Polish president says new Holocaust law will not silence survivors’ stories

Polish President Andrzej Duda assured his Israeli counterpart Reuven Rivlin at a meeting between the two earlier today that the amendment to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance, which makes it illegal to suggest that Poles or the country were complicit in Nazi crimes during the Holocaust, is not about preventing survivors from giving their accounts.

Duda also said he is “not afraid” to talk about difficult elements of the past.

Duda tells reporters in an appearance with Rivlin that he is taking part in the March of the Living to give testimony to the memory of the Holocaust and “to say to the world “never again, to even shout: ‘Look what anti-Semitism, xenophobia, racism can lead to.’”

At the same time, Duda stressed that the law, which aroused much controversy, is not intended to block the testimonies of the survivors, even if they depict Poland in a negative light.

“We wanted to defend the historical truth and I, as the president, want to defend it,” he said. “Also these are elements that are difficult for the Poles. The behavior of people during the war was different. There were also those who have to be condemned. And I’m not afraid to talk about it.”

— JTA