Wiesenthal Center Demands Polish Institute of National Remembrance to Fire Official Who Published Holocaust Denier

October 2, 2017

The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) today urged Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) to fire its new Deputy Director of Publishing who earlier had published books by a notorious anti-Semite and Holocaust Denier. Mark Weitzman, Director of Government Affairs at the SWC, charged that “Arkadiusz Wingert, who was hired last May as the Deputy Director of publishing for the IPN, between 2009-2014 was the Polish publisher of books by David Irving, found by a British court to be a Holocaust denier, racist, and anti-Semite in the judgement of the famous 2000 libel case against American historian Deborah Lipstadt.”

“It is a shameful farce to have a man who published works by Irving and Belgian SS collaborator Leon Degrelle, be put in charge of publications at a government-sponsored institute devoted to ‘preserving the remembrance about a great number of victims, losses and damages suffered by the Polish Nation during World War II and afterwards,’” Mr. Weitzman continued. “If the IPN is to maintain any shred of credibility it must end its relationship with Wingert immediately and stop all efforts aimed at undermining the history of the Holocaust in Poland”.

“Poland as a member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) committed itself to fighting Holocaust Denial and Distortion as laid out in the IHRA’s ‘Working Definition of Holocaust Denial and Distortion’ that was formally adopted in 2013. We expect Poland to live up to its historic and international commitments’” Weitzman concluded.

Rafal Pankowski, of the Never Again Association, Poland’s leading anti-racism organization which has worked closely with the Wiesenthal Center on this issue, added, “We support the position of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. We have been concerned about the rise of historical revisionism in Poland. The IPN must not legitimize far-right pseudo-history and propaganda. It is not compatible with genuine Polish patriotism."

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the 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).