Act on the Institute of National Remembrance
The Act on the Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation is a 1998 Polish law that created the Institute of National Remembrance. This memory law was amended twice, in 2007 and 2018.
The 1998 Act's Article 55 criminalized historical negationism of crimes committed against Poles or Polish citizens by Nazi or communist polities; of crimes against peace or humanity; of war crimes; and of political repression—all these being listed in Sections 1 a and 1 b of Article 1. While Holocaust denial was not explicitly mentioned, it is understood to be implicity criminalized.
The 2007 Amendment dealt with lustrations conducted in Poland.
The 2018 Amendment added an Article 55a, which seeks to defend the "good name" of Poland and its people against unfounded accusations of complicity in the Holocaust. Also added by the 2018 Amendment was an Article 2a, addressing crimes against "Polish citizens" by "Ukrainian nationalists", which has been seen as an act of exclusion against ethnic minorities. Following an international outcry, defamation of Poland and the Polish people through unfounded accusations of complicity in the Holocaust, under Article 55a, was amended to a civil offense that can be tried in civil courts. Article 2a was appealed by Polish President Andrzej Duda and was found to be unconstitutional by the Polish Constitutional Tribunal, which declared it null and void.
1998 act
The Institute of National Remembrance was established by a Sejm Act of 18 December 1998.Article 55
The Act's article 55 criminalized "public denial, against the facts, of Nazi crimes, communist crimes, and other offenses constituting crimes against peace, crimes against humanity or war crimes, committed against persons of Polish nationality or against Polish citizens of other nationalities between 1 September 1939 and 31 July 1990"; and is therefore sometimes restrictively referred to as the law against Holocaust denial.In 1999 a University of Opole history professor, Dariusz Ratajczak, was tried under Article 55 for his Holocaust denial, was found guilty, and was sentenced to a year's probation.
2007 amendment
The 2007 amendment dealt with lustrations conducted in Poland.2018 amendment
Article 55a has been referred to as "the Holocaust Law', "the Polish Holocaust bill", "the Poland Holocaust law", and "the Lex Gross" The legislation was met with harsh international criticism as it is seen as an obstacle to free discussion on Polish complicity in the Holocaust. Article 55a seeks to defend the "good name" of Poland and the Polish people against unfounded accusations of complicity in the Holocaust.Article 2a, addressing crimes against "Polish citizens" by "Ukrainian nationalists", also caused controversy. As most Ukrainians residing in Poland have had Polish citizenship, Article 2a has been viewed as an act of exclusion against ethnic minorities.
While the act does not mention the "Polish death camp" controversy, the act's chief intent was to address that controversy. While the expression "Polish death camp" refers to the geographical locations of those camps, it is misleading insofar as it may be misconstrued to imply that the Polish state or Polish people were responsible for those camps' establishment or operation. The "Polish death camp" question rose to prominence when President Barack Obama used the expression in a 2012 ceremony honoring Jan Karski, though that expression had appeared in 1944 press accounts concerning Karski's reports without at the time causing confusion. Obama, who was criticized by Polish organizations, politicians, and media, subsequently apologized for his use of the expression. The act also does not explicitly mention complicity by some Poles in the murder of Jews; however, statements by the Polish government, and the surrounding public debate, show that this was the foremost motivation.
The amendment has been described as part of an effort by Poland's Law and Justice government to mandate a narrative for the commemoration and presentation of Polish history in Poland and internationally. It has been suggested that, whereas Holocaust legislation in other countries enacts a "duty to remember" by criminalizing Holocaust denial, the Polish bill enacts a "duty to forget" by instituting "collective amnesia" about the complicity of part of the Polish population in the Holocaust.
Under the Act, defamation charges may be preferred by the Institute of National Remembrance or by accredited NGOs such as the Polish League Against Defamation. Originally, offenses against the "good name" of Poland were punishable as criminal offenses with up to 3 years in prison. Following an international outcry, a June 2018 amendment modified the "good-name" offense to a civil offense that can be prosecuted in civil courts. The June 2018 amendment also removed exceptions for research and the arts that were present in the original law.
History
A 2006 amendment with some of the same aims, Article 132a of the Polish Penal Code, was passed in 2006 with the efforts of Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro, but was invalidated two years later. The amendment was seen as targeting the writings of historian Jan T. Gross, whose work on the Jedwabne Pogrom triggered wide public debate in Poland; the amendment was frequently dubbed Lex Gross.After a period of lobbying, the first version of the 2018 Amendment was drafted on 17 February 2016 by Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro. On 30 August 2016 the Council of Ministers, presided over by Prime Minister Beata Szydło, forwarded the draft to the Sejm.
In September 2016, Zbigniew Ziobro asserted that the "Polish death camp" term constituted an attack on the "good name of the Polish nation".
The proposed legislation was criticized internationally as an attempt to suppress discussion of crimes that had been committed during the Holocaust by Polish citizens.
The addition of the "ban on propaganda of Banderism" to the law was spearheaded by the right-wing political movement, Kukiz'15. Kukiz'15 submitted this addition on July 16, 2016, however it was blocked by Civic Platform and Law and Justice parties citing "the good of Polish–Ukrainian relations". Eventually, Article 2a was added to the bill on 25 January 2018 during the second reading.
On 26 January 2018, after the bill's third reading, the Polish Parliament's lower chamber, the Sejm, approved the bill, which would apply to Poles as well as to foreigners. On 1 February 2018 the upper chamber, the Senate, passed the bill without amendment. On 6 February 2018 President Andrzej Duda signed the bill into law. According to an opinion poll conducted in February 2018, 51% of Poles opposed the 2018 amendment.
Some parts of the law will come into effect 14 days after its registration in Dziennik Ustaw, with the full law coming into effect within 3 months. The law is was referred to the Constitutional Tribunal of Poland for review of its compliance with the Polish Constitution.
The bill led to an outcry of condemnations against Poland in the United States, Europe, and Israel. Some critics went so far as to accuse the Polish government of Holocaust denial. The Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a travel advisory urging Jews to refrain from visiting Poland due to "Poland’s government campaign to change the historical truth by denying Polish complicity in the Nazi atrocities".
As of May 2018, 70 different charges under the act were filed in Polish courts. Most, however, were by Polish citizens protesting the law by filing a self-incrimination. A non-protest charge was filed against the BBC for a production on the Auschwitz concentration camp that used the term "Polish Jewish ghettos".
Original bill
The proposed law modifies a previous law relating to the Institute of National Remembrance.The following main articles were added in February 2018:
- Article 55a:
1. Whoever claims, publicly and contrary to the facts, that the Polish Nation or the Republic of Poland is responsible or co-responsible for Nazi crimes committed by the Third Reich, as specified in Article 6 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal enclosed to the International agreement for the prosecution and punishment of the major war criminals of the European Axis, signed in London on 8 August 1945, or for other felonies that constitute crimes against peace, crimes against humanity or war crimes, or whoever otherwise grossly diminishes the responsibility of the true perpetrators of said crimes—shall be liable to a fine or imprisonment for up to 3 years. The sentence shall be made
public.
2. If the act specified in clause 1 is committed unintentionally, the perpetrator shall be liable to a fine or a restriction of liberty.
3. No offence is committed if the criminal act specified in clauses 1 and 2 is committed in the course of the one’s artistic or academic activity.’
- Article 2a:
The crimes of Ukrainian nationalists and members of Ukrainian organizations collaborating with the Third German Reich, as defined in the Act, are acts committed by Ukrainian nationalists in the years 1925–1950, involving the use of violence, terror or other forms of violation of human rights, against individuals or ethnic groups. One of the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists and members of Ukrainian organizations collaborating with the Third German Reich is their involvement in the extermination of the Jewish population and genocide on citizens of the Second Polish Republic in Volhynia and Eastern Lesser Poland."
Controversy over Article 55a
Historians widely agree that some Poles were complicit in the Holocaust, betraying and murdering Jews. Article 55a was condemned by Holocaust Charities, the United States, the European Union, and Israel for being an obstacle to free discussions on Polish complicity in the Holocaust.A letter signed by many prominent persons in early February, including journalist Anne Applebaum and the 3rd President of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski, said: "Why should the victims and witnesses of the Holocaust have to watch what they say for fear of being arrested, and will the testimony of a Jewish survivor who “feared Poles” be a punishable offence?".
Even before being passed, the law damaged the Israel–Poland relations. Israel's Foreign Ministry director-general Yuval Rotem reported that preserving the memory of the Holocaust takes priority over international relations. He said that "Preserving the memory of the Holocaust is a matter beyond the bilateral relationship between Israel and Poland. It is a core issue cutting to the essence of the Jewish people". Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Poland of Holocaust denial.
Yad Vashem condemned the Polish bill, saying that, while "Polish death camps" as a phrase is a historic misrepresentation, the legislation is "liable to blur the historical truths regarding the assistance the Germans received from the Polish population during the Holocaust".
In the U.S., Secretary of State Rex Tillerson expressed "disappointment" in the bill, adding: "Enactment of this law adversely affects freedom of speech and academic inquiry."
Jeffrey Kopstein of the University of Toronto and Jason Wittenberg of the University of California, Berkeley, authors of the book, Intimate Violence: Anti-Jewish Pogroms on the Eve of the Holocaust, about anti-Jewish violence in Poland such as the Szczuczyn pogrom, opine that the purpose of the new bill "is clear: to restrict discussion of Polish complicity." They also suggest that "Poland’s current government will likely face the unpalatable prospect of enforcing an unenforceable law and denying what the mainstream scholarly community has increasingly shown to be true: Some Poles were complicit in the Holocaust."
Prof. Stanisław Krajewski of the University of Warsaw, who co-chairs the Polish Council of Christians and Jews, said that "The way the law is formulated makes it a blunt instrument for paralysing and punishing anyone you don't like", and that "the government's harsh, dismissive reaction to critics has encouraged many people to think they can now attack Jews."
On 5 March 2018, in front of the Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw and Wrocław, 45 Polish citizens made public statements referring to historical events, including the Jedwabne pogrom and the Szczuczyn pogrom. The citizens claimed that they attributed responsibility for the events and alleged that their public statements constituted criminal acts under Article 55a of the amended Act of the Institute of National Memory. In the Prosecutors' offices, the citizens deposited formal written documents reporting their alleged crimes.
Kanika Gauba in The Indian Yearbook of Comparative Law 2018 Whereas Holocaust legislation in other countries enacts a duty to remember by means of criminalizing Holocaust denial, the Polish bill enacts a duty to forget by instituting "collective amnesia" on the complicity of part of the Polish population in the Holocaust.
;Amendment
Pressure from the United States Department of State and threat of downgrading the US-Poland relationship were significant in causing the Polish government to change course. In late June 2018, the Polish government decided to stop waiting for a ruling from the constitutional court and in a hasty process, the legislation passed in a single day, modified the act. The revision removed the possibility of criminal prosecution, but also removed the exemption of scholarship and arts from the law. While violating the "good name" of Poland provision is no longer a criminal charge, charges may still be levied in a civil court.
Following the amendment, the Polish and Israeli prime ministers issued a joint declaration condemning antisemitism and rejecting "anti-Polonism". This statement was condemned by Yad Vashem.
Controversy over Article 2a
In 2019, article 2a was decreed to be void and non-binding by the Constitutional Tribunal of Poland.The Amendment's passage worsened Polish–Ukrainian relations, already contentious on the questions of the prewar Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the wartime and postwar Ukrainian Insurgent Army. Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych have been considered Ukrainian national heroes in Ukraine, and war criminals in Poland. In Ukraine, the Amendment has been called "the Anti-Banderovite Law".
The director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, Volodymyr Viatrovych, asserts that the Amendment's principal target is Ukrainians residing in Poland.
The Polish law has been compared to Ukrainian Law 2538-1, passed in 2015.