Polish envoy to Jewish community fired after calling 2018 Holocaust law ‘stupid’

The Polish government fires an envoy tapped six months ago to improve relations with the Jewish community, after he called a deeply controversial 2018 Holocaust law passed by Warsaw “stupid.”

During an interview last week with the UK Jewish News, Jaroslaw Marek Nowak made the remark referring to the law, which allowed government officials to prosecute historians if their research suggested Poles were complicit in the Holocaust. After outrage from Israel, Jewish leaders and others, the legislation was watered down but not nixed.

Nowak said the law was “one of the stupidest amendments that were ever done by any law.” He said the right way to challenge academic research was to present counterarguments in a rebuttal article.

????BREAKING ????

Jaroslaw Marek Nowak, a Polish ???????? diplomat appointed to improve relations with the Jewish community has been FIRED after describing one of his country’s laws on the Holocaust as “stupid”.#Poland https://t.co/eq6mMcld9v

— Jewish News (@JewishNewsUK) January 10, 2022

Continuing Warsaw’s hardline approach, a spokesperson for Poland’s Foreign Ministry tweets that “the Minister of Foreign Affairs Zbigniew Rau decided to dismiss Mr. Jaroslaw Nowak from his position.”

The ministry has not responded to a Jewish News request for comment.