Misplaced Pages

Jan Grabowski: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editContent deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 08:35, 22 April 2018 view source2a01:110f:4505:dc00:52c:705e:cd91:a71 (talk) Early life← Previous edit Latest revision as of 19:45, 11 November 2024 view source DonBeroni (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users27,424 editsNo edit summary 
(684 intermediate revisions by 99 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{short description|Polish-Canadian historian}}
{{POV|date=March 2018}}
{{other uses}}
{{pp-blp|small=yes}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=August 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Infobox academic {{Infobox academic
| honorific_prefix = <!-- see ] -->
| name = Jan Grabowski | name = Jan Grabowski
| honorific_suffix =
| image = Jan Grabowski 2018.jpg | image = Jan Grabowski 2018.jpg
| image_size = | image_upright =
| alt = | alt =
| caption = Jan Grabowski | caption = Grabowski in 2018
| native_name = | birth_date = June 24, 1962 (61 years old)
| birth_place = ], Poland
| native_name_lang =
| birth_name = <!-- use only if different from full/othernames -->
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1962}}
| birth_place = ]
| death_date = <!-- {{death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (death date then birth date) -->
| death_place =
| death_cause =
| region =
| nationality = ] | nationality = ]
| citizenship =
| residence = ]
| other_names =
| occupation = Historian | occupation = Historian
| period = | known_for =
| known_for = ], 1939-1945 Polish-Jewish relations
| title = Dr.
| boards = <!--board or similar positions extraneous to main occupation-->
| spouse = | spouse =
| children = | children =
| parents = | parents =
| relatives = | relatives =
| awards = <!--notable national level awards only--> | awards = ]
| website = | website = , University of Ottawa
| education = | education = ] (PhD, 1994)<ref name=bio/>
| thesis_title = ''The Common Ground. Settled Natives and French in Montréal 1667–1760''
| alma_mater = ]<!--will often consist of the linked name of the last-attended higher education institution-->
| thesis_url = http://bibliomontreal.uqam.ca/bibliographie/fiche/ZNCQJAQB
| thesis_title =
| thesis_url = | thesis_year = 1993
| thesis_year =
| school_tradition =
| doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_advisor =
| academic_advisors = | academic_advisors =
| influences = <!--must be referenced from a third party source--> | era = {{plainlist|
*]
| era =
*1939–1945 Polish–Jewish relations}}
| discipline = <!--major academic discipline – e.g. Physicist, Sociologist, New Testament scholar, Ancient Near Eastern Linguist-->
| workplaces = ]
| sub_discipline = <!--academic discipline specialist area – e.g. Sub-atomic research, 20th Century Danish specialist, Pauline research, Arcadian and Ugaritic specialist-->
| notable_works = '']'' (2013)
| workplaces = ]<!--full-time positions only, not student positions-->
| doctoral_students = <!--only those with WP articles-->
| notable_students = <!--only those with WP articles-->
| main_interests =
| notable_works = ''Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland''
| notable_ideas =
| influenced = <!--must be referenced from a third party source-->
| signature =
| signature_alt =
| signature_size =
| footnotes =
}} }}


'''Jan Grabowski''' (born 1962) is a Polish-Canadian professor of history at the ] specializing in Canadian history, the ], and Jewish-Polish relations in ]-era Poland. He is a co-founder of the ]-based ]. '''Jan Zbigniew Grabowski''' (born June 24, 1962) is a Polish-Canadian professor of history at the ], specializing in Jewish–Polish relations in ] during ] and the ].<ref name=bio> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180301224936/https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/?lang=en#/members/546 |date=1 March 2018 }}, University of Ottawa.</ref>


Co-founder in 2003 of the ], in Warsaw, Poland, Grabowski is best known for his book '']'' (2013), which won the ].<ref name=YadVashemprize/>
== Early life ==
Grabowski was born in ], Poland, in 1962. According to an Israeli newspaper the ], his father was a Jewish Holocaust survivor from ] who took part in the 1944 ]; his mother, a Christian, came from a family of Polish nobility ('']'').<ref name="HaaretzOrgy"/>


== Early life and education ==
Grabowski studied at the ] and was active in the ] between 1981 and 1985, where he recalls being involved in the operation of an underground printing press for the ] movement. He received his ] from the University of Warsaw in 1986.<ref name="Lough2014"/>
Grabowski was born in Warsaw to a ] mother and ] father.<ref name=Snyder12Jan2015>Snyder, Donald (12 January 2015). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180822115006/https://forward.com/schmooze/213058/the-summer-polish-jews-were-hunted/ |date=22 August 2018 }} (interview with Jan Grabowski). ''The Forward''.</ref> His father, {{ill|Zbigniew Ryszard Grabowski né Abrahamer|pl|Zbigniew Grabowski (chemik)}}, a Holocaust survivor and chemistry professor<ref>{{Cite web |url= http://nekrologi.wyborcza.pl/0,11,,382432,Zbigniew-Ryszard-Grabowski-kondolencje.html |title= Zbigniew Ryszard Grabowski |publisher= nekrologi.wyborcza.pl |access-date= 3 May 2018 |language= pl |archive-date= 27 June 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180627005646/http://nekrologi.wyborcza.pl/0,11,,382432,Zbigniew-Ryszard-Grabowski-kondolencje.html |url-status= live }}</ref> from ], fought in the 1944 ].<ref name="Haaretz interview 11-02-2017">{{cite news |last1=Aderet |first1=Ofer |title='Orgy of Murder': The Poles Who 'Hunted' Jews and Turned Them Over to the Nazis |url=https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-orgy-of-murder-the-poles-who-hunted-jews-and-turned-them-in-1.5430977 |work=] |date=11 February 2017 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180501142054/https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-orgy-of-murder-the-poles-who-hunted-jews-and-turned-them-in-1.5430977 |archive-date=1 May 2018 |url-status=dead |access-date=18 May 2019}}</ref>


In 1988 he was invited to continue his Ph.D. work in Canada;<ref name="HaaretzOrgy"/><ref name="Snyder2015">{{cite web|url=https://forward.com/schmooze/213058/the-summer-polish-jews-were-hunted/|title=The Summer Polish Jews Were Hunted|publisher=]|date=21 Jan 2015|first=Donald|last=Snyder}}</ref> travel restrictions had been eased by the ], and he was able to leave. He recalls thinking that "communism was this rock that would never budge".<ref name="Lough2014"/> He said that if he had known that Poland's communist regime would fall a year later he would have stayed, but he does not regret moving to Canada.<ref name="Lough2014">{{cite web|url=http://www.davidmckie.com/twenty-five-years-since-the-fall-of-communism-in-poland/|title=Twenty-five years since the fall of communism in Poland (interview)|first=Shannon|last=Lough|date=26 Feb 2014}}</ref> He received his Ph.D. from the ] in 1994. While at the ], Grabowski was active in the ] between 1981 and 1985, where he helped to run an underground printing press for the ] movement. He received his M.A. in 1986,<ref name="Lough2014"/> and in 1988 he emigrated to Canada after ] had been eased by ].<ref name="Haaretz interview 11-02-2017"/> If he had known the regime would fall a year later, he would have stayed, he told an interviewer: "When I left in 1988 I thought there was no future for any young person in Poland. It felt like you were looking at the world through a thick wall of glass. It was sort of an un-reality&nbsp;... the rules were oblique, strange, inhuman even. Then after one year the system seemed to collapse like a house of cards."<ref name="Lough2014">{{cite web|url=http://www.davidmckie.com/twenty-five-years-since-the-fall-of-communism-in-poland/|title=Twenty-five years since the fall of communism in Poland|first=Shannon|last=Lough|date=26 February 2014|publisher=davidmckie.com|access-date=22 March 2018|archive-date=22 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322143256/http://www.davidmckie.com/twenty-five-years-since-the-fall-of-communism-in-poland/|url-status=live}}</ref> He received his Ph.D. from the ] in 1994 for a thesis entitled ''The Common Ground. Settled Natives and French in Montréal 1667–1760''.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180822214431/http://bibliomontreal.uqam.ca/bibliographie/fiche/ZNCQJAQB |date=22 August 2018 }}. Université du Québec à Montréal.</ref>


== Academic career == ==Academic appointments==
Grabowski has been a faculty member at the ] since 1993. He co-founded Warsaw's ], where he specialises in the ] as well as in Jewish-Polish relations in World War II-era Poland.<ref name="HaaretzOrgy"/> During 2016-2017 he was an Ina Levine Invitational Scholar at the ], where he conducted research into the Polish ] in ].<ref name="GrabowskiUSHMM">{{cite web|url=https://www.ushmm.org/research/competitive-academic-programs/fellows-and-scholars/all-fellows-and-scholars/dr-jan-grabowski-2016|title=Fellow Dr. Jan Grabowski|publisher=USHMM website}}</ref><ref name="Grabowski2017USHMM">{{cite web|first=Jan|last=Grabowski|date=2 May 2017|url=https://www.ushmm.org/m/pdfs/20170502-Grabowski_OP.pdf|title=The Polish Police Collaboration in the Holocaust}}</ref> Grabowski became a faculty member at the ] in 1993.<ref name="Haaretz interview 11-02-2017"/> In 2016–17 he was an Ina Levine Invitational Scholar at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where he conducted research into the ] for a project entitled "Polish 'Blue' Police, Bystanders, and the Holocaust in Occupied Poland, 1939–1945".<ref name="GrabowskiUSHMM">{{cite web|url=https://www.ushmm.org/research/competitive-academic-programs/fellows-and-scholars/all-fellows-and-scholars/dr-jan-grabowski-2016|title=Fellow Dr. Jan Grabowski|publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|access-date=2 March 2018|archive-date=22 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180822085636/https://www.ushmm.org/research/competitive-academic-programs/fellows-and-scholars/all-fellows-and-scholars/dr-jan-grabowski-2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Grabowski2017lecture">{{cite web|first=Jan|last=Grabowski|date=April 2017|url=https://www.ushmm.org/m/pdfs/20170502-Grabowski_OP.pdf|title=The Polish Police Collaboration in the Holocaust|publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180206002634/https://www.ushmm.org/m/pdfs/20170502-Grabowski_OP.pdf|archive-date=6 February 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> He received a grant for the project (2016–2020) from the Canadian ].<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180824101831/https://arts.uottawa.ca/en/research/funded-research-projects |date=24 August 2018 }}, Faculty of Arts, University of Ottawa.</ref>


==''Hunt for the Jews''== ==Research==
===''Hunt for the Jews''===
{{Main|Hunt for the Jews}}
]
In 2011 Grabowski published ''Judenjagd: Polowanie na Zydow 1942-1945'',<ref name="Judenjagd">{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/715338569 |title=Judenjagd : polowanie na Żydów 1942-1945: studium dziejów pewnego powiatu |last=Grabowski |first=Jan, |date=2011 |publisher=Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów |isbn=9788393220236 |edition=Wyd. 1 |location=Warszawa |oclc=715338569}}</ref> which was followed in 2013 by a revised and updated English-language edition, ''Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland'',<ref name="Hunt for Jews">{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/868951735 |title=Hunt for the Jews : betrayal and murder in German-occupied Poland |last=Grabowski |first=Jan, |date=2013 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=9780253010742 |location=Bloomington, Ind. |oclc=868951735}}</ref> and a 2016 revised and updated edition in Hebrew through ].<ref name="HaaretzOrgy"/> The book describes events of '']'' (German: "Jew hunt") from 1942 onwards, focusing on ], a rural county in southeastern Poland.<ref>, ''Macleans'', 7 Oct 2013</ref><ref name="JC201310">, ''Jewish Chronicle'', 18 Oct. 2013.</ref> Grabowski describes an entire mechanism set up to persecute Jews: Grabowski is best known for his book ''Hunt for the Jews'', first published in Poland in 2011 as ''Judenjagd: Polowanie na Żydów 1942–1945''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Judenjagd: polowanie na Żydów 1942-1945: studium dziejów pewnego powiatu |last=Grabowski |first=Jan |date=2011 |publisher=Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów |isbn=978-8393220236 |location=Warsaw |oclc=715338569}}</ref> In 2013 a revised and updated edition was published by ] as '']'',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grabowski |first1=Jan |title=Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland |date=2013 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington |isbn=978-0253010742|oclc=868951735}}</ref> and in 2016 a revised and expanded edition was published in Hebrew by ].<ref>Grabowski, Jan (2016). ציד היהודים; בגידה ורצח בפולין בימי הכיבוש הגרמני. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem. {{ISBN|978-9653085312}} {{oclc|993142125}}</ref><ref name="Haaretz interview 11-02-2017"/>
{{quote|The German policy was based on terror. Poles faced the death penalty for any help they gave to Jews. Also, the Germans created a so-called “hostage” system among the Poles. In every community they designated people who would be rotated every couple of weeks. They were responsible for informing the Polish police, or the Germans, about Jews hiding in their towns. If a Jew was discovered that had not been reported, the so-called hostages would be harshly punished. So everyone was highly motivated to get rid of the Jews.<ref>Donald Snyder, "The Summer Polish Jews Were Hunted" , '']'', 21 January 2015 </ref>}}


Awarded the Yad Vashem International Book Prize in 2014,<ref name=YadVashemprize> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320173547/http://www.yadvashem.org/press-release/04-december-2014-16-18.html |date=20 March 2018 }}, Yad Vashem, 4 December 2014.</ref> the book describes the '']'' (German: "Jew hunt") from 1942 onwards, focusing on ],{{sfn|Grabowski|2013|p=3}} a rural area in southeastern Poland.<ref name=Tzur18Oct2013>Tzur, Nissan (18 October 2013). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180130204224/https://www.thejc.com/news/world/holocaust-writer-grabowski-faces-polish-fury-1.49847 |date=30 January 2018 }}. ''Jewish Chronicle''.</ref> The ''Judenjagd'' was the German search for Jews who had escaped from the liquidated ] and were trying to hide among the non-Jewish population.{{sfn|Grabowski|2013|p=1}} Grabowski relied on Polish court records from the 1940s, post-war testimony collected by the ], and records gathered in Germany during investigations in the 1960s.<ref name=Fleming2016/> In a 2015 interview, he described the mechanics of the "hunt":
While Germans supervised the "mechanism", all of the individuals "manning" it were Poles: village ], ]s, police, firefighters, and others. This dense web made it nearly impossible for fleeting Jews to hide their identity.


{{blockquote|The German policy was based on terror. Poles faced the death penalty for any help they gave to Jews. Also, the Germans created a so-called "hostage" system among the Poles. In every community they designated people who would be rotated every couple of weeks. They were responsible for informing the Polish police, or the Germans, about Jews hiding in their towns. If a Jew was discovered that had not been reported, the so-called hostages would be harshly punished. So everyone was highly motivated to get rid of the Jews.<ref name=Snyder12Jan2015/>}}
According to Grabowski, Poles were responsible for the deaths, directly or indirectly, of more than 200,000 Jews during the Holocaust. He held this estimate to be very conservative, as he did not include victims of the Polish ].<ref name="HaaretzOrgy"/> "The great majority of Jews in hiding perished as a consequence of betrayal. They were denounced or simply seized, tied up and delivered by locals to the nearest station of the Polish police, or to the German gendarmerie".<ref name="HaaretzOrgy"/>


According to Grabowski, most Jews in hiding were given up by local people to the ] or directly to the Germans. He said that Poles were "directly or indirectly" responsible for most of the deaths of over 200,000 Jews, not counting victims of the police; he explained that by "most", it could be 60 percent or as high as 90 percent.<ref name="Haaretz interview 11-02-2017"/>{{efn|"From among the approximately 250,000 Polish Jews who had escaped liquidations of the ghettos and who had fled, about 40,000 survived. We have thus more than 200,000 Jews who fled the liquidations and who did not survive until liberation. My findings show that in the overwhelming majority of cases, their Polish co-citizens were&nbsp;– directly through murder, or indirectly by denunciation&nbsp;– at the root of their deaths."<ref name=Lungen22Nov2018>Lungen, Paul (22 November 2018). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306043409/https://www.cjnews.com/news/canada/university-of-ottawa-holocaust-historian-sues-polish-group-for-libel |date=6 March 2019 }}, CJN</ref>{{pb}}
===Reception===
"So&nbsp;–... 200,000 Jews were murdered while hiding on the Aryan side?"&nbsp;– "Yes, and based on detailed analysis of the circumstances in which they perished, I formulated a research hypothesis that the majority&nbsp;– though at this stage of research I am not able to say whether it was 60 or 90 percent&nbsp;– lost their lives at the hands of Poles or with their complicity." (Original: "A więc&nbsp;–... ok. 200 tys. Żydów zostało zamordowanych, gdy się ukrywali po aryjskiej stronie?"&nbsp;– "Tak, i na podstawie szczegółowej analizy tego, w jakich okolicznościach ginęli, sformułowałem hipotezę badawczą, że większość&nbsp;– choć nie jestem na tym etapie badań w stanie powiedzieć, czy było to 60, czy 90 proc.&nbsp;– straciła życie z rąk Polaków albo przy ich współudziale.")<ref>Maciorowski, Mirosław (17 March 2018). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210212123233/https://wyborcza.pl/alehistoria/7,121681,23154070,prof-jan-grabowski-pomagalismy-niemcom-zabijac-zydow.html?disableRedirects=true |date=12 February 2021 }}. ''Gazeta Wyborcza''.</ref>}}
{{undue-section|date=April 2018}}


The book sparked a heated public debate in Poland.<ref name=Fleming2016>{{cite journal |last1=Fleming |first1=Michael |title=Jan Grabowski, ''Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland'' |journal=European History Quarterly |date=April 2016 |volume=46 |issue=2 |pages=357–359|doi=10.1177/0265691416637313r |s2cid=147420141 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
The book sparked a public debate in Polish media on the role of Poles in the Holocaust.<ref>, ''The Forward'', Larry Cohler-Esses, 5 November 2017</ref><ref>, Politifact, 9 March 2018</ref><ref name="macleansDarkHunt">, ''Macleans'', 7 Oct 2013</ref><ref name="TOIPrize"/> The book was criticized by several historians, particularly for its estimate that Poles were either directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of 200,000 Jews during the Holocaust.<ref name="CbcUproar"/> Poland's embassy to Canada published a statement criticizing Grabowski for "groundless opinions and accusations".<ref name="CbcUproar"/> In response, the ] and a large group of international Holocaust scholars published statements in defense of Grabowski.<ref name="JTAHistorians">{{cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/historians-defend-prof-who-wrote-of-poles-holocaust-complicity/|title=Historians defend prof who wrote of Poles’ Holocaust complicity|publisher=Times of Israel (JTA)|date=13 June 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Wildt|first1=Michael|title=Solidarity with Jan Grabowski|url=http://michael-wildt.de/blog/solidarity-jan-grabowski|accessdate=8 April 2018|date=19 June 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Perkel|first1=Colin|title=University of Ottawa scholar says he's a target of Polish 'hate' campaign {{!}} CBC News|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/jan-grabowski-holocaust-hate-campaign-1.4169662|website=CBC|publisher=The Canadian Press|accessdate=8 April 2018|date=June 20, 2017}}</ref>


===''The Polish Police''===
In 2014 the book was awarded the ] International Book Prize.<ref name="TOIPrize">, ''Times of Israel'' (JTA), 8 December 2014.</ref><ref>, ], 4 December 2014.</ref>
Grabowski's book ''The Polish Police: Collaboration in the Holocaust'' (2017), published by the ], is based on his 2016 Ina Levine Annual Lecture on the ].<ref name=Grabowski2017lecture/>


===''Dalej jest noc''===
], a history professor at the ], reviewed the book's original, 2011 Polish-language edition. "''Judenjagd''," he wrote, "shows a key role was played by the ]s— village residents... would be punished for the unsatisfactory carrying-out of German orders. Sometimes the hostages themselves were charged with... calling their neighbors out to participate in the round-ups. In this way, solidarity with the hostage... was placed, by the , in the scales against the Jewish fugitive's life. This diabolical mechanism in some measure explains the hostility, observed in many rural communities, to persons who harbored Jews: they could bring disaster not only on themselves but on others." Stola had two reservations about the book. "he author assumed, after an earlier work by ], that the number of fugitives seeking shelter was about 10% of the number of Jews on the eve of the deportations... That 10% is not... an ] but rather a "]".... Secondly, a pall of ignorance surrounds... ghetto escapees who were not murdered but died ... ''Judenjagd'' speaks not only about the killing but also about the sheltering of Jews... about various... aid tendered disinterested rescuers who risked their own lives to save people who were hunted like animals."<ref>], ''"Ofiary zakładników"'' ("Victims of Hostages": a review of Jan Grabowski, ''Judenjagd Polowanie na Żydów 1942–1945. Studium dziejów pewnego powiatu'' , Warsaw, Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów, 2011), '']'', 12 March 2011, pp. 58–59. </ref>{{Verify quote|type=translation|date=April 2018}}
In 2018, Grabowski and ] co-edited a two-volume study, '']'' (Night without End: The Fates of Jews in Selected Counties of Occupied Poland). Published by the ], the study focused on nine counties in German-occupied Poland during the Holocaust, giving a detailed account of the fate of the area's Jews and of the question of Polish collaboration with the German occupiers. Grabowski contributed a chapter on ]. He told a newspaper that the work "talks about Polish virtue just as much. It paints a truthful picture."<ref name="guard1">{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/03/fears-rise-that-polish-libel-trial-could-threaten-future-holocaust-research|title=Fears rise that Polish libel trial could threaten future Holocaust research|access-date=8 February 2021|date=3 February 2021|newspaper=The Guardian|archive-date=9 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209070028/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/03/fears-rise-that-polish-libel-trial-could-threaten-future-holocaust-research|url-status=live}}</ref>


Mark Weitzman, director of government affairs for the ], said it was "meticulously researched and sourced".<ref name="guard1"/> Polish historian {{ill|Jacek Chrobaczyński|pl}} commended its authors for deconstructing political myths that persist in Polish history, journalism, church, and politics.<ref>Chrobaczyński, Jacek (2018). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403162232/http://resgestae.up.krakow.pl/article/download/4604/4323 |date=3 April 2019 }} ("Cornered, alone, defenseless... reflections on reading the book ''Dalej jest noc. Losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski''). ''Res Gestae''. 6, pp. 266–301.]</ref> However, scholars associated with Poland's ] alleged that the study used unreliable sources, selectively treated witness statements, presented rumor as fact, and underestimated the ].<ref>Domański, Tomasz (2019). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190329112928/https://ipn.gov.pl/download/1/241621/Korektaobrazu.pdf |date=29 March 2019 }} ("A Corrected Picture? Reflections on Use of Sources in the Book ''Night without End: The Fates of Jews in Selected Counties of Occupied Poland''"). ]. ''Polish-Jewish Studies''.</ref><ref>Golik, Dawid (2018). "Nowatorska noc. Kilka uwag na marginesie artykułu Karoliny Panz" ("Innovative Night: A Few Remarks Relating to Karolina Panz's Article"). ''Zeszyty Historyczne WiN-u'', 47, pp. 109–134.</ref><ref>Borkowicz, Jacek (10 February 2019). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306114557/https://www.rp.pl/Kraj/302109970-Wraca-spor-o-udzial-w-Zagladzie.html |date=6 March 2019 }} ("Dispute over Participation in the Holocaust Returns"). '']''.</ref>
], a professor at the ] and a member of the ], stated that Grabowski's claim of 200,000 Jews being killed by Poles was "hot air". According to Berendt, available research puts the number of escaped Jews at 50,000; no other number has been established by research. Berendt said that Grabowski's number comes from an interview given 30 years ago by ], who had not studied the whole of Poland, or even just one of its districts. Berendt wrote that it was difficult to accept Grabowski's number as scientific truth.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-poles-weren-t-tacit-collaborators-with-nazi-extermination-of-jews-1.5441677|author=]|title="The Polish People Weren't Tacit Collaborators with Nazi Extermination of Jews" (opinion)|publisher=]|date=24 February 2017}}</ref> Grabowski replied by rejecting Berendt's assertions about Datner, and offering a differing interpretation of his work.<!-- Perhaps include what he says, rather than just say he differed --><ref name="ResponseToBerendt">, '']'', 19 March 2017</ref>


====Litigation====
Historian ] criticized the 2011 edition as improperly sourced, among others lacking in witness statements, archival documents and German statements; and for improperly generalizing the antisemitic attitudes of the perpetrators to the local population. He also wrote that Grabowski ignored the economic hardships and the deportations faced by Poles, which he believes affected the Poles' attitudes towards Jews. Musial claims that, while the book elaborated on antisemitic agitation{{Vague|date=April 2018}} before the war, it described the Germans' antisemitic campaign in only three sentences. He further claims that the book underestimates the number of Jewish survivors, while inflating the number of Poles complicit in German crimes. Musial notes that Grabowksi does not question statements from Jewish witnesses, but does take issue with those made by Poles.<ref name=Musial2011>{{cite journal|title=Judenjagd – 'umiejętne działanie' czy zbrodnicza perfidia?"''|journal=''Dzieje Najnowsze: kwartalnik poświęcony historii XX wieku''|publisher=Institute of History of the ]|language=pl|volume=43| issue = 2|date=2011|first=Bogdan|last=Musial}}</ref> Grabowski rejected Musial's critique, writing that it was an attempt to disparage serious historical research on the basis of its subject matter and conclusions and that it failed to address the quality of the research methodology.<ref name="GrabowskiResponseMusial2011">{{cite journal|url=http://rcin.org.pl/Content/48264/WA303_61643_A507-DN-R-43-4_Listy.pdf|title=Rżnięcie nożem po omacku, czyli polemika historyczna a la Bogdan Musiał|journal=Dzieje Najnowsze|first=Jan|last=Grabowski|date=2011|language=pl}}</ref>
The ], a group whose stated aim is to protect "Poland's good name", funded a civil case against Grabowski and Engelking in Poland, brought by the 81-year-old niece of a Polish villager who was accused in the book by witness testimony of having betrayed Jews to the Germans. In February 2021, a Warsaw court ruled that Grabowski and Engelking must apologize for their claims about the villager, but it did not order them to pay compensation.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2021-02-09|title=Polish court tells two Holocaust historians to apologise|language=en-GB|publisher=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55996291|access-date=2021-02-21|archive-date=21 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210221083736/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55996291|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-poland-holocaust-idUSKBN2A91M7|title=Polish court orders historians to apologise over Holocaust book|work=Reuters|first1=Alan|last1=Charlish|first2=Anna|last2=Wlodarczak-Semczuk|date=9 February 2021|access-date=10 February 2021|archive-date=9 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209193022/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-poland-holocaust-idUSKBN2A91M7|url-status=live}}</ref>


In response to the court ruling, the ], ], and the ] released statements expressing their concerns about the ruling's effects on ] and ].<ref>{{Cite news |date=2021-02-03 |title=Fears rise that Polish libel trial could threaten future Holocaust research |language=en |work=Guardian |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/03/fears-rise-that-polish-libel-trial-could-threaten-future-holocaust-research |access-date=2021-07-31 |archive-date=3 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203133637/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/03/fears-rise-that-polish-libel-trial-could-threaten-future-holocaust-research |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2021-02-09 |title=U of O Holocaust scholar ordered to apologize in Polish libel case |work=CBC |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/holocaust-scholar-polish-libel-case-1.5907633 |access-date=31 July 2021 |archive-date=31 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210731123730/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/holocaust-scholar-polish-libel-case-1.5907633 |url-status=live }}</ref> The POLIN Museum stated that the suit had been "an attempt to frighten scholars away from publishing the results of their research out of fear of a lawsuit and the ensuing costly litigation."<ref>Gera, Vanessa (4 February 2021). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210211173928/https://apnews.com/article/world-news-world-war-ii-trials-poland-germany-f49788cd4ec3e3d161beaa75ba0df7da |date=11 February 2021 }}. The Associated Press.</ref><ref>Glanville, Jo (12 February 2021). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213191738/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/12/a-gift-for-holocaust-deniers-how-polish-libel-ruling-will-hit-historians |date=13 February 2021 }}. ''The Guardian''.</ref>
Historian Krystyna Samsonowska of ], a specialist in Polish-Jewish relations, said in her review that Grabowski did not use all available sources and "gave up" on actual field research; for example, not trying to contact the families of Jews who survived the German occupation in ], or the Poles who hid them. By using broader sources, Samsonowska claimed to have identified by name 90 Jews who had survived the war by hiding in ], as opposed to the 38 figure given by Grabowski. Samsonowska noted that the number of survivors was probably much higher. She also noted that Grabowski understated by half the number of Polish ] from ] who had been honored by ] for helping Jews.<ref name="samson">{{Cite journal |last=Samsonowska |first=Krystyna |date=July 2011 |title=Dąbrowa Tarnowska - nieco inaczej. (Dąbrowa Tarnowska - not quite like that) |url=http://www.wiez.pl/czasopismo/;s,czasopismo_szczegoly,id,561,art,15492 |journal=] |volume=7 |pages=75–85}}</ref>


In August 2021, an appeals court overturned the ruling against Grabowski and Engelking, arguing in favour of academic freedom.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-08-16|title=Polish appeals court dismisses claims against Holocaust book historians|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/polish-appeals-court-dismisses-claims-against-holocaust-book-historians-2021-08-16/|access-date=2021-08-16|website=Reuters|language=en|archive-date=16 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816210305/https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/polish-appeals-court-dismisses-claims-against-holocaust-book-historians-2021-08-16/|url-status=live}}</ref>
Przemysław Różański, a professor at the ], wrote in his review in ] of the 2011 book that he has a number of reservations regarding the book, namely Grabowski's thesis of Polish participation in the Holocaust, Grabowski's presentation of forced participation of peasants as "cooperation", Grabowski's disregard of the harsh economic conditions faced by Poles in relation to paid rescue of Jews, and Grabowski's choice to cover pre-war antisemitism which imply causation which is uncertain per Różański. However, Różański concludes that despite his reservations, he considers the book a valuable and useful work.<ref>, Przemysław Różański, ], 61 (2012) H. 4</ref>


===Research regarding Misplaced Pages===
Glenn R. Sharfman, a professor at ] in Atlanta, wrote in his review that Grabowski's work complements the recent works of ] about the murders of Jews away from the primary killing centers, providing evidence of the important role of the Poles in aiding the Nazis. Sharfman writes that any student of the Holocaust will find the testimonies and excerpts in the text useful, but readers with little background might require more context. He notes that Grabowski jumps from testimony to testimony without analysis. According to Sharfman while most Poles were victims of Nazi aggression, and Poles have wanted to be seen as purely victims of aggression, Grabowski illustrates how some Poles played an official or unofficial role in the murder of tens of thousands of Jews, if not more.<ref></ref>
In 2023, Grabowski and historian Shira Klein published an article in the '']'' which stated that Misplaced Pages spread misinformation about the history of Jews in Poland due to the work of a small group of editors.<ref>
* {{Cite journal |last1=Grabowski |first1=Jan |last2=Klein |first2=Shira |date=2023-02-09 |title=Misplaced Pages's Intentional Distortion of the History of the Holocaust |journal=The Journal of Holocaust Research |volume=37 |issue=2 |language=en |pages=133–190 |doi=10.1080/25785648.2023.2168939 |issn=2578-5648 |doi-access=free }}
* {{cite news |work=] |url=https://forward.com/opinion/550600/wikipedia-holocaust-disinformation |title=The shocking truth about Misplaced Pages's Holocaust disinformation |date=June 14, 2023 |access-date=October 15, 2024}}
* {{cite news |work=] News |url=https://news.chapman.edu/2023/11/17/exposing-the-holocaust-lies-on-the-dark-side-of-wikipedia |title=Exposing the Holocaust Lies on the Dark Side of Misplaced Pages |date=November 17, 2023 |access-date=October 15, 2024}}
* {{cite news |work=World Religion News |url=https://www.worldreligionnews.com/wikipedia/wikipedia-and-judaism-how-holocaust-denial-became-embedded-in-the-worlds-go-to-source-of-misinformation |title=Misplaced Pages and Judaism: How Holocaust Denial Became Embedded in the World's Go-To Source of (Mis)Information |date=October 14, 2024 |access-date=October 15, 2024}}</ref> Grabowski said,<ref>{{Cite news |title='Jews Helped the Germans Out of Revenge or Greed': New Research Documents How Misplaced Pages Distorts the Holocaust |language=en |work=Haaretz |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-02-14/ty-article-magazine/.premium/new-research-documents-how-wikipedia-distorts-the-holocaust/00000186-4f0f-d02c-af9e-cfffa9900000 |access-date=2023-05-24 |archive-date=19 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230319131437/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-02-14/ty-article-magazine/.premium/new-research-documents-how-wikipedia-distorts-the-holocaust/00000186-4f0f-d02c-af9e-cfffa9900000 |url-status=live }}</ref>


{{Blockquote|text=As a historian, I was aware for a long time of various distortions of the history of the Holocaust on Misplaced Pages. What I found shocking, was the sheer scale of the phenomenon, its lasting character and the small number of individuals needed to distort the history of one of the greatest tragedies in the history of humanity.}}
Historian ], writing in '']'', reviewed three books: ''Judenjagd'' by Grabowski, ''It Was Such a Beautiful Sunny Day'' by ], and ''Golden Harvest'' by ]. He wrote that all three studies are noteworthy explorations of the Polish participation in the Holocaust, challenging both the German tendency to neglect non-German perpetrators and the Polish perspective of viewing Poles solely as victims. According to Rossoliński-Liebe, Grabowski demonstrates that a broad spectrum of Polish society took part in ''judenjagd'' (hunts for the Jews). But Rossoliński-Liebe wrote that he did not think these 2011 works would trigger a new Holocaust debate, as had occurred following Gross's '']'', a decade prior.<ref></ref><ref>. Warschau 2011 / Engelking, Barbara: Jest taki piekny słoneczny dzień…. Losy Żydów szukających ratunku na wsi polskiej 1942-1945 . Warschau: 2011 / Gross, Jan Tomasz; Grudzińska-Gross, Irena (Hrsg.): Złote żniwa. Rzecz o tym, co się działo na obrzeżach zagłady Żydów . Krakau: 2011, in: H-Soz-Kult, 18.04.2012 (English Translation)], The American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies, Translated by Bill Templer</ref>


==Views==
] of ] called ''Judenjagd'' "the most important in the recent Polish debates about Polish responsibility for the Holocaust", and wrote that Grabowski and Barbara Engelking had recorded the "undeniable fact that most of were murdered as well, perhaps half of them by Poles (following German policy and law) rather than by Germans."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Snyder|first1=Timothy|title=Hitler’s Logical Holocaust|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2012/12/20/hitlers-logical-holocaust/|work=The New York Review of Books|date=20 December 2012|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Hunt for the Jews|url=http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?products_id=807010|website=Indiana University Press|language=en}}</ref><ref name="HaaretzOrgy" />
===Summary===
In 2016, Grabowski published a paper criticizing what he called "the history policy of the Polish state", and arguing that "the state-sponsored version of history seeks to undo the findings of the last few decades and to forcibly introduce a sanitized, feel-good narrative".<ref>Grabowski, Jan (6 January 2017). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020022629/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23739770.2016.1262991 |date=20 October 2021 }}. ''Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs''. 10(3), pp.&nbsp;481–486.</ref> He has deplored plans for a monument to rescuers of Jews, to be located at ], which was part of the wartime ]; he sees it as an attempt to inflate the role of ], whom he describes as a "desperate, hunted, tiny minority", the exception to the rule. The ghetto site should be dedicated, he argues, to Jewish suffering, not to Polish courage.<ref>Snyder, Don (17 April 2013). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180823105513/https://forward.com/news/world/174968/poland-plans-monument-to-righteous-gentiles-on-sit/ |date=23 August 2018 }}. ''Forward''.</ref><ref>Snyder, Donald (27 April 2014). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180409032418/https://forward.com/news/world/197120/polands-dueling-holocaust-monuments-to-righteous-g/ |date=9 April 2018 }}. ''Forward''.</ref>


Poland's embassy in Ottawa criticized Grabowski in 2016 for "groundless opinions and accusations" after he wrote an article for '']'' about Poland's controversial amendment to its ].<ref name=Mcleans20Sept2016>Grabowski, Jan (20 September 2016). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180822222725/https://www.macleans.ca/news/world/as-poland-re-writes-its-holocaust-history-historians-face-prison/ |date=22 August 2018 }}. ''Maclean's''.{{pb}}
Historian Shimon Redlich,<ref>, JPost, 3 Feb 2018</ref> writing about the book in '']'', criticized the book's structure, in particular the lengthy quotations and appendix, the careless "claim of 'hundreds of thousands' of Jews seeking shelter among the Polish populace", which according to Redlich cannot be extrapolated to the whole country based on one single area, as well as language that at times betrayed emotional involvement. However, Redlich said the book "should become required reading for scholars and students of Polish-Jewish relations".<ref name="Redlich2013">Redlich, Shimon, "''Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland'', by Grabowski, Jan. Bloomington: ], 2013", '']'', 73.3 (2014), pp. 652-53.</ref>
{{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180822223904/https://www.macleans.ca/news/world/the-polish-embassy-in-ottawa-responds-to-jan-grabowski/ |date=22 August 2018 }}. ''Macleans'', 30 September 2016.</ref> The amendment would have penalized, with imprisonment for up to three years, anyone defaming Poland by accusing it of complicity in the Holocaust,<ref name=Zieve20Feb2018>Zieve, Tamara (20 February 2018). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320023012/http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Polish-historian-Penalties-for-new-Polish-law-resemble-pre-war-punishment-543093 |date=20 March 2018 }}. ''Jerusalem Post''.</ref> with exceptions for "freedom of research, discussion of history, and artistic activity".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mfa.gov.pl/en/news/communique_of_the_ministry_of_foreign_affairs_on_amendment_of_the_act_on_the_institute_of_national_remembrance_|title=Communique of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on amendment of the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance|publisher=Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Poland|access-date=23 August 2018|archive-date=9 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180209095708/http://www.mfa.gov.pl/en/news/communique_of_the_ministry_of_foreign_affairs_on_amendment_of_the_act_on_the_institute_of_national_remembrance_|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Aderet |first1=Ofer |title=Polish Historian: Entering Dialogue With Poland on Holocaust Bill Is 'The Last Thing' Israel Should Do |url=https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/.premium-polish-historian-no-use-in-israel-engaging-poland-on-holocaust-law-1.5829045 |work=Haaretz |date=19 February 2018 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180824025920/https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/.premium-polish-historian-no-use-in-israel-engaging-poland-on-holocaust-law-1.5829045 |archive-date=24 August 2018 |url-status=dead |access-date=20 March 2018 }}{{pb}}
Stoffel, Derek (20 February 2018). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180326111036/http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/canadian-historian-joins-uproar-in-israel-over-polish-holocaust-law-1.4542831 |date=26 March 2018 }}. CBC News.</ref>


], in ], Poland, March 2019]]
Larry Ray's review of Grabowski’s book called it "a highly systematic and scholarly study of atrocities and collaboration", and "an essential contribution to knowledge of the Holocaust and Polish-Jewish relations".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ray|first=Larry|date=Winter 2014|title=Review|url=|journal=Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture & History|volume=20| issue = 3|pages=204–208|via=}}</ref>
In July 2017, Grabowski criticized the ], which opened in ] in 2016. The garden will have plaques identifying the 1,500 towns in which the nearly 6,700 Poles lived who helped Jews and were recognized by ] as ].<ref name="biznesistyl">Gieroń, Aneta (21 July 2017). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180619085936/http://www.biznesistyl.pl/kultura/oblicza-kultury/5829_.html |date=19 June 2018 }}. ''Biznesistyl''.</ref> In Grabowski's view, the museum should provide more information about the Polish neighbours of the Ulma family and others who aided Jews.<ref>Aderet, Ofer (22 March 2016). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322034341/https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-museum-for-poles-who-saved-jews-stirs-controversy-1.5420775 |date=22 March 2018 }}, ''Haaretz''.</ref>


Grabowski co-wrote a '']'' opinion piece in December 2018 criticizing Israeli historian ], professor of modern Jewish history and Holocaust studies at the ], for accepting the post of chief historian at the newly formed ] in Warsaw, Poland, and thus agreeing to be "the poster boy of state authorities bent on turning back the clock and distorting the history of the Holocaust".<ref>{{cite news |author1=Grabowski, Jan |author2=Engelking, Barbara |author3=Haska, Agnieszka |author4=Leociak, Jacek |url=https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/the-israeli-scholar-who-s-a-poster-boy-for-poland-s-distortion-of-the-holocaust-1.6768946 |title=Why Is This Israeli Jewish Scholar a Willing Poster Boy for Poland's Brutal Distortion of the Holocaust? |newspaper=Haaretz |date=24 December 2018 |access-date=16 March 2019 |archive-date=16 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190316164341/https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/the-israeli-scholar-who-s-a-poster-boy-for-poland-s-distortion-of-the-holocaust-1.6768946 |url-status=live }}</ref> In January 2019 Blatman responded in ''Haaretz'' that, while scholars at the Center for Holocaust Research had provided valuable insights into involvement in the Holocaust by parts of the Polish population, they did not give due weight to the terror and violence perpetrated by the Germans against Poles under German occupation.<ref>{{cite news |author=Blatman, Daniel |url=https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-warsaw-ghetto-museum-historian-a-tale-of-history-force-and-narrow-horizons-1.6808158 |title=Warsaw Ghetto Museum Historian: A Tale of History, Force and Narrow Horizons |newspaper=Haaretz |date=4 January 2019 |access-date=16 March 2019 |archive-date=16 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190316133520/https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-warsaw-ghetto-museum-historian-a-tale-of-history-force-and-narrow-horizons-1.6808158 |url-status=live }}</ref>
Michael Fleming's review commended the book's insights into how rural Poles were, not infrequently, complicit with German genocide, challenging readers' myths.<ref name="Fleming2016">{{cite journal|title=Jan Grabowski, Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland (review)|first=Michael|last=Fleming|journal=]|pages=357–9|date=April 11, 2016}}</ref>


===Responses===
Historian ] in a ] review, wrote that "One concludes from Grabowski’s important study that without the often unforced, and sometimes enthusiastic support of non-German volunteers and helpers, the Germans would not have succeeded as completely as they did during the Holocaust."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/hunt-for-the-jews-betrayal-and-murder-in-german-occupied-poland|title=Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland (review)|first=Jack|last=Fischel|publisher=]}}</ref>
Since publication of '']'', Grabowski has become subject to significant criticism in Poland, particularly from groups associated with Polish ] spectrum. Some of them{{which|date=February 2021}} attempted to have him fired from his academic position, and he has faced harassment and death threats, leading to increased security patrols in his department at the University of Ottawa.<ref name="legion2018">Thorne, Stephen J. (14 February 2018).
{{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180323030710/https://legionmagazine.com/en/2018/02/the-truth-about-poland/ |date=23 March 2018 }}. ''Legion Magazine''.</ref><ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322204820/https://www.chronicle.com/article/A-Polish-Historians/132499 |date=22 March 2018 }}. ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'', 25 June 2012</ref><ref name=Ottawa>{{Cite web |url=https://cdp-hrc.uottawa.ca/en/statement-attacks-against-professor-jan-grabowski |title=Statement on Attacks against Professor Jan Grabowski |publisher=University of Ottawa|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180823014212/https://cdp-hrc.uottawa.ca/en/statement-attacks-against-professor-jan-grabowski|archive-date=23 August 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>


On 7 June 2017, the ] published a statement signed by about 130 Polish scholars — none of them historians of the Holocaust — protesting against Grabowski's research, which allegedly portrayed a "false and wrongful image of Poland and Polish people".<ref name="historians2017">Gera, Vanessa (20 June 2017). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322143700/https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/international-historians-defend-ottawa-scholar-who-studies-poland-and-holocaust-1.3467715 |date=22 March 2018 }}, The Associated Press.{{pb}}
Historian<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ug.edu.pl/41828/lukasz_marek_meczykowski|title=Łukasz Marek Męczykowski {{!}} Serwis główny UG|website=ug.edu.pl|language=pl|access-date=2018-04-01}}</ref> Łukasz Męczykowski, in a histmag.org review of the 2011 book, wrote that, while some historians try to seek truth calmly and impartially, others prefer passing condemnatory judgments, and Grabowski had chosen the latter path: Grabowski was largely focused on finding those who were supposedly guilty of collaboration, and was averse to acknowledging those who had showed commendable behavior. Męczykowski noted that Grabowski incorrectly accused Poland's ] (IPN) of trying to inflate the number of Polish citizens who helped Jews. Męczykowski wrote that Grabowski had contradicted himself on certain points. Also that Grabowski, in calling upon Poles to admit their guilt, seemed unaware that there had long since been an ongoing debate in Poland about Polish participation in atrocities against Jews, including educational programs prepared by Poland's IPN, which contradicted Grabowski's statements about the Institute.<ref>"Jan Grabowski – ''Judenjagd. Polowanie na Żydów 1942-1945''" – ''recenzja'' Łukasz Męczykowski </ref>
{{cite web |last1=Perkel |first1=Colin |date=20 June 2017 |title=University of Ottawa scholar says he's a target of Polish 'hate' campaign |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/jan-grabowski-holocaust-hate-campaign-1.4169662 |publisher=The Canadian Press |ref=none |access-date=16 April 2018 |archive-date=13 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180113124156/http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/jan-grabowski-holocaust-hate-campaign-1.4169662 |url-status=live }}{{pb}}The letter can be read {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180823061533/https://michael-wildt.de/blog/solidarity-jan-grabowski |date=23 August 2018 }}.</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów |date=10 June 2017 |title=Bibliotekoznawcy i technologowie żywności zarzucają prof. Grabowskiemu "szkalowanie Narodu". Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów odpowiada |url=https://wyborcza.pl/7,75398,21942643,bibliotekoznawcy-i-technologowie-zywnosci-zarzucaja-prof-grabowskiemu.html?disableRedirects=true |website=Gazeta Wyborcza |access-date=15 March 2023 |archive-date=15 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315214725/https://wyborcza.pl/7,75398,21942643,bibliotekoznawcy-i-technologowie-zywnosci-zarzucaja-prof-grabowskiemu.html?disableRedirects=true |url-status=live }}</ref> In response, the ] issued a statement of its own, entitled "In defence of Jan Grabowski's good name" — signed by seven of its members, including ], ] and ], it called the criticism "as brutal as it is absurd".<ref name=":0" /> On 19 June 2017, about 180 historians of Holocaust and modern European history, including ], ], ], ], ], ], and ], signed an open letter in Grabowski's defence, describing the campaign against Grabowski as "an attack on academic freedom and integrity", the letter emphasized that "is scholarship to the highest standards of academic research and publication", and that the PLPZ attempted to put forth a "distorted and whitewashed version of the history of Poland during the Holocaust era".<ref name="historians2017" /> In November 2018, Grabowski filed a defemation lawsuit in Warsaw against the PLPZ; he asked that each of their signatories buy a copy of ''Dalej jest noc'' and donate it to a Polish high school.<ref>Markusz, Katarzyna (18 November 2018). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227052357/https://www.jta.org/2018/11/18/global/holocaust-researcher-files-libel-lawsuit-polish-group-accused-falsifying-history-poland |date=27 February 2021 }}. ''Jewish Telegraphic Agency''.</ref><ref name="Lungen22Nov2018" />


On 30 May 2023, a lecture by Grabowski at the ] in Warsaw was cancelled after far-right MP ] smashed Grabowski's ].<ref>
Historian ], in a review essay in ''Yad Vashem Studies'', wrote, of Grabowski's book and those of three other scholars (], ], and ]), that they "are a historical achievement of the first order." He described them as undermining "the self-serving myths about Polish-Jewish relations in World War II", and as being works of careful and objective scholarship.<ref name="Kassow2013">{{Cite journal|last=Kassow|first=Samuel|date=2013|title=Essay review of : Jan Grabowski, Judenjagd, B. Engelking, Jest Taki Piekny Sloneczny dzien and B. Engelking and J. Grabowski, Zarys Krajobrazu|url=|journal=Yad Vashem Studies|volume=v. 41 (1),|pages=216–217|via=}}</ref>
* {{cite news |work=Notes from Poland |url=https://notesfrompoland.com/2023/05/31/far-right-mp-forces-abandonment-of-holocaust-scholars-lecture-at-german-institute-in-warsaw |title=Far-right MP forces abandonment of Holocaust scholar's lecture at German institute in Warsaw |date=May 31, 2023 |access-date=October 16, 2024}}
* {{cite web |website=] |url=https://eurojewcong.org/news/communities-news/poland/far-right-polish-mp-violently-interrupts-holocaust-scholars-lecture-at-german-institute-in-warsaw |title=Far-right Polish MP violently interrupts Holocaust scholar's lecture at German institute in Warsaw |date=June 1, 2023 |access-date=October 16, 2024}}
* {{cite news |work=] |url=https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/lecture-on-holocaust-in-poland-abandoned-after-far-right-lawmaker-storms-podium |title=Far-right Polish MP violently interrupts Holocaust scholar’s lecture at German institute in Warsaw |date=June 2, 2023 |access-date=October 16, 2024 |quote=Event was intended to address efforts by Polish leaders to suppress uncomfortable truths about the history of antisemitism in the country before and during the Holocaust.}}
* {{cite news |work=] |url=https://www.dw.com/en/polish-radical-right-wing-mp-disrupts-lecture-on-holocaust/a-65795483 |title=Polish radical right-wing MP disrupts lecture on Holocaust |date=June 1, 2023 |access-date=October 16, 2024 |quote=A Polish radical right-wing MP's violent disturbance at a lecture on the Holocaust at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw prevented a renowned historian and researcher from speaking.}}
* {{cite news |work=] |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/lecture-on-holocaust-in-poland-canceled-after-far-right-lawmaker-storms-podium |title=Lecture on Holocaust in Poland canceled after far-right lawmaker storms podium |date=June 2, 2023 |access-date=October 16, 2024}}</ref>


==Selected works==
], writing in '']'', found Grabowski's work to be outstanding and firmly grounded in solid research. According to Lehmann, the book illuminates the struggle of survival and circumstances of death of the some 10 percent of the 2.5 million Polish-Jews who attempted to seek refuge on the "Aryan" side among hostile peasant gentiles. According to Lehmann, Grabowski shows how this created a dichotomy between Jewish and gentile perceptions of the Holocaust, Jews holding Polish peasants responsible for Jewish suffering and death, while Polish accounts trivialize the Polish involvement and paradoxically stress the "helping phenomenon" in wartime Poland. Lehmann writes that the evidence in the book shows that the category of "bystander" should be reevaluated, as the attitudes of the local population had fundamental and existential importance for escaping Jews. Lehmann finds interesting Grabowski's conclusion that the murder of some 700 Jews in incidents and ]s in post-war Poland are an inherent continuation of the wartime practice of ''Judenjagd''. Lehmann concludes by recommending the book for those interested in Polish-Jewish relations and Holocaust studies.<ref name="Lehmann2016">, ], '']'', vol. 121, issue 4 (1 October 2016), pp. 1382–83.</ref>
{{refbegin|26em}}
*(2001). ''Historia Kanady''. Warsaw: Prószyński i S-ka. {{isbn|978-8372550446}} {{oclc|169635941}}
*(2004). ''"Ja tego Żyda znam!": Szantażowanie Żydów w Warszawie 1939–1943''. Warsaw: Wydaw. {{isbn|978-8373880580}} {{oclc|937072035}}
*(2008). ''Rescue for Money: Paid Helpers in Poland, 1939-1945''. Jerusalem: ]. {{ISBN|978-9653083257}} {{oclc|974380257}}
*(2010, with ]). ''Żydów łamiących prawo należy karać śmiercią! "Przestępczość" Żydów w Warszawie, 1939-1942''. Warsaw: Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów. {{isbn|839268317X}} {{oclc|750651880}}
*(2011, with Barbara Engelking). ''Zarys krajobrazu: wieś polska wobec zagłady Żydów 1942–1945''. Warsaw: Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów. {{isbn|978-8393220243}} {{oclc|761074409}}
*(2011). ''Judenjagd: Polowanie na Zydow 1942–1945''. Warsaw: Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów. {{isbn|978-8393220236}} {{oclc|715338569}}
**(2013). ''Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland''. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. {{ISBN|978-02-53010-74-2}} {{oclc|900191796}}
**(2016). ציד היהודים; בגידה ורצח בפולין בימי הכיבוש הגרמני. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem. {{ISBN|978-9653085312}} {{oclc|993142125}}
*(2014, with ], eds.). ''Klucze i kasa: o mieniu żydowskim w Polsce pod okupacją niemiecką i we wczesnych latach powojennych, 1939–1950''. Warsaw: Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów. {{isbn|978-8363444358}} {{oclc|892600909}}
* (2017). . Washington, DC: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Ina Levine annual lecture, 17 November 2016).
* (2018, co-edited with ]),\. '']: losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski'' (Night without End: The Fates of Jews in Selected Counties of Occupied Poland). Warsaw: ''Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów'' (]), 2 volumes (1,640&nbsp;pp.). {{ISBN|978-8363444648}} {{oclc|1041616741}}
* (2020). ''Na posterunku. Udział polskiej policji granatowej i kryminalnej w zagładzie Żydów'' (On Duty: Participation of Blue and Criminal Police in the Destruction of the Jews). Wydawnictwo Czarne, Wołowiec. {{ISBN|978-8380499867}}
*(2021). ''Polacy, nic się nie stało! Polemiki z Zagładą w tle'' (Poles, Nothing Happened! Polemics with the Holocaust in the Background), Wydawnictwa Austeria.
{{refend}}


==See also==
Historian ]'s review in '']'' found Grabowski's work to be a "weighty, superbly researched study" that punctuated the myth of Polish innocence during the Holocaust. According to Zimmerman, Grabowski's study was not about defaming or glorifying Poland, but rather about the evidence.<ref name="Zimmerman2016">, ], '']'', vol. 88, no. 1, March 2016.</ref>
{{div col|colwidth=28em}}
*]
*]
*'']'' (2006)
*]
*]
*]
*] (June 1941)
*] (4 July 1946)
*] (5 July 1941)
*] (10 July 1941)
*]
{{div col end}}


==Notes==
Historian ]'s review in the ''East European Jewish Affairs'' journal, found "Grabowski's exploration of how the moral climate in rural Poland became fatally skewed during the Nazi occupation" to be innovative and enlightening. Himka noted that the young Polish men of the ''] yunaki'' took part in Jew hunts with particular relish, Grabowski recording the atrocities in chilling detail. Himka concluded: "This is a well-written, well-researched, highly illuminating study that takes us deep into the mechanisms of the Holocaust in rural Poland. In short: a brilliant book, and a harrowing read."<ref name="Himka2014"></ref>
{{notelist}}

===Controversy===
The Polish website Fronda.pl ran a piece with the headline, "Sieg Heil, Mr. Grabowski", accompanied by a photo of ], following the publication of a favorable review of the historian's book in a German newspaper. Grabowski sued the website's owner for libel and won in 2017.<ref name="HaaretzOrgy">, '']'', 11 February 2017.</ref>

In June 2017, the ] released a statement signed by 134 Polish scientists protesting the "false and harmful portrayal of Poles and Poland during the Second World War and attempts to blame the Polish Nation for the Holocaust",<ref name="wpolityce.pl">"Stanowczo sprzeciwiamy się działalności i wypowiedziom Jana Grabowskiego". OŚWIADCZENIE W Polityce.pl, 7.6.2017</ref> which was sent to Grabowski's employer, the ], to all the colleges with which he was affiliated, and to all the publishers of his books. The statement pointed to German efforts to exterminate the Polish population itself, which made its occupation by Germany different from western Europe's occupation; numerous examples of Poles' assistance given to Jews; Poland's many wartime international protests at the plight of the Jewish population in German-occupied Poland; and the complexity of Polish-Jewish relations, aggravated by the Soviet occupation of eastern Poland.<ref name="wpolityce.pl"/>

Grabowski has been boycotted by the Polish-Canadian community, and Polish groups have attempted to have him fired from his academic position. According to multiple media reports, Grabowski has faced harassment and death threats, leading to increased security patrols in his department at the ].<ref name="JC201310"/><ref name="legion2018">, ''Legion Magazine'', Stephen J. Thorne, 14 Feb 2018</ref><ref name="CbcUproar"/><ref>, ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'', 25 June 2012</ref><ref name="gera"/>

Other historians quickly responded in June 2017 to defend Grabowski's work: the ], which Grabowski co-founded, released a counter-letter signed by seven Holocaust historians, saying that "None of the 134 signatories is a Holocaust historian" and that "All these economists, linguists, oncologists, chemists, nuclear physicists, engineers, constructors of electromechanical appliances, environmental geologists, ethnomusicologists, theatrologists and priest professors present themselves as Holocaust experts, but cannot even quote the sources they refer to."<ref name="JTAHistorians"/> In addition, some 180 international historians of modern European history signed an open letter in June 2017 in Grabowski's defense, saying his work "holds to the highest standards of academic research" and that the Polish League Against Defamation puts forth a "distorted and whitewashed version of the history of Poland during the Holocaust era". The historians further said they considered the campaign against Grabowski to be "an attack on academic freedom and integrity."<ref name="gera">, Vanessa Gera, The Associated Press, 20 June 2017</ref>

Concerns about academic freedom in Poland increased after its national legislature passed a bill in February 2018 prohibiting accusing Poland "of being complicit in the Holocaust, punishable by up to three years in prison."<ref name="BBC201802">, BBC, 3 Feb 2018</ref> As the BBC noted, this was a "blunt instrument" in efforts to control the study of Poland's past.

== Views ==
Grabowski has deplored plans for a monument to rescuers of Jews, to be located at ], which was part of the wartime ]. He sees it as an attempt to rewrite history by inflating the role of ]. Grabowski describes the rescuers as a "desperate, hunted, tiny minority" who were the exception to the rule. The ghetto site, he says, should be dedicated to Jewish suffering, and not to Polish courage.<ref>, ''Forward'', 27 April 2014.</ref><ref>, ''Forward'', 17 April 2013.</ref>

Grabowski has criticized the ], which opened in 2016, for being too limited in its approach. He believed that it should have provided information and context about the Polish neighbors of the Ulma family and other persons who aided Jews. For instance, he said it should explore who had collaborated locally with the Germans, and what was the reaction of the local community when the Ulma family and the Jews they were sheltering were killed.<!-- This more closely summarizes what Grabowski said in 22 Mar 2016 article. --><ref name="museum">, '']'', 22 March 2016.</ref> The garden of the museum will have plaques identifying the names of 1,500 towns where the nearly 6,700 Poles who aided Jews have been recognized by ] as ].<ref name="biznesistyl">, ''Biznesistyl (Poland)'', 21 July 2017; accessed 2 April 2018</ref> Grabowski has stressed in other interviews that this number represents very few among the Polish population, and that they feared their neighbors. He believes that Polish authorities are using the Ulma Museum to suggest that the "rescue of Jews was widespread in occupied Poland."<ref name="HaaretzOrgy"/>

In 2018, following the Polish Parliament's adoption of a controversial Amendment to Poland's ] that would penalize "slandering or libeling the Polish nation" by accusing it of being complicit with the Holocaust, with imprisonment for up to three years, Grabowski compared the new legislation to pre-1939 law that had stipulated punishment for slandering Poland.<ref>, 20 Feb. 2018, ''Jerusalem Post''.</ref><!-- Did the pre-1939 law have the same intent? What were the legislature's concerns then? --> Grabowski said that the Israeli government should refrain from dialogue with the Polish government about changes to ], as, "given the current level of expressed anti-Semitism, I don’t think that any official meetings on this topic should take place." He further said, "The mass murder of Polish Jews was not abstract. It happened inside the space of the Polish nation, so this is why you cannot pretend that this is only a German-Jewish affair. There are no Polish bystanders in the Holocaust."<ref>, ''Haaretz'', 19 Feb. 2018</ref><ref name="CbcUproar">, CBC, 20 Feb. 2018.</ref>

==Bibliography==
*''Historia Kanady'', 2001, a survey of Canadian history in Polish.<ref name="bioHRC"></ref><ref>, By John Elgin Foster, R. C. Macleod, Theodore Binnema, page xxx</ref>
*''"Ja tego Żyda znam!" Szantażowanie Żydów w Warszawie, 1939-1943'', 2004, covering blackmailing ('']'') of Jews in Warsaw during 1939-1943. According to Grabowski, blackmailers were not from the social margins but were rather ordinary craftsmen, from good families.<ref name="bioHRC"/><ref>, Wyborcza, 10 Jan 2011</ref>
*''Rescue for Money: ‘Paid Helpers’ in Poland, 1939-1945'' (2008), Search and Research Series, Jerusalem, ]–The International Institute for Holocaust Research, 2008 {{ISBN|9789653083257}}. Discusses patterns of Poles' rescue of Jews, in particular, payments made by Jews to Poles for their aid.<ref name="bioHRC"/><ref name="Redlich2013"/>
*(with ]) ''Żydów łamiących prawo należy karać śmiercią! "Przestępczość" Żydów w Warszawie, 1939-1942'', discussing criminal behavior in the ].<ref name="bioHRC"/><ref>, edited by Andrea Löw, Doris L. Bergen, Anna Hájková, page 6</ref><!-- Need publication date -->
*(with ]) ''Zarys krajobrazu: wieś polska wobec zagłady Żydów 1942-1945'', 2011, discussing the situation of Jews trying to hide in the Polish countryside during the Holocaust.<ref name="bioHRC"/><ref>, The Union of Jewish Communities in Poland, Katarzyna Markusz, 23 Nov 2011</ref>
*(edited with ]) ''Klucze i kasa: o mieniu żydowskim w Polsce pod okupacją niemiecką i we wczesnych latach powojennych, 1939-1950'', 2011, discussing the theft of Jewish property during the Holocaust and after the war.<ref name="bioHRC"/><ref>, ], Piotr Forecki, 14 December 2014</ref>
*''Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland'',&nbsp; Indiana University Press, 2013, 312 pp., {{ISBN|978-02-53010-74-2}}.
*(edited with ]) ''Klucze i Kasa. Losy mienia żydowskiego w okupowanej Polsce, 1939-1945'', Warsaw: Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą, 2014, 628 pp., {{ISBN|978-83-63444-35-8}}
* ציד היהודים; בגידה ורצח בפולין בימי הכיבוש הגרמני, Jerusalem, Yad Vashem, 2016, {{ISBN|9789653085312}}
* (edited with Barbara Engelking) ''Dalej jest Noc. Losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski'', Warsaw: Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą, 2018, 1640 pp., {{ISBN|978-83-63444-60-0}}


==References== ==References==
{{reflist}} {{reflist|26em}}


==External links== ==Further reading==
* * , University of Ottawa.
* * , Polish Center for Holocaust Research.
* Grabowski, Jan (29 and 30 January 2018). , University of Manchester.
** Lecture 1: .
** Lecture 2: .
* {{Cite news |last=Grabowski |first=Jan |date=4 May 2018 |title=Poland must remember the truth of the Warsaw uprising |work=The Globe and Mail |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-poland-must-remember-the-truth-of-the-warsaw-uprising/ |access-date=14 May 2020}}


{{Holocaust Poland|state=collapsed}}
{{authority control}} {{authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Grabowski, Jan}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Grabowski, Jan}}
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
]
] ]
]
]
]
]
] ]
] ]
] ]
]
]

Latest revision as of 19:45, 11 November 2024

Polish-Canadian historian For other uses, see Jan Grabowski (disambiguation).

Jan Grabowski
Grabowski in 2018
BornJune 24, 1962 (61 years old)
Warsaw, Poland
NationalityPolish-Canadian
OccupationHistorian
AwardsYad Vashem International Book Prize for Holocaust Research
Academic background
EducationUniversité de Montréal (PhD, 1994)
Thesis'The Common Ground. Settled Natives and French in Montréal 1667–1760' (1993)
Academic work
Era
InstitutionsUniversity of Ottawa
Notable worksHunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland (2013)
WebsiteHomepage, University of Ottawa

Jan Zbigniew Grabowski (born June 24, 1962) is a Polish-Canadian professor of history at the University of Ottawa, specializing in Jewish–Polish relations in German-occupied Poland during World War II and the Holocaust in Poland.

Co-founder in 2003 of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research, in Warsaw, Poland, Grabowski is best known for his book Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland (2013), which won the Yad Vashem International Book Prize.

Early life and education

Grabowski was born in Warsaw to a Roman Catholic mother and Jewish father. His father, Zbigniew Ryszard Grabowski né Abrahamer [pl], a Holocaust survivor and chemistry professor from Kraków, fought in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

While at the University of Warsaw, Grabowski was active in the Independent Students' Union between 1981 and 1985, where he helped to run an underground printing press for the Solidarity movement. He received his M.A. in 1986, and in 1988 he emigrated to Canada after travel restrictions had been eased by Poland's communist government. If he had known the regime would fall a year later, he would have stayed, he told an interviewer: "When I left in 1988 I thought there was no future for any young person in Poland. It felt like you were looking at the world through a thick wall of glass. It was sort of an un-reality ... the rules were oblique, strange, inhuman even. Then after one year the system seemed to collapse like a house of cards." He received his Ph.D. from the Université de Montréal in 1994 for a thesis entitled The Common Ground. Settled Natives and French in Montréal 1667–1760.

Academic appointments

Grabowski became a faculty member at the University of Ottawa in 1993. In 2016–17 he was an Ina Levine Invitational Scholar at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where he conducted research into the Blue Police for a project entitled "Polish 'Blue' Police, Bystanders, and the Holocaust in Occupied Poland, 1939–1945". He received a grant for the project (2016–2020) from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Research

Hunt for the Jews

Main article: Hunt for the Jews

Grabowski is best known for his book Hunt for the Jews, first published in Poland in 2011 as Judenjagd: Polowanie na Żydów 1942–1945. In 2013 a revised and updated edition was published by Indiana University Press as Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland, and in 2016 a revised and expanded edition was published in Hebrew by Yad Vashem.

Awarded the Yad Vashem International Book Prize in 2014, the book describes the Judenjagd (German: "Jew hunt") from 1942 onwards, focusing on Dąbrowa Tarnowska County, a rural area in southeastern Poland. The Judenjagd was the German search for Jews who had escaped from the liquidated ghettos in Poland and were trying to hide among the non-Jewish population. Grabowski relied on Polish court records from the 1940s, post-war testimony collected by the Central Committee of Polish Jews, and records gathered in Germany during investigations in the 1960s. In a 2015 interview, he described the mechanics of the "hunt":

The German policy was based on terror. Poles faced the death penalty for any help they gave to Jews. Also, the Germans created a so-called "hostage" system among the Poles. In every community they designated people who would be rotated every couple of weeks. They were responsible for informing the Polish police, or the Germans, about Jews hiding in their towns. If a Jew was discovered that had not been reported, the so-called hostages would be harshly punished. So everyone was highly motivated to get rid of the Jews.

According to Grabowski, most Jews in hiding were given up by local people to the Blue Police or directly to the Germans. He said that Poles were "directly or indirectly" responsible for most of the deaths of over 200,000 Jews, not counting victims of the police; he explained that by "most", it could be 60 percent or as high as 90 percent.

The book sparked a heated public debate in Poland.

The Polish Police

Grabowski's book The Polish Police: Collaboration in the Holocaust (2017), published by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, is based on his 2016 Ina Levine Annual Lecture on the Blue Police.

Dalej jest noc

In 2018, Grabowski and Barbara Engelking co-edited a two-volume study, Dalej jest noc: losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski (Night without End: The Fates of Jews in Selected Counties of Occupied Poland). Published by the Polish Center for Holocaust Research, the study focused on nine counties in German-occupied Poland during the Holocaust, giving a detailed account of the fate of the area's Jews and of the question of Polish collaboration with the German occupiers. Grabowski contributed a chapter on Węgrów County. He told a newspaper that the work "talks about Polish virtue just as much. It paints a truthful picture."

Mark Weitzman, director of government affairs for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said it was "meticulously researched and sourced". Polish historian Jacek Chrobaczyński [pl] commended its authors for deconstructing political myths that persist in Polish history, journalism, church, and politics. However, scholars associated with Poland's Institute of National Remembrance alleged that the study used unreliable sources, selectively treated witness statements, presented rumor as fact, and underestimated the draconian nature of the German occupation.

Litigation

The Polish League Against Defamation, a group whose stated aim is to protect "Poland's good name", funded a civil case against Grabowski and Engelking in Poland, brought by the 81-year-old niece of a Polish villager who was accused in the book by witness testimony of having betrayed Jews to the Germans. In February 2021, a Warsaw court ruled that Grabowski and Engelking must apologize for their claims about the villager, but it did not order them to pay compensation.

In response to the court ruling, the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Yad Vashem, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center released statements expressing their concerns about the ruling's effects on academic freedom and freedom of speech. The POLIN Museum stated that the suit had been "an attempt to frighten scholars away from publishing the results of their research out of fear of a lawsuit and the ensuing costly litigation."

In August 2021, an appeals court overturned the ruling against Grabowski and Engelking, arguing in favour of academic freedom.

Research regarding Misplaced Pages

In 2023, Grabowski and historian Shira Klein published an article in the Journal of Holocaust Research which stated that Misplaced Pages spread misinformation about the history of Jews in Poland due to the work of a small group of editors. Grabowski said,

As a historian, I was aware for a long time of various distortions of the history of the Holocaust on Misplaced Pages. What I found shocking, was the sheer scale of the phenomenon, its lasting character and the small number of individuals needed to distort the history of one of the greatest tragedies in the history of humanity.

Views

Summary

In 2016, Grabowski published a paper criticizing what he called "the history policy of the Polish state", and arguing that "the state-sponsored version of history seeks to undo the findings of the last few decades and to forcibly introduce a sanitized, feel-good narrative". He has deplored plans for a monument to rescuers of Jews, to be located at Grzybowski Square, which was part of the wartime Warsaw Ghetto; he sees it as an attempt to inflate the role of the rescuers, whom he describes as a "desperate, hunted, tiny minority", the exception to the rule. The ghetto site should be dedicated, he argues, to Jewish suffering, not to Polish courage.

Poland's embassy in Ottawa criticized Grabowski in 2016 for "groundless opinions and accusations" after he wrote an article for Maclean's about Poland's controversial amendment to its Act on the Institute of National Remembrance. The amendment would have penalized, with imprisonment for up to three years, anyone defaming Poland by accusing it of complicity in the Holocaust, with exceptions for "freedom of research, discussion of history, and artistic activity".

The Markowa Ulma-Family Museum of Poles Who Saved Jews in World War II, in Markowa, Poland, March 2019

In July 2017, Grabowski criticized the Ulma-Family Museum of Poles Who Saved Jews in World War II, which opened in Markowa in 2016. The garden will have plaques identifying the 1,500 towns in which the nearly 6,700 Poles lived who helped Jews and were recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations. In Grabowski's view, the museum should provide more information about the Polish neighbours of the Ulma family and others who aided Jews.

Grabowski co-wrote a Haaretz opinion piece in December 2018 criticizing Israeli historian Daniel Blatman, professor of modern Jewish history and Holocaust studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, for accepting the post of chief historian at the newly formed Warsaw Ghetto Museum in Warsaw, Poland, and thus agreeing to be "the poster boy of state authorities bent on turning back the clock and distorting the history of the Holocaust". In January 2019 Blatman responded in Haaretz that, while scholars at the Center for Holocaust Research had provided valuable insights into involvement in the Holocaust by parts of the Polish population, they did not give due weight to the terror and violence perpetrated by the Germans against Poles under German occupation.

Responses

Since publication of Hunt for the Jews, Grabowski has become subject to significant criticism in Poland, particularly from groups associated with Polish right-wing spectrum. Some of them attempted to have him fired from his academic position, and he has faced harassment and death threats, leading to increased security patrols in his department at the University of Ottawa.

On 7 June 2017, the Polish League Against Defamation (PLPZ) published a statement signed by about 130 Polish scholars — none of them historians of the Holocaust — protesting against Grabowski's research, which allegedly portrayed a "false and wrongful image of Poland and Polish people". In response, the Polish Center for Holocaust Research issued a statement of its own, entitled "In defence of Jan Grabowski's good name" — signed by seven of its members, including Barbara Engelking, Jacek Leociak and Dariusz Libionka, it called the criticism "as brutal as it is absurd". On 19 June 2017, about 180 historians of Holocaust and modern European history, including Christopher Browning, Mary Fulbrook, Deborah Lipstadt, Antony Polonsky, Dina Porat, Yitzhak Arad, and Robert Jan van Pelt, signed an open letter in Grabowski's defence, describing the campaign against Grabowski as "an attack on academic freedom and integrity", the letter emphasized that "is scholarship to the highest standards of academic research and publication", and that the PLPZ attempted to put forth a "distorted and whitewashed version of the history of Poland during the Holocaust era". In November 2018, Grabowski filed a defemation lawsuit in Warsaw against the PLPZ; he asked that each of their signatories buy a copy of Dalej jest noc and donate it to a Polish high school.

On 30 May 2023, a lecture by Grabowski at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw was cancelled after far-right MP Grzegorz Braun smashed Grabowski's microphone.

Selected works

See also

Notes

  1. "From among the approximately 250,000 Polish Jews who had escaped liquidations of the ghettos and who had fled, about 40,000 survived. We have thus more than 200,000 Jews who fled the liquidations and who did not survive until liberation. My findings show that in the overwhelming majority of cases, their Polish co-citizens were – directly through murder, or indirectly by denunciation – at the root of their deaths."

    "So –... 200,000 Jews were murdered while hiding on the Aryan side?" – "Yes, and based on detailed analysis of the circumstances in which they perished, I formulated a research hypothesis that the majority – though at this stage of research I am not able to say whether it was 60 or 90 percent – lost their lives at the hands of Poles or with their complicity." (Original: "A więc –... ok. 200 tys. Żydów zostało zamordowanych, gdy się ukrywali po aryjskiej stronie?" – "Tak, i na podstawie szczegółowej analizy tego, w jakich okolicznościach ginęli, sformułowałem hipotezę badawczą, że większość – choć nie jestem na tym etapie badań w stanie powiedzieć, czy było to 60, czy 90 proc. – straciła życie z rąk Polaków albo przy ich współudziale.")

References

  1. ^ "Jan Grabowski" Archived 1 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine, University of Ottawa.
  2. ^ "Professor Jan Grabowski wins the 2014 Yad Vashem International Book Prize" Archived 20 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Yad Vashem, 4 December 2014.
  3. ^ Snyder, Donald (12 January 2015). "The Summer Polish Jews Were Hunted" Archived 22 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine (interview with Jan Grabowski). The Forward.
  4. "Zbigniew Ryszard Grabowski" (in Polish). nekrologi.wyborcza.pl. Archived from the original on 27 June 2018. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
  5. ^ Aderet, Ofer (11 February 2017). "'Orgy of Murder': The Poles Who 'Hunted' Jews and Turned Them Over to the Nazis". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 1 May 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  6. ^ Lough, Shannon (26 February 2014). "Twenty-five years since the fall of communism in Poland". davidmckie.com. Archived from the original on 22 March 2018. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  7. "The Common Ground. Settled Natives and French in Montréal 1667-1760" Archived 22 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Université du Québec à Montréal.
  8. "Fellow Dr. Jan Grabowski". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Archived from the original on 22 August 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  9. ^ Grabowski, Jan (April 2017). "The Polish Police Collaboration in the Holocaust" (PDF). United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 February 2018.
  10. "Funded Research Projects" Archived 24 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Faculty of Arts, University of Ottawa.
  11. Grabowski, Jan (2011). Judenjagd: polowanie na Żydów 1942-1945: studium dziejów pewnego powiatu. Warsaw: Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów. ISBN 978-8393220236. OCLC 715338569.
  12. Grabowski, Jan (2013). Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0253010742. OCLC 868951735.
  13. Grabowski, Jan (2016). ציד היהודים; בגידה ורצח בפולין בימי הכיבוש הגרמני. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem. ISBN 978-9653085312 OCLC 993142125
  14. Grabowski 2013, p. 3.
  15. Tzur, Nissan (18 October 2013). "Holocaust writer Grabowski faces Polish fury" Archived 30 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Jewish Chronicle.
  16. Grabowski 2013, p. 1.
  17. ^ Fleming, Michael (April 2016). "Jan Grabowski, Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland". European History Quarterly. 46 (2): 357–359. doi:10.1177/0265691416637313r. S2CID 147420141.
  18. ^ Lungen, Paul (22 November 2018). "University of Ottawa holocaust historian sues Polish group for libel" Archived 6 March 2019 at the Wayback Machine, CJN
  19. Maciorowski, Mirosław (17 March 2018). "Prof. Jan Grabowski: Pomagaliśmy Niemcom zabijać Żydów" Archived 12 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Gazeta Wyborcza.
  20. ^ "Fears rise that Polish libel trial could threaten future Holocaust research". The Guardian. 3 February 2021. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  21. Chrobaczyński, Jacek (2018). "Osaczeni, samotni, bezbronni ... Refleksje po lekturze książki Dalej jest noc. Losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski Archived 3 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine ("Cornered, alone, defenseless... reflections on reading the book Dalej jest noc. Losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski). Res Gestae. 6, pp. 266–301.]
  22. Domański, Tomasz (2019). Korekta obrazu? Refleksje źródłoznawcze wokół książki "Dalej jest noc. Losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski" Archived 29 March 2019 at the Wayback Machine ("A Corrected Picture? Reflections on Use of Sources in the Book Night without End: The Fates of Jews in Selected Counties of Occupied Poland"). Institute of National Remembrance. Polish-Jewish Studies.
  23. Golik, Dawid (2018). "Nowatorska noc. Kilka uwag na marginesie artykułu Karoliny Panz" ("Innovative Night: A Few Remarks Relating to Karolina Panz's Article"). Zeszyty Historyczne WiN-u, 47, pp. 109–134.
  24. Borkowicz, Jacek (10 February 2019). "Wraca spór o udział w zagładzie" Archived 6 March 2019 at the Wayback Machine ("Dispute over Participation in the Holocaust Returns"). Rzeczpospolita.
  25. "Polish court tells two Holocaust historians to apologise". BBC News. 9 February 2021. Archived from the original on 21 February 2021. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  26. Charlish, Alan; Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Anna (9 February 2021). "Polish court orders historians to apologise over Holocaust book". Reuters. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
  27. "Fears rise that Polish libel trial could threaten future Holocaust research". Guardian. 3 February 2021. Archived from the original on 3 February 2021. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  28. "U of O Holocaust scholar ordered to apologize in Polish libel case". CBC. 9 February 2021. Archived from the original on 31 July 2021. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  29. Gera, Vanessa (4 February 2021). "Future of Holocaust research in Poland hinges on libel case" Archived 11 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine. The Associated Press.
  30. Glanville, Jo (12 February 2021). "'A gift for Holocaust deniers': how Polish libel ruling will hit historians" Archived 13 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine. The Guardian.
  31. "Polish appeals court dismisses claims against Holocaust book historians". Reuters. 16 August 2021. Archived from the original on 16 August 2021. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  32. "'Jews Helped the Germans Out of Revenge or Greed': New Research Documents How Misplaced Pages Distorts the Holocaust". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 19 March 2023. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
  33. Grabowski, Jan (6 January 2017). "The Holocaust and Poland's 'History Policy'" Archived 20 October 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs. 10(3), pp. 481–486.
  34. Snyder, Don (17 April 2013). "Poland Plans Monument to Righteous Gentiles on Site of Warsaw Ghetto" Archived 23 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Forward.
  35. Snyder, Donald (27 April 2014). "Poland's Dueling Holocaust Monuments to 'Righteous Gentiles' Spark Painful Debate" Archived 9 April 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Forward.
  36. Grabowski, Jan (20 September 2016). "The danger in Poland's frontal attack on its Holocaust history" Archived 22 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Maclean's.

    "The Polish Embassy in Ottawa responds to Jan Grabowski" Archived 22 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Macleans, 30 September 2016.

  37. Zieve, Tamara (20 February 2018). "Polish historian: Penalties for new Polish law resemble pre-war punishment" Archived 20 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Jerusalem Post.
  38. "Communique of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on amendment of the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance". Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Poland. Archived from the original on 9 February 2018. Retrieved 23 August 2018.
  39. Aderet, Ofer (19 February 2018). "Polish Historian: Entering Dialogue With Poland on Holocaust Bill Is 'The Last Thing' Israel Should Do". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 24 August 2018. Retrieved 20 March 2018.

    Stoffel, Derek (20 February 2018). "Canadian historian joins uproar in Israel over Polish Holocaust law" Archived 26 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine. CBC News.

  40. Gieroń, Aneta (21 July 2017). "Przy Muzeum Ulmów w Markowej powstaje Sad Pamięci" Archived 19 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Biznesistyl.
  41. Aderet, Ofer (22 March 2016). "Polish Museum Honoring Poles Who Saved Jews Arouses Controversy" Archived 22 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Haaretz.
  42. Grabowski, Jan; Engelking, Barbara; Haska, Agnieszka; Leociak, Jacek (24 December 2018). "Why Is This Israeli Jewish Scholar a Willing Poster Boy for Poland's Brutal Distortion of the Holocaust?". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 16 March 2019. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  43. Blatman, Daniel (4 January 2019). "Warsaw Ghetto Museum Historian: A Tale of History, Force and Narrow Horizons". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 16 March 2019. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  44. Thorne, Stephen J. (14 February 2018). "The truth about Poland" Archived 23 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Legion Magazine.
  45. "A Polish Historian's Accounting of the Holocaust Divides His Countrymen" Archived 22 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 25 June 2012
  46. "Statement on Attacks against Professor Jan Grabowski". University of Ottawa. Archived from the original on 23 August 2018.
  47. ^ Gera, Vanessa (20 June 2017). "International historians defend Ottawa scholar who studies Poland and Holocaust" Archived 22 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine, The Associated Press. Perkel, Colin (20 June 2017). "University of Ottawa scholar says he's a target of Polish 'hate' campaign". The Canadian Press. Archived from the original on 13 January 2018. Retrieved 16 April 2018.The letter can be read here Archived 23 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine.
  48. ^ Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów (10 June 2017). "Bibliotekoznawcy i technologowie żywności zarzucają prof. Grabowskiemu "szkalowanie Narodu". Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów odpowiada". Gazeta Wyborcza. Archived from the original on 15 March 2023. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
  49. Markusz, Katarzyna (18 November 2018). "Holocaust researcher sues Polish group that accused him of falsifying history" Archived 27 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Further reading

Holocaust in German-occupied Poland
Main article
The Holocaust
Related articles by country
Belarus
Belgium
Croatia
Denmark
Estonia
France
Germany
Latvia
Lithuania
Norway
Romania
Russia
Slovakia
Ukraine
Camps, ghettos, execution sites and attacks
Camps
Extermination
Concentration
Mass shootings
Pogroms
Ghettos
Other atrocities
Perpetrators, participants, organizations, and collaborators
Perpetrators
Organizers
Camp command
Gas chamber
executioners
Physicians
Ghetto command
Einsatzgruppen
Personnel
Camp guards
By camp
Organizations
Collaboration
Resistance, victims, documentation and technical
Organizations
Uprisings
Leaders
Victim lists
Ghettos
Camps
Documentation
Nazi sources
Witness accounts
Concealment
Technical and logistics
Aftermath, trials and commemoration
Aftermath
Trials
West German trials
Polish, East German, and Soviet trials
Memorials
Righteous Among the Nations
Categories: