Poles Apart: Putin, Poland and the Nazi-Soviet Pact

  by Geoffrey Roberts

  As the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II approaches, two of that war’s main victims – Poland and Russia – are once again embroiled in a highly emotional dispute about its origins. At the heart of the matter is the perennial controversy about the Nazi-Soviet pact of 23 August 1939. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  1/5/20
  

  Putin’s Big Historical Lie

  by Anne Applebaum

  In a series of comments in late December, the Russian president appeared to blame Poland for the outbreak of the Second World War.

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• SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
  12/2/2019
  

  Poland’s far-right leaders seek to criminalize World War II restitution

  Poland is the only major former Eastern Bloc country to do nothing to return private property confiscated by Nazis or nationalized by the communist government, according to the World Jewish Restitution Organization.

• 
• SOURCE: Reuters
  11/11/19
  

  Poland asks Netflix to make changes to documentary about Nazi death camp guard

  Many Poles still refuse to accept research showing that thousands of Poles participated in the Holocaust in addition to the thousands who risked their lives to help the Jews.

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• SOURCE: Smithsonian Magazine
  9/27/19
  

  The Poignant Wartime Diary of a Jewish Teenager Living in Poland Has Been Published in English

  Renia Spiegel was killed by the Nazis when she was 18 years old.

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  9/17/19
  

  The populist rewriting of Polish history is a warning to us all

  by Estera Flieger

  Thirty years after communism ended, Poland’s past is again being manipulated for political motives, this time at a museum in Gdańsk.