Dalej jest noc

First edition (Polish)
Publ. Centrum Badan nad Zaglada Zydow

Dalej jest noc: losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski ("Night without End: The Fate of Jews in Selected Counties of Occupied Poland"), co-edited by Jan Grabowski and Barbara Engelking, is a two-volume study published in 2018 by the Polish Center for Holocaust Research in Warsaw, Poland. The 1,600-page study contains nine chapters, each covering a county in occupied Poland in 1939–1945—Bielsk Podlaski, Biłgoraj, Bochnia, Dębica, Luków, Miechów, Nowy Targ, Węgrów, and Złoczów^[1]—in the General Government area established by Germany in World War II. The study identifies small Polish towns as "death traps" for Jews in hiding.^[2] An abridged English-language version of the study is forthcoming.^[3]

Content

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Reception

Before the book was published, supporters of the Polish government's ruling PiS party launched a campaign of defamation against the authors of the book. Government-aligned journalists and historians called the book "scientific humbug" (naukowa mistyfikacja) and accused its authors of applying "racism of sources" (rasizm źródłowy), by privileging Jewish over Polish testimonies. The Polish government cut funding to the journal of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research and also declined to renew Barbara Engelking's appointment to the International Council of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, though it is difficult to say whether these were coordinated actions or coincidental events.^[4]

Reviews published by Poland's Institute of National Remembrance have criticized Dalej jest noc for using unreliable sources, for ignoring the context of Germany's draconian occupation policies and practices, for some authors' alleged personal interests, for selective treatment of witness statements (questioning Polish witnesses' statements, while taking at face value witness statements that were in line with authors' theses), and for presenting rumors and gossip as actual proven facts.^{[5][6][7][8][9]}

Historian Piotr Gontarczyk charges the book with "scholarly mystification", citing the book's description of events in the Bochnia Ghetto in German-occupied Poland. Gontarczyk writes that the book "makes the Jewish Ghetto Police disappear, replacing it with Polish police." The Bochnia Ghetto, he says, witnessed "scenes out of Dante, with the participation of the Jewish Ghetto Police (Jüdische Ordnungstdienst); there were no Polish police [inside Jewish ghettos], but the book... says the bunkers [in which some Jews hid, hoping to escape deportation to German extermination camps] were searched by Polish police."^[10][11] One of the book's authors, has replied that Gontarczyk is incorrect and that the book discusses the Jewish Ghetto Police in numerous places, and she, in turn, charges Gontarczyk with not having read the book thoroughly and with drawing incorrect conclusions from a cursory reading.^[12]

Historian  [pl] writes that the study is based on a solid analysis of sources. He notes the naming of perpetrators and co-perpetrators – individuals who took over Jewish property – and participation by the Polish Blue Police, Baudienst, fire brigades, and military guards. He writes that the study is important in deconstructing some political myths and propaganda in Polish history writing, journalism, church pronouncements, and politics. He concludes that the two volumes are "solid and reliable scholarship".^[13]

, writes that the book focuses on micro-history studies and case-study analysis. She calls it a unique book with both a clear scholarly goal and a political message, taking a clear stance in the ongoing discussion in Poland about Polish-Jewish historical relations. She writes that the book is valuable for its solid methodology, rare and personal focus on micro-history, and demonstration of how significant were varying local characteristics, which resulted in widely different and not fully generalizable circumstances that Jews faced in different parts of occupied Poland. She does note that the book may, however, lack an overarching methodological conclusion and does not attempt a new grand theory of Polish-Jewish wartime history.^[14]

Beth Holmgren writes that Dalej jest noc is a "highly detailed, systematically organized, data-based analysis of how and by whom the Holocaust was perpetrated in nine separate Polish counties".^[15] Ingo Loose, a historian at the Institute for Contemporary History, states that the book debunks the view that "non-Jewish Poles helped Jews en masse" and were at worst bystanders. He states that the book will continue to have value for many years and to many researchers, expressing hope that the book would eventually be translated into German or English.^[16]

's review of the book focuses particularly on the chapter by Jan Grabowski. Roguski writes that the book deals with an interesting topic that needs further research. He commends the authors for pioneering work but criticizes some of its methodology, its use of some primary sources to the neglect of others, its too narrow focus, and its statistical conclusions.^[6]

 [pl] writes that "the study was based on an impressive range of sources. Its authors’ widespread search for sources included many archives in Poland, Israel, the United States, Germany, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. These include the acts of the German and Polish administration, ... the Polish underground state, the government–in-exile, Jewish self-help organizations, the Polish language press published by the Nazis, the underground press, the acts from the post-war trials in Poland and Germany, as well as the records of Jewish and Polish witnesses. The authors managed to develop an exhaustive picture of a previously under studied stage of the Holocaust of the Polish Jews. They developed an excellent methodology which—it is to be hoped—will be applied to subsequent studies of this type concerning the remaining parts of the General Government."^[17]

Litigation against editors

Dalej jest noc accuses Edward Malinowski, sołtys of the Polish village of Malinowo, of having been responsible for the deaths of dozens of Jews who were in hiding from the Germans during World War II. His 94-year-old relative Filomena Leszczyńska is suing Professors Engelking and Grabowski, the book's editors, in Warsaw court for defaming Malinowski; Leszczyńska asserts that, on the contrary, Malinowski had assisted Jews, at the risk of his own life and the lives of his family.^[18] Leszczyńska's lawyer was hired by the Polish League against Defamation. Three sentences in the book were objected to; the plaintiffs seek 100,000 PLN in compensation, and an apology to be printed in a newspaper. Engelking responded: "I didn't write that I thought he had betrayed the Jews. I reported the witness's opinion". Estera Drogicka told that Malinowski helped her but also that she was aware that he was partly guilty of the deaths of several Jews who were in hiding, but bertayed to the Germans. She also confessed of false testimony after the war in favor of Malinowski. Two her sons confirmed her account.^[19][20][21]

Israel's official Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, stated "Legal proceedings against Holocaust scholars because of their research are incompatible with accepted academic research norms and amount to an attack on the effort to achieve a full and balanced picture of the history of the Holocaust".^[22][23]  [pl], director of the Polin Museum, stated, "The involvement in this trial of an organisation heavily subsidised with public funds can be easily construed as a form of censorship and an attempt to frighten scholars away from publishing the results of their research out of fear of a lawsuit and the ensuing costly litigation".^[24]

In February 2021, a Warsaw court ruled that Grabowski and Engelking must apologize for their claims about Malinowski, but it did not order them to pay compensation. Grabowski and Engelking were planning to appeal the verdict.^[25] The Polish Center for Holocaust Research published a detailed response by Engelking to the accusations and trial.^[26] In August 2021, an appeals court overturned the February ruling; the Polish League against Defamation would later announce plans for a counterappeal to the Supreme Court of Poland.^[27]

See also

• Hunt for the Jews

References