February 12, 2008
Poland won't prosecute Jan Gross
Polish prosecutors announced Tuesday that they will not seek charges against author and historian Jan T. Gross, according to Reuters.
Here's more from the story:
“The prosecutor's office decided there was nothing illegal (in the book),” said Boguslawa Marcinkowska, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office in the southern city of Krakow.
“Jan Gross presented his own vision of Polish-Jewish relations during war and communist times, choosing historical facts and giving his own interpretation of them,” she added. The prosecutor checks controversial publications and decides whether they merit legal action.
In Poland, there is a law against accusing the nation of participating in Nazi or Communist war crimes. Gross, who teaches history at Princeton Universtiy and wrote about Poland’s treatment of Jews after the Second World War, was under investigation for slandering the country. The offense carried a maximum of three years in prison.
Gross’ book, “Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz,” came out in Polish last month. It appeared in English in 2006.
“Fear” examines Polish treatment of Jews during and immediately after the Holocaust. Gross investigated the circumstances of the Kielce pogrom, where about 40 Jews died, and tried to answer the question of how anti-Semitism could persist in Poland in the years immediately following the Holocaust. According to the descriptions I’ve read, Gross argued that the Communist regime used anti-Semitism as a tool for consolidating power.