Disinfo: The Poles thanked Hitler for exterminating the Jews

Summary

Immediately after the war between Germany and Poland ended, a thousand delegates from the Polish Peasants’ Party voted in favour of a resolution in which they thanked (Adolf) Hitler for the extermination of the Polish Jews and demanded the expulsion of the survivors.

Disproof

A recurring disinformation message that is part of the Kremlin’s policy of historical revisionism.

This passage refers back to the 2006 review of the book entitled "Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz," by Jan T. Gross, where David Margolick writes: "With the war over, and to tumultuous applause, a thousand delegates of the Polish Peasants Party actually passed a resolution thanking Hitler for annihilating Polish Jewry and urging that those he'd missed be expelled."

However, according to Charles Chotkowski, the director of research of the Holocaust Documentation Committee, Polish American Congress, the book, in fact, reads (on Page 226):

"In turn, the third speaker took the rostrum (his name unknown) and by analogy to a thesis from [Minister of Public Administration] Kiernik's speech that Poland must be a mono-ethnic state [this was apropos of expulsions of the German population from newly incorporated territories] put out a resolution that Jews should also be expelled from Poland, and he also remarked that Hitler ought to be thanked for destroying the Jews (tumultuous ovation and applause)."

Note that the remark about thanking Hitler was not part of the proposed resolution, and there is no indication that the resolution was ever adopted, according to what "The New York Times" has reported.

There have been similar examples of Russian historical revisionism concerning Poland including, it is thanks to Russia that Poland exists as a country today, Nazi Germany considered Poland its best ally, and the USSR was forced and reluctant to sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.

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  • Reported in: Issue 180
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 05/01/2020
  • Outlet language(s) Arabic
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Poland, Russia
  • Keywords: Historical revisionism, WWII, Adolf Hitler, Nazi/Fascist
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Disproof

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Disproof

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Disproof

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