Polish academics demand apology for Wyborcza editor “Hitler” comment

The letter, written by a group of Polish historians and academics and published in weekly Do Rzeczy, said that during a talk at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Adam Michnik, the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, compared Polish-American historian Marek Jan Chodakiewicz to the leader of the Nazi German party, Adolf Hitler, also allegedly saying that Chodakiewicz’s texts “should be on the same shelf as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion”.

Speaking to Radio Poland, US-based professor Chodakiewicz said that such attacks are a common tactic by “the left-wing” who “prove that they rarely read books”, and that he is “used to this kind of name calling”.

Gazeta Wyborcza has been very critical of Poland's ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party.

In an open letter on the issue, the director of the Polin museum, Dariusz Stola, said that the academics who wrote the original letter “were ill informed” about what was said in the discussion in mid-May. Stola invited critics to review a recording of the discussion, and said that in his opinion Michnik “did not compare Chodakiewicz to Hilter”. (rg/pk)