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No Punishment for Polish
'HOLOCAUST Denier'
A Polish court has decided not to punish a history professor for a "HOLOCAUST
denial" book that presents arguments questioning aspects of the familiar Six
Million extermination story.
On December 7, 1999, the regional court in Opole, in southern Poland, found
that Dariusz Ratajczak supported revisionist views on the HOLOCAUST issue in
his book, Tematy Niebezpieczne ("Dangerous Themes"). But it decided not to
punish the 37-year-old historian because the self-published volume had limited
distribution and was not damaging enough to warrant punishment under a Polish
statute that outlaws "public denial" of German wartime crimes. The court called
the book "merely a minor social annoyance." It also took into account that the
defendant had distanced himself somewhat from revisionist views in a preface to
a second edition.
The public prosecutor has appealed the verdict.
In a five-page section entitled "HOLOCAUST Revisionism," Ratajczak matter-of-
factly cited the work of such revisionists as Paul Rassinier, Robert Faurisson,
David Irving and Ernst Zündel, who contend that there was no German plan or
program to exterminate Europe's Jews. He also cited the forensic investigations
carried out at Auschwitz and Birkenau by Fred Leuchter and Germar Rudolf, and
their conclusions that, for technical reasons, well-known claims of killing
millions of Jews in gas chambers are impossible.
While Ratajczak did not explicitly endorse these views, he did call testimony
of HOLOCAUST "eyewitness" survivors "useless," and described establishment
HOLOCAUST writers as "followers of a religion of the HOLOCAUST" who impose on
others "a false image of the past."
As the title of the book suggests, Ratajczak understands the dangers of
challenging such prevailing taboos. As he put it (on page 8):
To write about Polish-Jewish relations is a dangerous venture, especially for a
Pole who holds the view that this relationship must be based on truth.
Paradoxically it is accordingly easy to be accused of narrow-minded
nationalism, xenophobia and "obsessive anti-Semitism." The results are often
tragic: social exclusion (everyone has the friends he deserves), muzzling of
journalistic and publishing activities, and, finally, professional ruin.
Ratajczak, who is popular with students, was suspended in April 1999 from his
teaching post at the Historical Institute of the University of Opole after
complaints were made to authorities. (See: "Polish Professor Under Fire
for 'HOLOCAUST Denial'," May-June 1999 Journal, p. 31.) It was not immediately
known whether he would get his position back. With a child to support, his
financial situation is precarious.
Commenting on the case, Swiss educator and revisionist author Jürgen Graf
writes: "There is concern that Ratajczak's acquittal will be overturned on appeal as a
result of pressure from the Jewish lobby, which is extraordinarily powerful in
Poland. Especially vicious in the hate campaign against him has been the Jew
Adam Michnik, who was a prominent "dissident" during the Communist era.
Dr. Dariusz Ratajczak is a man of firm political and religious convictions, a
man of character. Such men are disliked by the government of "liberal
democratic" Poland no less then they were by the government of the
Polish "peoples democracy."
At his trial in mid-November, Ratajczak said that in his book he had merely
summarized arguments of revisionist scholars who dispute HOLOCAUST claims, and
that views presented in his book do not necessarily reflect his
own. "Historical revisionism is a historical and social fact," he said at the
opening of his trial. "My only intention was to present the problem ... with
the author's commentary."
"I feel great relief after months of a witch hunt against me in the media, but
physically I am exhausted," he commented in the aftermath of the court's
decision.
The author of Poland's "HOLOCAUST denial" law expressed concern about the
verdict: "I am afraid that the world will get the message that denying Nazi
crimes in Poland is not socially harmful." A Jewish community leader called the
verdict "outrageous" and "a poor testimonial to Polish democracy," and said
that Jewish groups would protest. "Theories voiced by this man [Ratajczak] are
an approval of genocide," said Szymon Szurmiej, head of the Federation of
Jewish Associations in Poland.
Ratajczak published 320 copies of the first edition of the book at his own
expense. Only a few were sold at the university bookstore or directly to
students, or were given away to friends, before police seized the remaining
copies.
"HOLOCAUST denial" is a crime in several European states, including Germany,
France, and Austria. Unlike similar laws elsewhere, though, the Polish law
additionally bans "denial" of Communist crimes.
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