#Crif #Poland - Crif opposes law to decline Poland's responsability in the Holocaust

As the world commemorates the International Day for Holocaust remembrance, the lower house of the Polish Parliament passes a law sanctioning the use of the term "Polish death camps". The law specifies that proceedings may be instituted against anyone who "attributes to the Polish nation or state the responsibility or co-responsibility for the crimes committed by the German Third Reich - or any other crime against humanity (...) or war crime".

Crif wishes to express his indignation at such remarks. This leads to deny the involvement, near or far, of the leaders, the government and the Polish people in the tragedy of the Holocaust. This leads to deny the anti-Semitic atrocities perpetrated in Poland, sometimes by local populations, against the Jews.

Francis Kalifat, President of Crif, considers that this law is "an attempt to falsify history and a pretext for Poland to be released from its responsibilities". And the responsibility of the Poles, we all know about it. Through hundreds of testimonies of the survivors of the death camps whose words we can not question. 

Crif notes the immediate reaction of the Israeli government, which talked over the phone with the Polish Prime Minister on Sunday evening and hopes that all nations will join the fight for historical truth. It should be remembered that the Jewish population before the war was estimated at 3 million, of which only a few tens of thousand have survived.

National innocence is a myth for Poland as it is a myth for all the nations of the world. Each state must face its responsibilities and the mistakes of the past with the obvious purpose of not committing them again. Let us recall in this regard the speech of President Jacques Chirac in July 1995, recognizing the responsability of France in acts of collaboration with the Nazis.