SWC to Polish Academy of Science: Suspend Anti-Semitic Member

SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE – EUROPE
Tel. +33-147237637 - Fax: +33-147208401
e-mail: csweurope@gmail.com

"The Jews themselves participated in the murder of their own people…” (Polish) murderers may have told themselves that they were doingterrible things, but that their grandchildren would be grateful to them…” Krzysztof Jasiewicz.

Paris, 8 April 2013

In a letter to Polish Academy of Sciences, President Michal Kleiber, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre (SWC) Director for InternationalRelations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, lamented that the “Academy’s august reputation had, last week, been stained with the dark scourge of anti-Semitism.”

Samuels referred to 'so-called Jewish expert', Professor Krzysztof Jasiewicz’s interview article, “Are the Jews Themselves Guilty?” in the specialedition of the Polish magazine, Focus, marking the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

He urged “measures to suspend all association with him by the Academy, pending his formal expulsion.”

In the article, Jasiewicz states, among other outrages:

— “‘The nonsense about Jews being killed mostly by Poles was created to hide the biggest Jewish secret. The scale of the Germancrime was only possible because the Jews themselves participated in the murder of their own people.’

— ‘For many generations, the Jews, not the Catholic Church, worked tobring the Holocaust about. It looks like the Jews have not learned their lesson and have not come to any conclusions yet.’

— ‘The Jews have a problem because they are convinced they are the chosen people… I am convinced that there is no point in adialogue with the Jews, because it leads nowhere.’

— ‘I am greatly convinced that the crime at Jadwabne and other pogroms were not committed in order to steal Jewish propertyor as a revenge for the many terrible things that Jews did to Poles in the past. The pogroms were mostly motivated by a great fear of the Jews…’

— ‘These desperate murderers may have told themselves that they weredoing terrible things, but that their grandchildren would be grateful to them…’.

— ‘Jews are blinded by their hate and desire for revenge… [They] cooperated with Communist groups before the war and joinedthe Communist secret police after the war.’

— ‘I believe that anyone with some education and intelligence will understand that the Jewish version is not always true andnot always better than others.’”

Samuels pointed to the final quote as a “direct challenge to your Academy, as to whether its ‘education and intelligence’ will, bydefault, endorse ‘the Jasiewicz version” of Polish-Jewish relations, based on denial, allusions to deicide, incitement and a horrific legacy to the ‘grandchildrengeneration’.”

The letter recalled that “the late Simon Wiesenthal, in his novel ‘Krystyna: The Tragedy of the Polish Resistance’, stretched out ahand in reconciliation to the generations of post-war Poland. Many Poles of every rank have responded in remorse to rebuild the Polish-Jewish relationship, which will be marked in Warsaw,next year, with the long-awaited opening of the Museum of the History of the Polish Jews.” The Centre continued, “Professor Kleiber, your Academy member, Krzysztof Jasiewicz’s claim that‘there is no point in a dialogue with the Jews…’ challenges all these post-war efforts and the very significance of the commitment of so many dedicated Poles behind the Museum and othercountless such initiatives.”

Samuels stressed that “Focus Chief Editor, Michael Wojcik has explained that his decision to publish the article was ‘to showthat anti-Semitism among scientists does not just belong to the past, but still exists today’, and he has apologized for any unintended offence.”
The Centre appealed to the President, arguing, “Jasiewicz probes the timidity of his peers. It is for you to respond. The Academy hasbeen sullied and, only by stripping him of his life membership and a public statement of the Academy's membership condemning him to intellectual exile, will the record be set straight,and the challenge repulsed for future generations”.

The Wiesenthal Centre appeal for the Academy to act, was “shared with Professor Barbara Kudrycka, Polish Minister of Science andHigher Education, whose Ministry is responsible for funding the Polish Academy of Sciences,” concluded Samuels.

For further information please contact Dr. Shimon Samuels on 00(33)609770158, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for newsupdates sent direct to your Twitter page or mobile device.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families inthe United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament(Parlatino).