Anna Dryjańska: erstwhile Grzegorz Braun lied that "Auschwitz with gas chambers is unfortunately a Facebook" erstwhile he later talked about the Oświęcim "decorations" erstwhile he and another militants were disrupting celebrations devoted to the memory of the victims of the pogrom in Jedwabne, did you feel...?
Prof. Rafał Pankowski: Shock, but not surprise. Shock, due to the fact that the negation of the Holocaust by Polish politics is astonishing. After all, the Germans have placed an extermination camp in our country. It happened here, not on the another side of the world.
However, I was not amazed – Grzegorz Braun clearly thought that extremism was worth a while ago. It is very easy to draw attention to yourself erstwhile hatred spreads, and erstwhile 1 is impunity, 1 can inactive make a career and money on it.
The support Braun received in the presidential election is depressing, but it can besides be explained by the mechanics of impunity. If the Euro MP is not liable for attacking minorities – religious, ethnic, ethnic, sexual – it continues to poison the minds and expands the group of supporters.
The hatred that Braun and his supporters preach, by indifference of the state, begins to appear to be an equal political view, while it is not. The same is actual of the force that nationalists use. I stress: this is all due to impunity.
Democracy is helpless against fascism?
The practice of social life in Poland confirms this sad conclusion, although it does not should be so. After all, the democratic state has the instruments to defend itself against fanatics who are trying to destruct its values. All you gotta do is want.
What are those instruments? due to the fact that erstwhile I look at police officers or marshal guards who stand next to Braun erstwhile he commits a crime, they are the only instruments I see, their hands placed.
For example, the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, which explicitly prohibits the existence of parties that let racial and national hatred in their programs or activities, referring to Nazism, Fascism and Communism.
The D.A. can't press charges, and the court can't prosecute for violating the Constitution. circumstantial provisions are needed.
They already exist. We should remind you that, according to the National Memory Institute Act, negating Nazi crimes is simply a crime. Article 55 of the Act refers to this. The law is already there – just usage it.
I remember well the conversation with prof. Witold Kulesza, who was the initiator of this provision in the IPN Act, following the government of another countries. He said he never imagined that this paragraph might apply to the Pole. He simply did not fit into his head so that Poles could negate the Holocaust or the gas chambers in Auschwitz.
Then why would he want to criminalize lies about Auschwitz?
With a view to negationists from abroad who will come to Poland with a propaganda circus. It was about people like David Irving who was convicted in Austria for denying the Holocaust.
However, it turned out that the first individual convicted in Poland for denying the Holocaust was not a foreigner, but a Pole, Dr Dariusz Ratajczak. The Oświęcim lie began preaching as a lecturer at the University of Opole. Prof. Kulesz himself applied for his prosecution. conviction came in 2001.
It was in this context that the prof. shared his disbelief with me. You're asking if democracy is helpless against fascists. In the case of Poland it is due to the fact that it wants to be. It was already evident that the justice strategy was ignoring the problem.
The unsub was convicted.
Yes, but symbolically, due to the fact that at the same time, the court felt that we were dealing with small social harm. He didn't conviction him to 10 months of restrictions on freedom, as the D.A. wanted, but he dropped the case for a year. The indulgence of the court to deny the Holocaust is no exception. It's normal.
What happened to Ratajczak?
In the end, the most serious consequences that he suffered came from outside justice. He lost his occupation at college, and a fewer years later died of alcohol poisoning.
I just realized that in fresh months, Ratajczak's name has been spreading again in the media. It began with an ABW raid on the office of the Confederate politician, Tomasz Grzegorz Stali. He became an object of interest to the service precisely due to the fact that he published books by Hitler and Ratajczak.
He besides issued a Russian fake "Protocols of Zion Wise Men", as well as a manifesto of American terrorist Ted Kaczynski.
When the substance became public, the Confederates declared that they were not curious in the "views" of a colleague, only his competence. Meanwhile, the court in Częstochowa stated that since Stala is not the author of these texts, but their publisher, he cannot be convicted on the basis of the Act on IPN. I remember a image of Stali from a press conference in the Sejm. Grzegorz Braun was standing at his side.
Marcin Kornak, the founder of the Association NEVER MORE, already in the mid-1990s saw that right-wing extremism and nationalism were a large threat to Poland. He kept saying that the impunity of neo-fascists and racists only cheers them up: they preach increasingly extremist slogans and apply increasingly violent violence. And unfortunately, he was right. What we're seeing now is the consequence of the impunity of nationalists over years, even decades.
This did not begin either last week, or a fewer weeks ago, erstwhile Braun destroyed an exhibition on LGBT rights, nor in December 2023, erstwhile he attacked a female with a fire extinguisher and put out Khanu candles in the Sejm.
We then published a documentary "Not only Hanukkah. Braun's hatred report" to show that these are not the first anti-Semitic or racist crimes he committed. A messenger could have stayed due to the fact that he never responded for them.
Therefore, I do not believe Sławomir Mentzen erstwhile he now condemns the words of Grzegorz Braun about the Holocaust. He knew precisely who he was co-founding the Confederacy with. Only late did the political paths of both gentlemen split.
And in the infamous 5 Mentzen is "Poland without Jews", so I won't give a crap either. However, I am tempted by the question of where the inertia of the state comes from towards nationalism. Why don't police intervene erstwhile individual breaks the law in front of them and judges look through their fingers? They're Nazi too, so they defend their own?
Perhaps any representatives of these institutions share the hatred of Grzegorz Braun, but I would bet on something else: cowardice. Uniforms know well that they should intervene even erstwhile a criminal who breaks the law in front of them has immunity. The problem is they're scared.
The weaker the state, the stronger the extremists. If an average citizen had attacked individual with a fire extinguisher and destroyed the exhibition, he would have been behind bars for a long time. Grzegorz Braun was only now charged with what he did a year and a half ago in the Sejm! It is simply a scandal in itself and as a citizen I anticipate to hear an explanation of why only now.
We are taxpayers, we keep institutions with our money, and the Polish state sleeps. That's what's most sad about all of this.
It sounded bitter.
I feel disappointed as a citizen. I've known the Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar for many years. He's been working with her for a long time. I know that he understands – he truly understands – why it is so crucial that the preaching of anti-Semitism and xenophobia is not unpunished.
Minister Bodnar has besides set up a squad to counter hatred crimes, which is attended by a typical of our association Dr Anna Tatar. This squad has developed guidelines for prosecutors on the prosecution of crimes under Articles 256 and 257 of the Criminal Code, which are applicable in Braun's case, but what if the justice strategy does not implement them consistently and effectively?
You can see that even the minister collides with the inertia of the justice system.
Another minister, Radosław Sikorski, published a video on Saturday, in which he called for reassurance. He referred to Braun's actions, Bąkiewicz's militants and anti-immigrant hysteria, which any Poles fell into, seeing the unwhite artists on the streets of Zamość. Even power supporters wrote: well said, but what will you do about it?
Exactly. I am pleased that the head of the abroad Ministry has defended human rights, but words are not enough. I am besides not certain that, in a akin way, the Minister of the Interior or the Prime Minister himself should speak. Meanwhile, the government should just act. After all, that's what leaders are for to take real action. The call for reassurance itself, although needed, is not enough.
In public space, the memorable words of late deceased Marian Turski frequently fall: "Let us not be indifferent." Mr. Marian has supported him more than ever, so I had the chance to get to know him. I don't know if he'd be happy present that his words are repeated and then void, nothing comes out of it. It is as if the rulers have forgotten that the highest positions are besides held to defend people from attacks, humiliation and violence.
It's simple business. It is up to us citizens to remind our representatives. After all, it is not only anti-Semites who should benefit from the anticipation of expression. How Czesław Niemen prefers to believe that there are more people of good will.
