Dalej jest noc

Dalej jest noc: losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski (Night without End: The Fate of Jews in Selected Counties of Occupied Poland), co-edited by Jan Grabowski and Barbara Engelking, is a two-volume study published in 2018 by the Polish Center for Holocaust Research in Warsaw, Poland. The book covers, in case-study analyses, the history of Jews during the Holocaust in nine rural areas of the German-administered General Government. An abridged English-language version of the book is planned for September 2022, to be published by the Indiana University Press.[1]

First Polish edition published by the Polish Center for Holocaust Research

The book has been well received by most non-Polish Holocaust researchers, who have praised its scope of research and innovative focus on everyday Polish-Jewish relations, while also pointing out some methodological concerns. In Poland some historians criticized the book; their reviews sparked debate over the accuracy of the information presented in the book, and about the reviews themselves. A defamation lawsuit was filed by Filomena Leszczyńska, niece of a man described in the book as responsible for the deaths of several Jews. A lower court found the authors of the book guilty of defamation, but the verdict was overturned on appeal.

Content

The 1,600-page study, the result of research conducted in 2012-2017,[2] was published in 2018 in two volumes. It describes the lives of Jews in nine selected areas of World War II German-occupied Poland, mostly within the General Government. It recounts Jews' strategies of survival and their relations with other populations and with German-operated government agencies. Dalej jest noc consists in nine chapters, each covering a Kreishauptmannschaft or pre-war Polish county (powiat). The nine chapters, and their respective authors, are:

The authors organize their respective chapters variously – some chronologically, others by particular questions. The study focuses on 1942–1943, when the Germans liquidated most of the Jewish ghettos.[4] It includes nine maps, a bibliography, biographical and geographical indexes, an abbreviations glossary, and brief author biographies. Some chapters contain their own bibliographies and appendices.

Reception

The book received generally positive reviews from non-Polish historians. Beth Holmgren wrote that Dalej jest noc is a "highly detailed, systematically organized, data-based analysis of how and by whom the Holocaust was perpetrated in nine separate Polish counties".[5] Ingo Loose, a historian at the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich, said that the book debunks the view that non-Jewish Poles helped Jews en masse or were at worst forced to be bystanders. He states that the book will continue to have value for many years and to many researchers.[4] Stephan Lehnstaedt was less enthusiastic about the book: while he was impressed by the breadth of research and details and said it was innovative, stimulating, and lent itself to "highly fascinating interpretations", he found the book "intentionally political" and concluded that it had some methodological concerns and that it unintentionally blurred the German responsibility for the Holocaust by not including relevant descriptions of German activities.[6]

Most of the Polish scholars have also spoken in favour of the book in their reviews. Jacek Chrobaczyński writes that the study is based on a solid analysis of sources. He notes the naming of perpetrators and co-perpetrators – individuals who took over Jewish property – and participation by the Polish Blue Police, Baudienst, fire brigades, and military guards. Chrobaczyński states that the study is important in deconstructing some political myths and propaganda in Polish history writing, journalism, church pronouncements, and politics. He concludes that the two volumes are "solid and reliable scholarship".[7] Karolina Koprowska calls it a unique book with both a clear scholarly goal and a political message, taking a clear stance in the ongoing discussion in Poland about Polish-Jewish historical relations. She praised the book for its solid methodology, the focus on micro-history, and the demonstration of the differences in local characteristics of the Jewish life, which she said enabled the authors to paint a picture of the local life that could not be fully generalised across different communities. She noted that the book may, however, lack an overarching methodological conclusion and that it did not attempt a new grand theory of Polish-Jewish wartime history.[8] Adam Kopciowski similarly commended the usage of "an impressive range of sources", including materials from various organisations and from Polish and Jewish witnesses, which were accessed in the archives in Poland, Israel, the United States, Germany, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, which, as he argued, helped them "develop an exhaustive picture of a previously understudied stage of the Holocaust of the Polish Jews". Kopciowski also applauded the methodology of the study, hoping that it would be further adopted in the subject matter studies.[9] Some other scholars have also referred to the monograph as "impressive"[10][11]or "invaluable".[12]

There has been some criticism of the works unrelated to the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), a government-affiliated agency. Joanna Tokarska-Bakir, who analysed the Bielsk county section, said that while she was impressed by the amount of work that was put in publication, she did not agree with Engelking's summary that the anti-Semitism in Bielsk county "was rather of an ethnological and religious, rather than political or economical, nature". She further doubted the Engelking's distinction between the behaviour of the local peasants and the local szlachta (aristocracy), saying that the sources she used and the knowledge of the area did not warrant such conclusions.[13]

Controversy

Unlike scholars unrelated to the IPN, historians supportive of the Law and Justice (PiS) party's history policy were strongly disapproving of the publication.[14][15] The IPN promoted reviews that were critical of the book.[16] Piotr Gontarczyk said that Grabowski created fictional citations, grossly misinterpreted various sources related to the historical narrative and, when discussing the case of two Poles who Grabowski said killed Jews, dismissed Grabowski's account as based on confabulations, and generally called the book "scientific humbug" (naukowa mistyfikacja).[17][18] In the interviews given to right-wing outlets, he accused the author of practicing "source racism" by privileging Jewish over Polish testimonies and "making the Jewish Ghetto Police disappear, replacing it with Polish police", saying that the Polish police never operated in Jewish ghettos.[18][19] Tomasz Roguski criticised the same chapter, accusing Grabowski of "deliberately creating an image of the Polish society as a co-perpetrator in murdering Jews", and attacked what he saw was a selective and tendentious use of some sources.[20] Roman Gieroń, commenting on the Bochnia section, criticised the insufficient usage of sources from church and state archives. He also said that the Polish denunciations were not put in proper context and that descriptions of relations between Poles and Germans, as well as those between Poles themselves, were ignored.[21] Similar remarks were made in the analysis of the Nowy Targ section.[22] The most prominent of the sources, however, was Tomasz Domański's 74-page booklet entitled Korekta obrazu, sanctioned by the IPN and subsequently translated by that institution into English, German, and French.[23][24] It detailed further accusations of academic dishonesty, including falsifying and manipulating sources, and took issue with the language used in the work. The polemic also argued that the authors did not take into account the coercion with which Poles served in the German administration and commented that Poles, whose sufferings under the German occupation he said went almost undescribed, had no influence over the life or death of Jews in the General Government.[25] Domański also stated that the work was not representative of all Polish lands, specifying that Radom District was not represented, and neither were the Kresy.[23] The criticism about the small variability of areas under investigation also appeared in Lehnstaedt.[6]

In response to the publication of a 74-page booklet, each of the authors published their own rebuttals for their respective sections.[26] In the introductory section, the authors of Dalej jest noc dismissed the IPN's booklet as being "written on preconceived theses", not addressing the merits of the publication and being full of bad-faith accusations.[27] Grabowski wrote about "coordinated efforts of officials who were given a special task by their superiors, which consisted ... of attempting to question the reputation of independent scholars, rather than of engaging in an intellectual discussion", citing several unpublished manuscripts of IPN's officials working for several delegatures of the Institute; he further labelled Domański's work as an example of the so-called Holocaust deflection.[28][lower-alpha 1] Dariusz Libionka concurred.[29] Swałtek-Niewińska replied to her critics that most of the clarifications that the reviewers felt were missing in the book were in fact there.[30][31] Other authors also stated that Korekta obrazu was flawed and that it failed to demonstrate any fundamental issues with the publication.[32] Domański replied with a 110-page counterrebuttal, also published by IPN, which largely reiterated and expanded on the points made in his earlier review, in particular addressing what he saw was the attempt of the authors to prove that Poles had equal responsibility for the Holocaust as the Nazis.[33]

Litigation against editors

Dalej jest noc accuses Edward Malinowski, sołtys (village elder) of the Polish village of Malinowo, of having been responsible for the deaths of dozens of Jews who were in hiding from the Germans during World War II. In 2019, his niece Filomena Leszczyńska sued Professors Engelking and Grabowski, the book's editors, under the controversial Amendment to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance (better known as the Holocaust Law), in Warsaw Regional Court for defaming Malinowski.[34] Leszczyńska asserts that, on the contrary, Malinowski had assisted Jews, at the risk of his own life and the lives of his family.[35] Leszczyńska's lawyer was hired by the Polish League Against Defamation (RDI), which objected to a few sentences, together with a footnote.[lower-alpha 2] The plaintiffs sought 100,000 PLN in compensation, and an apology to be printed in newspapers.[36] Engelking countered that she didn't write that she thought he had betrayed the Jews and that she was simply reporting witness's opinion, rejecting any wrongdoing on her behalf.[37] The Polish Center for Holocaust Research published a detailed response to the accusations and trial, written by Engelking.[38]

The lawsuit was met with condemnation from foreign researchers. Israel's official Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem stated: "Legal proceedings against Holocaust scholars because of their research are incompatible with accepted academic research norms and amount to an attack on the effort to achieve a full and balanced picture of the history of the Holocaust".[39][40] Zygmunt Stępiński, director of the Polin Museum, said that "[the] involvement in this trial of an organisation heavily subsidised with public funds [could] be easily construed as a form of censorship and an attempt to frighten scholars away from publishing the results of their research out of fear of a lawsuit and the ensuing costly litigation."[41] The Simon Wiesenthal Center and the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure similarly disapproved of the lawsuit.[42][43] Robert Blobaum suggested that the lawsuit had apparent support from the government.[44][lower-alpha 3]

In February 2021, the Warsaw Regional Court found the authors guilty of defamation and ordered Grabowski and Engelking to apologise for their claims about Malinowski, but it did not order them to pay compensation, finding that their error was not deliberate.[34][46] Grabowski and Engelking appealed the verdict to the Court of Appeals in Warsaw, which overturned the lower court's ruling and cleared them of all charges. The appellate court decided that ruling otherwise would constitute impermissible infringement on academic freedom.[47] Filomena Leszczyńska, the main plaintiff, died in October 2021; her funeral was attended by some local and central government officials, including Jan Dziedziczak, an official in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland responsible for the Polish diaspora issues, and the head of Siemiatycze County.[48]

Notes
  1. The definition may be seen here
  2. The book cited Estera Drogicka, a Jew who was hiding in Malinowski's house, who testified in favour of the sołtys during a post-war trial (Malinowski was acquitted), but appeared not to cite her 1990s interview in which she described Malinowski's crimes despite seeming to use the materials.[34]
  3. Maciej Świrski, leader of the RDI, was appointed head of the supervisory board of the Polish Press Agency in September 2020.[45]

References
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  3. Dalej jest noc. Losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski. Academia.edu.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. "Rezension zu: B. Engelking u.a. (Hrsg.): Dalej jest noc". H-Soz-Kult. Kommunikation und Fachinformation für die Geschichtswissenschaften (in German). Retrieved 3 February 2021.
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  7. Chrobaczyński, Jacek. "Osaczeni, samotni, bezbronni... Refleksje po lekturze książki Dalej jest noc. Losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski (Polish with English abstract), T. I, II, pod redakcją Barbary Engelking i Jana Grabowskiego, Warszawa 2018." Res Gestae 6 (2018): 266–301.
  8. Koprowska, Karolina (2018). "Nocne i dzienne historie: doświadczenie Zagłady na polskiej prowincji. (O książce "Dalej jest noc. Losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski")". Wielogłos (in Polish). 2 (36): 161–174. doi:10.4467/2084395XWI.18.025.9970. ISSN 1897-1962.
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  32. For other rebuttals not mentioned in the text, see:
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See also
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