By Natalia Ojewska
WARSAW—A Polish court has ordered two historians to apologize for identifying a town mayor as an accused collaborator who gave up Jews to occupying Nazi forces during World War II, potentially chilling discussion of the role some Poles played during the Holocaust.
Close to 3.2 million Polish Jews are estimated to have died during five years of Nazi rule. Decades of research have found that while many Poles risked their own lives to help Jews, others participated in or assisted the slaughter.
The ruling Law and Justice party has tried to limit discussion of the actions of Polish nationals in the genocide, warning that it considers any investigation into alleged complicity of Poles in the Holocaust as dishonoring Poland. It prefers to portray the country as a blameless victim of larger regional powers.
The party oversaw the introduction of a libel law in 2018 to punish anyone falsely accusing Poles of collaborating with the Nazis, despite objections from the U.S., Israel and some survivors from the Auschwitz concentration camp. “It is important to protect the good name of Poland and Polish people,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said at the time. “We have the right to our historical truth.”