Poland Post-Holocaust and Modern Injustice

https://www.timesofisrael.com/anti-semitism-seen-on-the-rise-in-poland/

Last week, I traveled to Poland with Tichon Ramah Yerushalayim in order to further learn about the Holocaust and the history of Jewish oppression in Europe. During our emotional and disturbing trip to Poland, we traveled through the country to walk in and out of death camps from the Holocaust. We started in Warsaw to see the ghetto, traveled through Tekuzin and Lublin where we saw remnants of the Jewish communities that existed there, and ended in Krakow with Auschwitz. The whole journey through Poland was extremely emotional for everyone on TRY, but some things we learned about modern Poland and its policies towards its industry of Jewish tourism were surprising and disturbing to me as well as my peers on the program.

While in Poland, we learned about modern Polish laws and policies, and we came to understand that much of Polish society today is problematic in its approach towards human rights and Jewish tourism. I was quick to assume that Poland, like Germany, would work towards reconciliation with the Jewish people, and towards education about the atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust, however, even though approximately 10% of the Polish economy comes from Jewish tourism to places like Majdanek and Auschwitz, Poland still maintains anti semitic legal policies. In Poland, it has recently been made illegal to say the words ‘Polish Death Camps,’ or to claim Poland was guilty and/or complicit in the actions of Nazi Germany against the Jewish people. To do this would be blaming the Holocaust on Poland which, according to Polish policy, is inaccurate since Poles were victims in the Holocaust. This law is a definite infringement on free speech and a selfish diversion of responsibility for the Holocaust away from Poland.

After learning about this strange and backwards law in Poland, I decided to conduct more research on the status of Polish freedom in today’s world. I found through my research that the injustices in modern Polish society are far more than just restrictions on speech. Freedom House recently downgraded Poland’s freedom status from ‘free’ to ‘partly free,’ due to the election of the far-right Law and Justice party in October 2015. This administration has introduced several laws and policies that restrict Polish freedoms of speech, press, assembly, expression, reproductive health, and asylum.

The following information is what I’ve learned after my trip to Poland. Firstly, Poland’s Law and Justice party gives priority to government-approved assemblies, and is able to ban counter-protesters who wish to speak out against the government. This means that anyone who speaks out against the government can face backlash, which is a threat to free speech. The Polish government also meddles heavily in the public media, which goes against rights of the press. Poland also has one of the strictest stances on abortion in all of Europe. The Law and Justice administration supported a bill that almost completely banned abortions, and even though they didn’t adopt the bill in the end, they ended up banning emergency contraception, also known as the ‘morning after pill’. Poland also often denies asylum seekers of their rights under the European Union. Poland border control officers regularly send asylum seekers on the Poland-Belarus border to Belarus, which is against the procedure outlined for them by the EU. In addition, there is a restrictive amendment currently proposed that would make it legal to automatically detain any asylum seeker in closed transit zones, which is an infringement on the right to asylum. Poland’s counter terrorism methods also violate human rights; they grant the Internal Security Agency with incredibly liberal surveillance limits, which allows them to use falsely accumulated (and exceptional) evidence during court trials. Poland also allows the Internal Security Agency to target foreign nationals and to hold terrorism-suspects in custody for up to two weeks without being charged.

After all of my research, it is clear that there are still many modern legal and social injustices perpetrated by the Polish government, as well as common anti semitism living in the streets. Even on my short and isolated trip to Poland, I saw graffitied stars of David crossed out on the walls of the city as well as Polish people heckle our group of 32 Jews walking through the streets. Everything I learned about Poland (during the Holocaust and today) surprised me a great amount, but after conducting further research about the concrete evidence of injustices in Poland, it's more obvious how far Poland still has to go.

Links about the modern state of Polish human rights policy:
Freedom House
TIME - Poland Holocaust Law
Human Rights Report on Poland