We are all concerned about the massive attack by anti-Polish forces on our homeland. There has been no sign of any counteractive measures taken whatsoever on the part of the Polish authorities. Following the public insult of the Polish people by the Israeli Foreign Minister, Katz, Poland has not issued a note verbale or recalled its ambassador from Israel for consultations. After Mike Pompeo, the U.S. Secretary of State, insulted Poland during the Middle East Conference held here, Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs didn’t even voice one word of protest about what he had said. We waited with fear for Obama’s words about „Polish death camps” to again be repeated and were soon astonished to learn that the recent anti-Polish conference in Paris was called „The New Polish School of Holocaust History”. The word “Polish” in this title should be emphasized. It is no longer an Israeli or American school of thought, but a homegrown Polish one. On this occasion, we learned that one of the organizers of this conference was the Center for Holocaust Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, operating as a section of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The Center has been in operation since 2003 (see: www.holocaustresearch.pl/) and its ranks include the main speakers featured at the mentioned Paris event.
As one can see, it is not important that during the Second World War more ethnic Poles were murdered than Jews from Poland. The Polish Academy of Sciences did not establish a Center for Holocaust Research of Poles, but of Jews. Sadly, it does not seem that the Polish State has any plan in mind, or even any intention, to counteract the anti-Polish campaign. The matter is now so pressing that dealing with it cannot wait any longer.
The analysis of the mechanism of slander against Poland indicates that the basis for these slanders is the falsification of the real nature of the German occupation in Poland and the exploitation of human ignorance in this matter. It is not possible to repudiate these slanders without making public opinion aware of all the barbarity of Germany in Poland during World War II, of which the people of Western Europe and North America are not aware. Therefore, in order to show the truth about the German occupation, we should focus our efforts on showing the falsity of accusations of the participation of Poland and Poles in the extermination of Jews. Basic information about this matter can be found (in Polish) at:
wpolityce.pl/historia/438028-prof-piotr-witakowski-wojna-o-swiadomosc-i-honor
The key to understanding the issue is addressing the crime referred to as the “Genocide Wola 44”. It is a crime of genocide not committed by those who ruled over the concentration camps or recognized criminal organizations such as the SS. It is a crime committed by regular German Army troops under the command of German Army officers. The largest war crime of the Wehrmacht spanning all of World War II. The crime has never been brought to trial before. But as a crime of genocide, it is not time-barred.
Among the people associated with the scientific community and Academic Civic Clubs (Pol.: Akademickie Kluby Obywatelskie), we decided to organize a scientific conference devoted to finally ajudge this greatest war crime of the Wehrmacht. The conference will be open to everyone and we will try to provide live coverage on the Internet and on some TV channels. It is a large organizational undertaking, but it is the best way, we believe, to introduce the subject matter to the broader public, so that those who do not know anything about the “Genocide Wola 44” or have forgotten about it, will want to get involved at least to some degree.
It is an illusion to believe that the matter is obvious to everyone. For 75 years now, no one in Poland ever demanded that this crime be ajudged, so it does not exist in the public consciousness as a problem. The conference is to present this act of genocide to international opinion, bringing to the forefront an act which was committed by the German Army against Polish civilians and prepare a formal request to the State authorities to reactivate the Supreme National Court (Pol.: Najwyższy Trybunał Narodowy) or to create its legal equivalent for the judgement of the perpetrators and their legal successors.
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To the Addressee(s) of the petition:
The Organizational Committee for the conference entitled: “Genocide Wola 44″
We are appalled that the greatest war crime of the German Army, which was the “Genocide Wola 44”, has not yet been ajudged and its perpetrators remain unpunished. Tens of thousands of defenseless men and women, old people and children, were ruthlessly murdered in cold blood within the span of just a few days. Not in death camps by criminal camp crews, but by regular German Army units in Warsaw’s streets and courtyards. This crime unprecedented in scale during the entire Second World War must not be forgotten, and its victims’ memory desecrated by the passive stance of the Polish State and the failure to prosecute the perpetrators. “Genocide Wola 44” as a crime of genocide is not subject to any statute of limitations. Responsibility for it falls not only on the direct murderers in German uniforms, but first of all, on the commanders responsible for this crime, i.e., on the German state – then the Third Reich – and now on its legal successors, i.e., the Federal Republic of Germany.
We demand that both the surviving criminals and their institutional heirs be brought before a court competent to try German war crimes.
We support the effort of organizing a conference entitled “Genocide Wola 44” to present to international opinion the enormity of this German crime, unknown in the West, whose scale is many times greater than that of the Katyń Forest Massacre. In the present situation, it is absolutely necessary to stop the rise of anti-Polish slander, as if Poles had participated in the extermination of Jews. These slanderous statements are only possible because international opinion has no idea what the German occupation in Poland was like and imagines it in the same way as the German occupation of France or Denmark during those war years. This difference is symbolically shown by the comparison between the fate of the Dutch hiding Anne Frank in Amsterdam, where none of them faced repression, and the fate of the Ulma family hiding Jews in Markowa, where the whole family was murdered.
Ajudging “Genocide Wola 44” will demonstrate to international public opinion the enormity of the barbarity of the German occupation in Poland and will create a proper basis for presenting a comprehensive report on Polish war losses, which is currently being prepared by a Parliamentary team under the direction of Mr. Arkadiusz Mularczyk. Above all, however, it will be the fulfillment of the obligation imposed on us, the living, by the death of those murdered in Warsaw’s Wola district.
I am signing this appeal and, at the same time, sending my support to the address of the conference’s organizational committee.
Please send to the following email address: witakowski_p@poczta.onet.pl
with the following message:
“I support the organization of the conference entitled „Genocide Wola 44” and I request that you inform me about its preparations”.
Sincerely,
[Name and surname]
Sign petition:
