Murder or suicide: Polish revisionist found dead

Oppeln/Opole - The body of a former Polish history professor, Dariusz Ratajczak (photo), has been found dead in a shopping center parking lot in the city of Opole . Ratajczak was born November 28, 1962 in Opole, Upper Silesia . His father, Cyryl, moved from Wielkopolska to Opole. His mother, Alina Czuchryj arrived from Khodoriv. Ratajczak finished Opole high school and enrolled to Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. From 1988 Ratajczak was working in Opole as a history lecturer at the University of Opole until 1999, when he was dismissed following controversy about his book 'Tematy Niebezpieczne' (Dangerous Themes) in which he asserted that the gas chambers at Auschwitz were used merely to delouse prisoners. 

Ratajczak, in his book, agreed with revisionists who claim that for technical reasons it was not possible to kill millions of people in the Nazi gas chambers, that Zyklon B gas was used only for disinfecting, that there was no Nazi plan for the systematic murder of Jews and that most HOLOCAUST scholars are adherents of a religion of the HOLOCAUST. Rajtaczaked defended himself claiming that he only reproduced the revisionist claims to illustrate their point of view but did not endorse them. Ratajczak's book triggered widespread public criticism and drew protests from numerous sources, including the director of the museum at the Auschwitz camp, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski .

The University of Opole suspended Ratajczak from his teachings in 1999. In the same year he was brought to local court, as denying the existence of the HOLOCAUST is a criminal offence in Poland. In December 1999 a court in Opole found Ratajczak guilty of breaching the Institute of National Remembrance law that outlawed the denial of crimes against humanity committed by Nazi or by communist regimes in Poland, but that his crime had caused negligible harm to society . The reason for the low sentence was that Ratajczak's self-published book had only 230 copies. Two Polish newspapers, Gazeta Wyborcza and Rzeczpospolita, criticized the verdict in support of Ratajczaks' freedom of speech. For Ratajczak support spoke the leader of the League of Polish Families party Ryszard Bender , who during Radio Maria broadcast, denied the fact that Auschwitz was a death camp, which caused another scandal in Poland.

At the end Ratajczak was fired from University of Opole in 2000 and banned from teaching at universities for three years. During this time he worked as storeman. Ratajczak remained defiant and denied all charges, appealing for an outright acquittal; his critics also appealed demanded a harsher sentence, including a prison term. Eventually after a series of appeals the verdict was upheld and the case dismissed in 2002. Ratajczak revised the book in 2005, attributing the claims regarding Zyklon B to historical revisionists.

Ratajczak was found dead in a car parked near the Karolinka shopping centre in Opole on June 11, 2010. The body, which was severely decomposed, has been identified by Ratajczak's family. In the car police found documents which belonged to Ratajczak. Judging by the state of the body and recent high temperatures, Ratajczak has been dead for up to two weeks. Security guards at the shopping centre claim, however, that the historian's Renault Kangoo was left at the car park on the same day, June 11, that it was discovered. 

The cause of Ratajczak's death remains uncertain. Police established that the historian, who had problems finding employment in Poland, planned to go to Holland or Belgium to work in a company to do manual labor. For that purpose he acquired a Renault Kangoo automobile, in which his body was found stuffed between the front and rear seats. He worked at odd jobs for food. Ratajczak is survived by a son and a daughter. 

Quelle: Internet