Polocaust
In political discourse, Polocaust refers to the Polish nationalist concept that ethnic Poles suffered a parallel Holocaust to that of the Jews in World War II.[1] The concept is controversial among historians due to its implication that Jews and Poles suffered "equally".[1][2] It is considered a fringe view that borderlines on Holocaust distortion.[2]
Usage
[change | change source]The use of Polocaust is uncommon in the West, but sometimes used by Polish officials. For instance, Polish Deputy Culture Minister Jaroslaw Sellin supported building a "Polocaust" museum for Poles killed by Nazi Germany.[3] This happened when a bill was being passed in the Polish parliament, which would punish those saying that Poles were involved in the Holocaust.[3][4]
Reception
[change | change source]Opposition to the concept
[change | change source]Jan Grabowski
[change | change source]Some historians, including Prof. Jan Grabowski, consider the concept's popularity a form of "Holocaust envy",[2] where the nationalists hold the antisemitic belief that Jews are "treated better because of the Holocaust".[5] Meanwhile, some consider it a form of "competitive victimhood", where nationalists try to make themselves appear to have suffered more than Jews.[6]
Hagen Troschke
[change | change source]In the book Decoding Antisemitism, co-author Hagen Troschke said that equating the Holocaust with other crimes against humanity is a common tactic of Holocaust deniers to trivialize Jewish suffering and desensitize the public to the antisemitism that caused the Holocaust.[5] Other scholars say that their aim is not to debate but incite another Holocaust.[5][7]
Support for the concept
[change | change source]Scholars backing the concept of Polocaust include Jan Żaryn,[2][8] Richard C. Lukas[2][9] and Marek Jan Chodakiewicz.[10] Lukas is seen by mainstream historians as having popularized the concept and created misconceptions about the Holocaust.[9] Grabowski criticized Lukas:[2]
Take The Forgotten Holocaust, a 1986 book by the aforementioned Richard C. Lukas that borders on Holocaust distortion. Lukas attempted, without any reference to historical evidence from the Polish, Israeli, or German archives, to broaden the definition of the Holocaust in such a way as to also include the killings of ethnic Poles by the Germans.
[...]
David Engel, one of the most eminent historians of the Holocaust, wrote a thirteen-page scathing critique of the book in the journal Slavic Review [...] demonstrated in detail that Lukas had made sweeping generalizations, invented facts, disregarded archival sources, and displayed a complete lack of familiarity with secondary sources.
References
[change | change source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Davies, Christian (May 9, 2019). "Under the Railway Line Christian Davies on the battle for Poland's history". London Review of Books. 41 (9). Retrieved March 1, 2025.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Grabowski, Jan; Klein, Shira (February 9, 2023). "Wikipedia's Intentional Distortion of the History of the Holocaust". The Journal of Holocaust Research. 37 (2): 133–190. doi:10.1080/25785648.2023.2168939. Retrieved January 20, 2025.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Polish minister says backs idea to create "Polocaust" museum". Reuters. February 20, 2018. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
- ↑
- Noack, Rick (February 2, 2018). "Poland's Senate passes Holocaust complicity bill despite concerns from U.S., Israel". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-02-02.
- Hackmann, Jörg (2018). "Defending the "Good Name" of the Polish Nation: Politics of History as a Battlefield in Poland, 2015–18". Journal of Genocide Research. 20 (4): 587–606. doi:10.1080/14623528.2018.1528742. S2CID 81922100.
- Ray, Larry; Kapralski, Sławomir (2019). "Introduction to the special issue – disputed Holocaust memory in Poland". Holocaust Studies. 25 (3): 209–219. doi:10.1080/17504902.2019.1567657.
- Joanna Beata Michlic, “The Politics of the Memorialisation of the Holocaust in Poland: Reflections on the Current Misuses of the History of Rescue,” Jewish Historical Studies—Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England, LIII: 1 (2022); Piotr Forecki, Po Jedwabnem: Anatomia pamięci funkcjonalnej (Kraków, 2018); Jan Gross, Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne (Princeton, 2001).
- Robert Rozett, “Competitive Victimhood and Holocaust Distortion,” The Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, XVI (2022); “Distorting the Holocaust and Whitewashing History: Toward a Typology,” XIII: 1 (2019); Yehuda Bauer, “Creating a “Usable” Past: On Holocaust Denial and Distortion,” XIV: 2 (2022); and Jan Grabowski, “The Holocaust and Poland's 'History Policy'” X: 3 (2016).
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Becker, Matthias J.; Troschke, Hagen; Bolton, Matthew; Chapelan, Alexis (October 16, 2024). "Holocaust Denial and Distortion". Decoding Antisemitism. pp. 237–260. Retrieved May 25, 2025.
- ↑ ""Competitive Victimhood" in Poland". Verfassungsblog. January 31, 2025. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
- ↑
- Polger, Mark Aaron (2004). "Rewriting the Holocaust Online: A Discourse Analysis of Holocaust Denial Web Sites". City University of New York. New York. Retrieved February 28, 2025.
- Heni, Clemens (November 2, 2008). "Secondary Anti-Semitism: From Hard-Core to Soft-Core Denial of the Shoah". Jewish Political Studies Review. Retrieved February 8, 2025.
- Troy, Gil (February 1, 2024). "How Palestine Hijacked the U.S. Civil Rights Movement". Tablet. Retrieved February 9, 2025.
- Lappin, Shalom (2025). "The Nazification of the Postmodernist Left". Fathom Journal. Retrieved February 9, 2025.
- ↑ Korycki, Kate (2023). Weaponizing the Past: Collective Memory and Jews, Poles, and Communists in Twenty-First Century Poland. Vol. 11 (1 ed.). Berghahn Books. doi:10.2307/jj.5501079. ISBN 978-1-80539-050-3. S2CID 260671686.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1
- Marrus, Michael R. (March 30, 1986). "Poland Under the Jackboot". The Washington Post.
- Engel, David (1991). "David Engel Replies to Richard C. Lukas". Slavic Review. 50 (3): 742–747. doi:10.1017/S0037677900115955. Retrieved February 28, 2025.
- "ADL forced to honor a book that teeters on anti-Semitism". The Jewish News of Northern California. March 15, 1996. Retrieved June 8, 2025.
- ↑
- Weinbaum, Laurence (2008-05-23). "Whoever Controls the Past". Haaretz. Retrieved 2019-05-10.
- Keller, Larry (November 29, 2009). "Historian Marek Jan Chodakiewicz with Controversial Views Served on Holocaust Museum Board". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
- Katz, Dovid (2013). "Review of Intermarium". Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs. 7 (2): 125–193. doi:10.1080/23739770.2013.11446559. S2CID 219289929.