Professor Thomas Gross Threatens His 'Neighbors' - Poland atrocities

Historian threatens to reveal Polish atrocities against Jews if tried for slander


haaretz.com/hasen/spages/944650.html

oh dear oh dear, whatever next...?

Funny,sounds just like the sort of laws totalitarian regimes with something to hide pass,very stalinist.


hardly earth shattering is it.
Whats with trying to cover up history,it will always bite you on the butt.
Whats the plan,from now on all History books have to pass the "Puzzler Test"?

The previous Kaczynski government brought in a law in 2006 that made it an offence to 'slander the Polish nation by accusing it of participating in communist or Nazi crimes.'

It is a stupid law and should be repealed. However the law is a dream come true for Jan Gross as it results in him getting even more publicity.

I have not read his books and have no idea how much truth there is in them (evidence seems to show that for Neighbours at least he exaggerated the numbers and that there was at least some German involvement). However if you want to prove him wrong then have a proper debate. Alternatively if you want him to gain more publicity, get more sympathy and make the Polish nation look worse then enact this law against him and jail him. I pretty sure Gross himself would prefer Poland try the second option....

he, he, Puzzler for President!!!!!Grzegorz for the Primeminister and the new PiS wil be back.

By posting this thread you only advert this book. Like Polish media which completely ignore almost all valuable titles published in this country but when anti-Polish slander appears turn all attention on it. In this case even media criticize Gross but in fact made a great promotion campaign for him. I just watched Gross in Olejnik "show", my God she looks almost like a patriot in comparison with this bigot. :)

Gross was not sure which nation was more anti-Semitic, Poles or Germans :)
Basically mocked all Eastern Europe and making excuses for Jewish guards in ghetto. What is interesting Polish and English version are not the same... One can imagine that English version is even more anti-Polish. Gross himself is not a professional historian, he is a sociologist. Majority of Polish historians claims that this book is not well documented and cannot be considered as serious historical publication. His previous book was heavily criticized by Jewish professor Norman Finkelstein.


This is pathetic law but it cannot be compared with western invented anti-discrimination stupidity. One can be punished because of racism, xenophobia, "homophobia", "Islamo-phobia" (of course all about verbal comments only) or Holocaust denial. So free speech denial is wider.

No, I wasn't trying to advertise anything...I actually saw this posted on an American forum, so I just passed it on...this Gross is an old bitter man, but he has gotten a lot of play in the US, mostly from PBS (Public Broadcasting System)...a Ms. Dana Alvi in the United States has done a good job of getting a rebuttal by different Polish scholars on

this subject some notice.

Rubbish lesser, you can be punished for the crime of race hatred,homophobia with the threat of violance etc,but I tommorow could write a book claiming all the jews supposedly killed in the holocaust were actually kidnapped by aliens and taken to live with the ewoks and there is no law that can touch me. I think you may want to stop your paranoia of all things "western" you sound like a moskaly in the politburo. British law is quite different to Austrian law....in fact as different I imagine as Polish is to Romanian......

It isn't smart but If denying Holocaust is a crime then I don't see the reason why blaming Poles for Holocaust shouldn't be.

Gross wont be punished anyway, this is just circus of our politicians.

Yes,but Denying the holocaust SHOULDNT be a crime,its making idiots into martyers,the same should be for trying to imply Poland was responsible.These two views are the views of cranks and nutters and should not be given the oxygen of publicity that a "crime" gives their stupidity.

Is Polish legislation available online? If so, does anyone know what this piece of law is entitled? I think it needs to be read first before judgment is cast.

Gross is an opportunist, the book has more holes than an average chunk of Swiss cheese.


The law is a part of IPN (Institute of National Remembrance) Law, Article 55a.

Kto publicznie pomawia Naród Polski o udział, organizowanie lub odpowiedzialność za zbrodnie komunistyczne lub nazistowskie, podlega karze pozbawienia wolności do lat 3.

(A person who defames the Polish Nation by accusing it of participation in, organization of or responsibility for the communist or nazi crimes is subject to a prison term of up to 3 years.)

Thanks Darius - I'll try and find it. Not sure how it works in Poland, but here in Oz we have legal databases online open tot he public. In them, you can type in the Law, or article of the law you want information on, then do a search for any legal cases that have dealt with that law or article in question. Searching for these cases is often better than simply looking at the article as it appears ion the piece of law, because you have available the judges comments on how the law is to be interpreted and applied. I'll see what I can find..

From your interpretation, it sounds like some of our forum participants should be wary.

I am equally unaware of how that works so all I can help with is the link to the English version of IPN (ipn.gov.pl). They do appear to have some search facilities on their site.


Yes, that's what the article states.
But note that there is a pretty strong opposition to Article 55a in Poland too.

Darius - thanks for the link. Already tried the URL site you gave but couldn't find the law.


I'm not surprised. I suspect though that the judiciary will be pretty lenient if any are prosecuted. Whilst googling, I found an essay that referred to a case where a bloke was prosecuted under 55a in 1999 - seems the degree of what is said that's defamatory will be taken into account.

I found the law, but there in no 55a. I got the quote form gazeta.pl. Not sure if I located the right page on the IPN site.

This is all I got so far: ipn.gov.pl/portal.php?serwis=en&dzial=32&id=46&search=226367

As I understand it 55a was introduced in 2006??

I think Art 55 is read in conjunction with Art 1 cl 1?? It's strange to me, because that doesnt make sense. When I have time I'll try to get my head around it. We need a native Polish lawyer for their view - any out there??