wPolityce.pl: How do you rate the events of recent weeks in terms of historical politics? We must be dealing with a new wave of attacks on Poland’s reputation?
Dr. Mateusz Szpytma, vice president of the Institute of National Remembrance, historian, co-founder of the Museum of Poland rescuing Jews during World War II. The Ulma family in Markowa: Definitely yes. I follow foreign media and I see that there are many negative articles about Poland in Israel, in the United States and in other countries as well.
What does it have to do with? With the fact that we effectively defend ourselves in many areas, that we have won the battle against the idea of ​​”Polish death camps”? Or maybe with the fact that we are demanding reparations from Germany? Perhaps there is an invisible hand behind this wave?
I do not rule out that this is some kind of answer to the issue of reparations, which is inconvenient for many. Perhaps the current wave of attacks is related to the improving political relations between Poland and Israel. There are environments that don’t like that. Certainly, circles aggressive towards Poland are constantly waiting for an opportunity to strike. Performances by Prof. Barbara Enegelking, which took place in mid-April, were an excellent reason to open the next phase of the campaign against Poland. Regardless of whether a speech has substantive grounds or not, it can always be used as a pretext for wider actions, to affect Poland. This is already a sad standard.
The campaign against Poland in the context of history – and not only – continues uninterrupted?
Every day, when I leaf through a selection of articles from the foreign press, almost every time I find an attack on our nation, on our country.
The paradox is that our protests, our resistance to lies, often crude, incite the aggressors even more. What should we do in this situation?
We should definitely respond. If these are opinion-forming media, then you have to react calmly, explain, break through with the truth, despite the realization that the effectiveness of these actions will be limited. This is a task of many years. We very often assume that those writing this are doing so out of ignorance. That it is enough to give them knowledge, show them how it really was and they will change their position.
And isn’t it?
No, it’s different. We must strive for a message addressed to the recipients of these media, but that is not easy. You have to go through the editors, through different levels of editors who don’t want to know, don’t want to propagate our point of view. They only apologize when they make a very big mistake, when they do something very compromising. And so they just ignore us, and we don’t have the slightest chance to change it. Poland has a bad reputation in the world for several reasons and strong actions are needed to change this.
Recently, Swedish journalist Anders Lindberg of the daily Aftonbladet posed the question: “Why did hardly anyone help the Jews when the Nazis liquidated the ghetto? Why did the Polish authorities wait more than a year before taking up arms? Incredible slowness, complete lack of knowledge of the reality of the German occupation in Poland. Under such circumstances, with such a degree of stupidity, you can write anything.
The generation that remembers World War II is passing away. There are those who have some clichés in their heads, mostly negative ones, and there are also those for whom the year 1968 is important, often seen as the outbreak of Polish anti-Semitism. It is not said that the communists ruled, Gomułka, that this purge was filmed in view of internal power struggles in the communist party. Those shameful actions are attributed to independent, sovereign Poland, which after all did not exist. All in all a very difficult subject. Many people think that it is enough to go out with knowledge. And we do. However, we are rejected. This is the denial of knowledge.
What does it look like exactly?
For example, a postulate was put forward against the Institute of National Remembrance that it would publish more in English. And we do that, we continuously respond to various publications, including the book “Verder is de nacht”. But there is no noticeable response to this, the authors of the attacks do not want to read, they do not want to know. It is not my role to come up with different theories to explain this phenomenon, but I do have my opinion on it. And I am not an optimist. Which doesn’t mean we should give up, because the drop goes around the rock. Even if we publish a publication that shows the truth about World War II, which shows lies in the publications of historians attacking Poland, and which will now go unnoticed, it may be a book that will be important in a few or a few years will turn out to be. some ten years or so.
Some argue that Poland needs to nuance its message. That our rule, which says that the Poles did not cooperate, ignores a whole series of attitudes, shameful too, even those related to blackmail.
If we look calmly at the scientific publications that we or the Pilecki Institute publish, it looks like this. We show the whole spectrum of attitudes, not just the heroic ones. We talk about the Polish underground state, about being on the right side from the beginning to the end, but we also notice other attitudes. However, Western centers do not want to see this and prefer to claim that we are making propaganda. They fight against an imaginary enemy made up with a lie. But the truth is that there is a simple way to have good press in the world: it is enough to talk negatively about Poland, to attack in every possible way. Whoever does that immediately receives applause, is invited, gives lectures.
This cannot be done for obvious reasons; it would be to enter the path of lies.
The truth is simple: Poland has such a history that it doesn’t have to be sugar coated. If we show it in its full spectrum, if we show what is good and what is bad, we will still look beautiful. We don’t have to hide or omit anything. It is not necessary.
READ: Czarnek responds to Engelking’s words. He ordered special tests. “So that people like those on TVN24 can never insult Poland again”
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Source: wPolityce
Emma Matthew is a political analyst for “Social Bites”. With a keen understanding of the inner workings of government and a passion for politics, she provides insightful and informative coverage of the latest political developments.