The “Law of the Holocaust” in a practical stage: The first lawsuit was filed yesterday (Friday) in Poland within the framework of the law forbidding statements attributed to Poland responsibility for crimes against humanity committed in World War II.
The law came into effect on Thursday, and in the next day a group called the Polish Anti-Defamation League sued a newspaper in Argentina. The reason: publishing a picture of Polish resistance fighters taken after World War II to go along an article about the massacre of the Jews in the Polish town of Jedwabne in 1941.
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The newspaper “pagina 12”, one of the three largest daily news in Argentina, and journalist Federico Pawlowski, are accused of “an act aimed at harming the Polish nation and the good name of the Polish soldiers.”
For decades after the war, the Communist authorities in Poland have whitewashed the role of the Poles in the Jedwabne massacre, accusing the Nazis of sending special forces to carry out the acts.
However, a report published in 2011 by historian Jan Tomasz Gross claimed that the Poles carried out the massacre, which killed about 1,600 Jews.
The controversial law states that statements in which the imposition of responsibility on Poland for crimes against humanity during the Holocaust will constitute a crime, and punishments of up to three years in prison.
The law came into effect on Monday, but the Poles made it clear that it would not be enforced until the issue was resolved in negotiations with Israel, and after a decision was reached in the country’s constitutional court. The bill was passed to Polish President Andrzej Aude.
Last week, the Polish parliament rejected a debate on whether to dedicate a Polish memorial day to save Jews during World War II. Opponents argued that this was an inappropriate timing in light of the dispute surrounding the Holocaust Law.
