Original Polish. Click here.

My translation:

Elie Wiesel Accuses Poland – Commentary by Adam Michnik "Gazeta Wyborcza", June 27, 2006

"The Washington Post" on Sunday [June 25, 2006] published a review by Nobel prize winner Elie Wiesel of a new book by Jan Gross, author of "Neighbors." The new book, titled "Fear," is about the persecution of Jews in Poland in the years 1945-46.

In his review, Elie Wiesel mentions his own experience from 10 years ago. As a result of his statement during the 50th anniversary of the Kielce pogrom – he says – "virulent, deplorable – essentially antisemitic – attacks appeared throughout the Polish press."

Despite what Wiesel writes, his statement in 1996 – mainly a sidebar to the dispute around the display of crosses at the Birkenau camp – was criticized by many people very far removed from antisemitism, including Rev. Jozef Tischner [a liberal theologian – TM] in the pages of "Gazeta Wyborcza."

What is more, Wiesel’s review paints a picture of a country which cannot face up to disease of antisemitism. Several years ago, after the publication of Gross’s book "Neighbors" about the murder of Jewish inhabitants in Jedwabne, Poland was engulfed in a great debate with the participation of the president and the Primate of the Catholic Church.

Certainly there is no other country in Central and Eastern Europe which would apply such importance and sincerity in accounting for the murkier aspects of its own history. This debate was just as significant at the publication of Gross’s book.

Several weeks ago, Rabbi Michael Schudrich was the victim of a hooligan’s attack on a Warsaw street. This was not the only incident in the world of a hooligan attacking a rabbi. However, Poland is undoubtedly the only country where, the next day, the president of the country invited the rabbi to his office and in front if the media’s cameras expressed his solidarity with the victim.

Whoever writes about antisemitism in Poland and neglects to mention these events, then – even if inadvertently – he falsifies the truth about Poland.

[Translation – Ted Mirecki]