In 2018, Poland's nationalist government enacted a law which criminalized speech that holds Poland responsible for Nazi crimes. Forced by international pressure to withdraw the criminal provisions, nationalists promised instead to use civil litigation to achieve their aims. In 2021, for the first time, the law was used to target Holocaust scholars in civil court. As Poles wrestle with their ancestors' roles during the Holocaust, observers inside the country and across Europe are sounding alarms over the whitewashing of history. This is a conversation about the politics of memory with leaders in Polish civil society, including Dr. Jan Grabowski, one of the historians sued for his research; Dr. Dariusz Stola, the former director of POLIN: Museum of the History of Polish Jews; and Konstanty Gebert, a journalist and founder of the Polish Jewish monthly Midrasz. The discussion will be moderated by Rachel Donadio, a contributing writer for The Atlantic.
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