Polish Ambassador to Israel Marek Magierowski addresses the Conference participants, Israel, March 2019 Invited by the organizers, Poland's ambassador to Israel, Marek Magierowski delivered a welcome address in Hebrew and English at one of the conference dinners. In his remarks, Magierowski demanded that it was “not only the role of historians, but also and perhaps especially the role of politicians and diplomats to explain” the Holocaust. The Polish diplomat admonished historians “not to lie,” but to adhere to the “facts.” In the course of the conference, participating Polish historians such as Dr. Karoline Panz, a historian at the Polish Academy of Sciences, presented their meticulously-researched work that also documented the participation of Polish Gentiles in the Nazi genocide of Polish Jewry. Some also launched fresh criticism of the controversial memory laws spearheaded by the PiS-led Polish government that criminalized scholars’ explorations of the participation of significant parts of Gentile Polish society. |
