{{Short description|Polish-Canadian historian (born 1962)}} {{other uses}} {{pp-blp|small=yes}} {{Use Canadian English|date=August 2018}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}} {{Infobox academic | name = Jan Grabowski | image = Jan Grabowski (cropped).jpg | image_upright = | alt = | caption = Grabowski in 2018 | birth_date = {{bda|June 24, 1962|df=y}} | birth_place = Warsaw, Poland | occupation = Historian | known_for = | spouse = | children = | parents = | relatives = | awards = Yad Vashem International Book Prize for Holocaust Research | website = [https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/?lang=en#/members/546 Homepage], University of Ottawa | education = University of Warsaw (MA)<br />Université de Montréal (PhD)<ref name=bio/> | thesis_title = The Common Ground. Settled Natives and French in Montréal 1667–1760 | thesis_url = http://bibliomontreal.uqam.ca/bibliographie/fiche/ZNCQJAQB | thesis_year = 1993 | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | era = {{plainlist| *The Holocaust in Poland *1939–1945 Polish–Jewish relations}} | workplaces = University of Ottawa | notable_works = ''Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland'' (2013) }}
'''Jan Zbigniew Grabowski''' (born June 24, 1962) is a Polish-Canadian professor of history at the University of Ottawa, specializing in Jewish–Polish relations in German-occupied Poland during World War II and the Holocaust in Poland.<ref name=bio>[https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/?lang=en#/members/546 "Jan Grabowski"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180301224936/https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/?lang=en#/members/546 |date=1 March 2018 }}, University of Ottawa.</ref>
Grabowski co-founded the Polish Center for Holocaust Research in Warsaw, Poland, in 2003. He is best known for his book ''Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland'' (2013), which won the Yad Vashem International Book Prize.<ref name=YadVashemprize/>
== Early life and education == Grabowski was born in Warsaw to a Roman Catholic mother and Jewish father.<ref name=Snyder12Jan2015>Snyder, Donald (12 January 2015). [https://forward.com/schmooze/213058/the-summer-polish-jews-were-hunted/ "The Summer Polish Jews Were Hunted"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180822115006/https://forward.com/schmooze/213058/the-summer-polish-jews-were-hunted/ |date=22 August 2018 }} (interview with Jan Grabowski). ''The Forward''.</ref> His father, {{ill|Zbigniew Ryszard Grabowski né Abrahamer|pl|Zbigniew Grabowski (chemik)}}, a Holocaust survivor and chemistry professor<ref>{{Cite web |url= http://nekrologi.wyborcza.pl/0,11,,382432,Zbigniew-Ryszard-Grabowski-kondolencje.html |title= Zbigniew Ryszard Grabowski |publisher= nekrologi.wyborcza.pl |access-date= 3 May 2018 |language= pl |archive-date= 27 June 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180627005646/http://nekrologi.wyborcza.pl/0,11,,382432,Zbigniew-Ryszard-Grabowski-kondolencje.html |url-status= live }}</ref> from Kraków, fought in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.<ref name="Haaretz interview 11-02-2017">{{cite news |last1=Aderet |first1=Ofer |title='Orgy of Murder': The Poles Who 'Hunted' Jews and Turned Them Over to the Nazis |url=https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/2017-02-11/ty-article-magazine/.premium/orgy-of-murder-the-poles-who-hunted-jews-and-turned-them-in/0000017f-f97d-d880-a7ff-ff7da8a50000 |work=Haaretz |date=11 February 2017 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180501142054/https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-orgy-of-murder-the-poles-who-hunted-jews-and-turned-them-in-1.5430977 |archive-date=1 May 2018 |url-status=live |access-date=18 May 2019}}</ref>
While at the University of Warsaw, Grabowski was active in the Independent Students' Union between 1981 and 1985, where he helped to run an underground printing press for the Solidarity movement. He received his M.A. in 1986,<ref name="Lough2014"/> and in 1988 he emigrated to Canada after travel restrictions had been eased by Poland's communist government.<ref name="Haaretz interview 11-02-2017"/> If he had known the regime would fall a year later, he would have stayed, he told an interviewer: "When I left in 1988 I thought there was no future for any young person in Poland. It felt like you were looking at the world through a thick wall of glass. It was sort of an un-reality ... the rules were oblique, strange, inhuman even. Then after one year the system seemed to collapse like a house of cards."<ref name="Lough2014">{{cite web|url=http://www.davidmckie.com/twenty-five-years-since-the-fall-of-communism-in-poland/|title=Twenty-five years since the fall of communism in Poland|first=Shannon|last=Lough|date=26 February 2014|publisher=davidmckie.com|access-date=22 March 2018|archive-date=22 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322143256/http://www.davidmckie.com/twenty-five-years-since-the-fall-of-communism-in-poland/|url-status=live}}</ref> He received his Ph.D. from the Université de Montréal in 1994 for a thesis entitled ''The Common Ground. Settled Natives and French in Montréal 1667–1760''.<ref>[http://bibliomontreal.uqam.ca/bibliographie/fiche/ZNCQJAQB "The Common Ground. Settled Natives and French in Montréal 1667-1760"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180822214431/http://bibliomontreal.uqam.ca/bibliographie/fiche/ZNCQJAQB |date=22 August 2018 }}. Université du Québec à Montréal.</ref>
==Academic appointments== Grabowski became a faculty member at the University of Ottawa in 1993.<ref name="Haaretz interview 11-02-2017"/> In 2016–17 he was an Ina Levine Invitational Scholar at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where he conducted research into the Blue Police for a project entitled "Polish 'Blue' Police, Bystanders, and the Holocaust in Occupied Poland, 1939–1945".<ref name="GrabowskiUSHMM">{{cite web|url=https://www.ushmm.org/research/competitive-academic-programs/fellows-and-scholars/all-fellows-and-scholars/dr-jan-grabowski-2016|title=Fellow Dr. Jan Grabowski|publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|access-date=2 March 2018|archive-date=22 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180822085636/https://www.ushmm.org/research/competitive-academic-programs/fellows-and-scholars/all-fellows-and-scholars/dr-jan-grabowski-2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Grabowski2017lecture">{{cite web|first=Jan|last=Grabowski|date=April 2017|url=https://www.ushmm.org/m/pdfs/20170502-Grabowski_OP.pdf|title=The Polish Police Collaboration in the Holocaust|publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180206002634/https://www.ushmm.org/m/pdfs/20170502-Grabowski_OP.pdf|archive-date=6 February 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> He received a grant for the project (2016–2020) from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.<ref>[https://arts.uottawa.ca/en/research/funded-research-projects "Funded Research Projects"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180824101831/https://arts.uottawa.ca/en/research/funded-research-projects |date=24 August 2018 }}, Faculty of Arts, University of Ottawa.</ref>
==Research== ===''Hunt for the Jews''=== {{Main|Hunt for the Jews}} Grabowski is best known for his book ''Hunt for the Jews'', first published in Poland in 2011 as ''Judenjagd: Polowanie na Żydów 1942–1945''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Judenjagd: polowanie na Żydów 1942-1945: studium dziejów pewnego powiatu |last=Grabowski |first=Jan |date=2011 |publisher=Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów |isbn=978-8393220236 |location=Warsaw |oclc=715338569}}</ref> In 2013 a revised and updated edition was published by Indiana University Press as ''Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland'',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grabowski |first1=Jan |title=Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland |date=2013 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington |isbn=978-0253010742|oclc=868951735}}</ref> and in 2016 a revised and expanded edition was published in Hebrew by Yad Vashem.<ref>Grabowski, Jan (2016). ציד היהודים; בגידה ורצח בפולין בימי הכיבוש הגרמני. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem. {{ISBN|978-9653085312}} {{oclc|993142125}}</ref><ref name="Haaretz interview 11-02-2017"/>
Awarded the Yad Vashem International Book Prize in 2014,<ref name=YadVashemprize>[http://www.yadvashem.org/press-release/04-december-2014-16-18.html "Professor Jan Grabowski wins the 2014 Yad Vashem International Book Prize"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320173547/http://www.yadvashem.org/press-release/04-december-2014-16-18.html |date=20 March 2018 }}, Yad Vashem, 4 December 2014.</ref> the book describes the ''Judenjagd'' (German: "Jew hunt") from 1942 onwards, focusing on Dąbrowa Tarnowska County,{{sfn|Grabowski|2013|p=3}} a rural area in southeastern Poland.<ref name=Tzur18Oct2013>Tzur, Nissan (18 October 2013). [https://www.thejc.com/news/world/holocaust-writer-grabowski-faces-polish-fury-1.49847 "Holocaust writer Grabowski faces Polish fury"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180130204224/https://www.thejc.com/news/world/holocaust-writer-grabowski-faces-polish-fury-1.49847 |date=30 January 2018 }}. ''Jewish Chronicle''.</ref> The ''Judenjagd'' was the German search for Jews who had escaped from the liquidated ghettos in Poland and were trying to hide among the non-Jewish population.{{sfn|Grabowski|2013|p=1}} Grabowski relied on Polish court records from the 1940s, post-war testimony collected by the Central Committee of Polish Jews, and records gathered in Germany during investigations in the 1960s.<ref name=Fleming2016/> In a 2015 interview, he described the mechanics of the "hunt":
{{blockquote|The German policy was based on terror. Poles faced the death penalty for any help they gave to Jews. Also, the Germans created a so-called "hostage" system among the Poles. In every community they designated people who would be rotated every couple of weeks. They were responsible for informing the Polish police, or the Germans, about Jews hiding in their towns. If a Jew was discovered that had not been reported, the so-called hostages would be harshly punished. So everyone was highly motivated to get rid of the Jews.<ref name=Snyder12Jan2015/>}}
According to Grabowski, most Jews in hiding were given up by local people to the Blue Police or directly to the Germans. He said that Poles were "directly or indirectly" responsible for most of the deaths of over 200,000 Jews, not counting victims of the police; he explained that by "most", it could be 60 percent or as high as 90 percent.<ref name="Haaretz interview 11-02-2017"/>{{efn|"From among the approximately 250,000 Polish Jews who had escaped liquidations of the ghettos and who had fled, about 40,000 survived. We have thus more than 200,000 Jews who fled the liquidations and who did not survive until liberation. My findings show that in the overwhelming majority of cases, their Polish co-citizens were – directly through murder, or indirectly by denunciation – at the root of their deaths."<ref name=Lungen22Nov2018>Lungen, Paul (22 November 2018). [https://www.cjnews.com/news/canada/university-of-ottawa-holocaust-historian-sues-polish-group-for-libel "University of Ottawa holocaust historian sues Polish group for libel"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306043409/https://www.cjnews.com/news/canada/university-of-ottawa-holocaust-historian-sues-polish-group-for-libel |date=6 March 2019 }}, CJN</ref>{{pb}} "So –... 200,000 Jews were murdered while hiding on the Aryan side?" – "Yes, and based on detailed analysis of the circumstances in which they perished, I formulated a research hypothesis that the majority – though at this stage of research I am not able to say whether it was 60 or 90 percent – lost their lives at the hands of Poles or with their complicity." (Original: "A więc –... ok. 200 tys. Żydów zostało zamordowanych, gdy się ukrywali po aryjskiej stronie?" – "Tak, i na podstawie szczegółowej analizy tego, w jakich okolicznościach ginęli, sformułowałem hipotezę badawczą, że większość – choć nie jestem na tym etapie badań w stanie powiedzieć, czy było to 60, czy 90 proc. – straciła życie z rąk Polaków albo przy ich współudziale.")<ref>Maciorowski, Mirosław (17 March 2018). [https://wyborcza.pl/alehistoria/7,121681,23154070,prof-jan-grabowski-pomagalismy-niemcom-zabijac-zydow.html?disableRedirects=true "Prof. Jan Grabowski: Pomagaliśmy Niemcom zabijać Żydów"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210212123233/https://wyborcza.pl/alehistoria/7,121681,23154070,prof-jan-grabowski-pomagalismy-niemcom-zabijac-zydow.html?disableRedirects=true |date=12 February 2021 }}. ''Gazeta Wyborcza''.</ref>}}
The book sparked a heated public debate in Poland.<ref name=Fleming2016>{{cite journal |last1=Fleming |first1=Michael |title=Jan Grabowski, ''Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland'' |journal=European History Quarterly |date=April 2016 |volume=46 |issue=2 |pages=357–359|doi=10.1177/0265691416637313r |s2cid=147420141 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
===''The Polish Police''=== Grabowski's book ''The Polish Police: Collaboration in the Holocaust'' (2017), published by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, is based on his 2016 Ina Levine Annual Lecture on the Blue Police.<ref name=Grabowski2017lecture/>
===''Dalej jest noc''=== In 2018, Grabowski and Barbara Engelking co-edited a two-volume study, ''Dalej jest noc: losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski'' (Night without End: The Fates of Jews in Selected Counties of Occupied Poland). Published by the Polish Center for Holocaust Research, the study focused on nine counties in German-occupied Poland during the Holocaust, giving a detailed account of the fate of the area's Jews and of the question of Polish collaboration with the German occupiers. Grabowski contributed a chapter on Węgrów County. He told a newspaper that the work "talks about Polish virtue just as much. It paints a truthful picture."<ref name="guard1">{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/03/fears-rise-that-polish-libel-trial-could-threaten-future-holocaust-research|title=Fears rise that Polish libel trial could threaten future Holocaust research|access-date=8 February 2021|date=3 February 2021|newspaper=The Guardian|archive-date=9 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209070028/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/03/fears-rise-that-polish-libel-trial-could-threaten-future-holocaust-research|url-status=live}}</ref>
Mark Weitzman, director of government affairs for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said it was "meticulously researched and sourced".<ref name="guard1"/> Polish historian {{ill|Jacek Chrobaczyński|pl}} commended its authors for deconstructing political myths that persist in Polish history, journalism, church, and politics.<ref>Chrobaczyński, Jacek (2018). [http://resgestae.up.krakow.pl/article/download/4604/4323 "Osaczeni, samotni, bezbronni ... Refleksje po lekturze książki ''Dalej jest noc. Losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403162232/http://resgestae.up.krakow.pl/article/download/4604/4323 |date=3 April 2019 }} ("Cornered, alone, defenseless... reflections on reading the book ''Dalej jest noc. Losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski''). ''Res Gestae''. 6, pp. 266–301.]</ref> However, scholars associated with Poland's Institute of National Remembrance alleged that the study used unreliable sources, selectively treated witness statements, presented rumor as fact, and underestimated the draconian nature of the German occupation.<ref>Domański, Tomasz (2019). [https://ipn.gov.pl/download/1/241621/Korektaobrazu.pdf Korekta obrazu? Refleksje źródłoznawcze wokół książki "Dalej jest noc. Losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190329112928/https://ipn.gov.pl/download/1/241621/Korektaobrazu.pdf |date=29 March 2019 }} ("A Corrected Picture? Reflections on Use of Sources in the Book ''Night without End: The Fates of Jews in Selected Counties of Occupied Poland''"). Institute of National Remembrance. ''Polish-Jewish Studies''.</ref><ref>Golik, Dawid (2018). "Nowatorska noc. Kilka uwag na marginesie artykułu Karoliny Panz" ("Innovative Night: A Few Remarks Relating to Karolina Panz's Article"). ''Zeszyty Historyczne WiN-u'', 47, pp. 109–134.</ref><ref>Borkowicz, Jacek (10 February 2019). [https://www.rp.pl/Kraj/302109970-Wraca-spor-o-udzial-w-Zagladzie.html "Wraca spór o udział w zagładzie"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306114557/https://www.rp.pl/Kraj/302109970-Wraca-spor-o-udzial-w-Zagladzie.html |date=6 March 2019 }} ("Dispute over Participation in the Holocaust Returns"). ''Rzeczpospolita''.</ref>
====Litigation==== The Polish League Against Defamation, a group whose stated aim is to protect "Poland's good name", funded a civil case against Grabowski and Engelking in Poland, brought by the 81-year-old niece of a Polish villager who was accused in the book by witness testimony of having betrayed Jews to the Germans. In February 2021, a Warsaw court ruled that Grabowski and Engelking would apologize for their claims about the villager, but it did not order them to pay compensation.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2021-02-09|title=Polish court tells two Holocaust historians to apologise|language=en-GB|publisher=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55996291|access-date=2021-02-21|archive-date=21 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210221083736/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55996291|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-poland-holocaust-idUSKBN2A91M7|title=Polish court orders historians to apologise over Holocaust book|work=Reuters|first1=Alan|last1=Charlish|first2=Anna|last2=Wlodarczak-Semczuk|date=9 February 2021|access-date=10 February 2021|archive-date=9 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209193022/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-poland-holocaust-idUSKBN2A91M7|url-status=live}}</ref>
In response to the court ruling, the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Yad Vashem, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center released statements expressing their concerns about the ruling's effects on academic freedom and freedom of speech.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2021-02-03 |title=Fears rise that Polish libel trial could threaten future Holocaust research |language=en |work=Guardian |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/03/fears-rise-that-polish-libel-trial-could-threaten-future-holocaust-research |access-date=2021-07-31 |archive-date=3 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203133637/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/03/fears-rise-that-polish-libel-trial-could-threaten-future-holocaust-research |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2021-02-09 |title=U of O Holocaust scholar ordered to apologize in Polish libel case |work=CBC |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/holocaust-scholar-polish-libel-case-1.5907633 |access-date=31 July 2021 |archive-date=31 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210731123730/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/holocaust-scholar-polish-libel-case-1.5907633 |url-status=live }}</ref> The POLIN Museum stated that the suit had been "an attempt to frighten scholars away from publishing the results of their research out of fear of a lawsuit and the ensuing costly litigation."<ref>Gera, Vanessa (4 February 2021). [https://apnews.com/article/world-news-world-war-ii-trials-poland-germany-f49788cd4ec3e3d161beaa75ba0df7da "Future of Holocaust research in Poland hinges on libel case"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210211173928/https://apnews.com/article/world-news-world-war-ii-trials-poland-germany-f49788cd4ec3e3d161beaa75ba0df7da |date=11 February 2021 }}. The Associated Press.</ref><ref>Glanville, Jo (12 February 2021). [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/12/a-gift-for-holocaust-deniers-how-polish-libel-ruling-will-hit-historians "'A gift for Holocaust deniers': how Polish libel ruling will hit historians"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213191738/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/12/a-gift-for-holocaust-deniers-how-polish-libel-ruling-will-hit-historians |date=13 February 2021 }}. ''The Guardian''.</ref>
In August 2021, an appeals court overturned the ruling against Grabowski and Engelking, arguing in favour of academic freedom.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-08-16|title=Polish appeals court dismisses claims against Holocaust book historians|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/polish-appeals-court-dismisses-claims-against-holocaust-book-historians-2021-08-16/|access-date=2021-08-16|website=Reuters|language=en|archive-date=16 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816210305/https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/polish-appeals-court-dismisses-claims-against-holocaust-book-historians-2021-08-16/|url-status=live}}</ref>
===Research regarding Wikipedia=== In 2023, Grabowski and historian Shira Klein published an article in the ''Journal of Holocaust Research'' which stated that Wikipedia spread misinformation about the history of Jews in Poland due to the work of a small group of editors.<ref> * {{Cite journal |last1=Grabowski |first1=Jan |last2=Klein |first2=Shira |date=2023-02-09 |title=Wikipedia's Intentional Distortion of the History of the Holocaust |journal=The Journal of Holocaust Research |volume=37 |issue=2 |language=en |pages=133–190 |doi=10.1080/25785648.2023.2168939 |issn=2578-5648 |doi-access=free }} * {{cite news |work=The Forward |url=https://forward.com/opinion/550600/wikipedia-holocaust-disinformation |title=The shocking truth about Wikipedia's Holocaust disinformation |date=June 14, 2023 |access-date=October 15, 2024}} * {{cite news |work=Chapman University News |url=https://news.chapman.edu/2023/11/17/exposing-the-holocaust-lies-on-the-dark-side-of-wikipedia |title=Exposing the Holocaust Lies on the Dark Side of Wikipedia |date=November 17, 2023 |access-date=October 15, 2024}} * {{cite news |work=World Religion News |url=https://www.worldreligionnews.com/wikipedia/wikipedia-and-judaism-how-holocaust-denial-became-embedded-in-the-worlds-go-to-source-of-misinformation |title=Wikipedia and Judaism: How Holocaust Denial Became Embedded in the World's Go-To Source of (Mis)Information |date=October 14, 2024 |access-date=October 15, 2024}}</ref> Grabowski said,<ref>{{Cite news |title='Jews Helped the Germans Out of Revenge or Greed': New Research Documents How Wikipedia Distorts the Holocaust |language=en |work=Haaretz |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-02-14/ty-article-magazine/.premium/new-research-documents-how-wikipedia-distorts-the-holocaust/00000186-4f0f-d02c-af9e-cfffa9900000 |access-date=2023-05-24 |archive-date=19 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230319131437/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-02-14/ty-article-magazine/.premium/new-research-documents-how-wikipedia-distorts-the-holocaust/00000186-4f0f-d02c-af9e-cfffa9900000 |url-status=live }}</ref>
{{Blockquote|text=As a historian, I was aware for a long time of various distortions of the history of the Holocaust on Wikipedia. What I found shocking, was the sheer scale of the phenomenon, its lasting character and the small number of individuals needed to distort the history of one of the greatest tragedies in the history of humanity.}}
A response to Grabowski and Klein's article, which argues that their main conclusions are misleading or false, was published by Piotr Konieczny in the journal Holocaust Studies in 2025.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Piotr Konieczny | title = Fake news, an internet troll, and a conspiracy theory about 'Wikipedia's Intentional Distortion of the History of the Holocaust' | journal = Holocaust Studies | year = 2025 | volume = 31 | issue = 4 | doi = 10.1080/17504902.2025.2511459 | at = Published online 5 June 2025 | url = https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nCcu0CtD18MjXI-iEq-R7MuMGlx4zxdv/view| url-access = subscription }}</ref>
==Views== ===Summary=== In 2016, Grabowski published a paper criticizing what he called "the history policy of the Polish state", and arguing that "the state-sponsored version of history seeks to undo the findings of the last few decades and to forcibly introduce a sanitized, feel-good narrative".<ref>Grabowski, Jan (6 January 2017). [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23739770.2016.1262991 "The Holocaust and Poland's 'History Policy'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020022629/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23739770.2016.1262991 |date=20 October 2021 }}. ''Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs''. 10(3), pp. 481–486.</ref> He has deplored plans for a monument to rescuers of Jews, to be located at Grzybowski Square, which was part of the wartime Warsaw Ghetto; he sees it as an attempt to inflate the role of the rescuers, whom he describes as a "desperate, hunted, tiny minority", the exception to the rule. The ghetto site should be dedicated, he argues, to Jewish suffering, not to Polish courage.<ref>Snyder, Don (17 April 2013). [https://forward.com/news/world/174968/poland-plans-monument-to-righteous-gentiles-on-sit/ "Poland Plans Monument to Righteous Gentiles on Site of Warsaw Ghetto"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180823105513/https://forward.com/news/world/174968/poland-plans-monument-to-righteous-gentiles-on-sit/ |date=23 August 2018 }}. ''Forward''.</ref><ref>Snyder, Donald (27 April 2014). [https://forward.com/news/world/197120/polands-dueling-holocaust-monuments-to-righteous-g/ "Poland's Dueling Holocaust Monuments to 'Righteous Gentiles' Spark Painful Debate"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180409032418/https://forward.com/news/world/197120/polands-dueling-holocaust-monuments-to-righteous-g/ |date=9 April 2018 }}. ''Forward''.</ref>
Poland's embassy in Ottawa criticized Grabowski in 2016 for "groundless opinions and accusations" after he wrote an article for ''Maclean's'' about Poland's controversial amendment to its Act on the Institute of National Remembrance.<ref name=Mcleans20Sept2016>Grabowski, Jan (20 September 2016). [https://www.macleans.ca/news/world/as-poland-re-writes-its-holocaust-history-historians-face-prison/ "The danger in Poland's frontal attack on its Holocaust history"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180822222725/https://www.macleans.ca/news/world/as-poland-re-writes-its-holocaust-history-historians-face-prison/ |date=22 August 2018 }}. ''Maclean's''.{{pb}} [https://www.macleans.ca/news/world/the-polish-embassy-in-ottawa-responds-to-jan-grabowski/ "The Polish Embassy in Ottawa responds to Jan Grabowski"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180822223904/https://www.macleans.ca/news/world/the-polish-embassy-in-ottawa-responds-to-jan-grabowski/ |date=22 August 2018 }}. ''Macleans'', 30 September 2016.</ref> The amendment would have penalized, with imprisonment for up to three years, anyone defaming Poland by accusing it of complicity in the Holocaust,<ref name=Zieve20Feb2018>Zieve, Tamara (20 February 2018). [https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Polish-historian-Penalties-for-new-Polish-law-resemble-pre-war-punishment-543093 "Polish historian: Penalties for new Polish law resemble pre-war punishment"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320023012/http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Polish-historian-Penalties-for-new-Polish-law-resemble-pre-war-punishment-543093 |date=20 March 2018 }}. ''Jerusalem Post''.</ref> with exceptions for "freedom of research, discussion of history, and artistic activity".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mfa.gov.pl/en/news/communique_of_the_ministry_of_foreign_affairs_on_amendment_of_the_act_on_the_institute_of_national_remembrance_|title=Communique of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on amendment of the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance|publisher=Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Poland|access-date=23 August 2018|archive-date=9 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180209095708/http://www.mfa.gov.pl/en/news/communique_of_the_ministry_of_foreign_affairs_on_amendment_of_the_act_on_the_institute_of_national_remembrance_|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Aderet |first1=Ofer |title=Polish Historian: Entering Dialogue With Poland on Holocaust Bill Is 'The Last Thing' Israel Should Do |url=https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/2018-02-19/ty-article/.premium/polish-historian-no-use-in-israel-engaging-poland-on-holocaust-law/0000017f-f6a9-d5bd-a17f-f6bb3fe30000 |work=Haaretz |date=19 February 2018 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180824025920/https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/.premium-polish-historian-no-use-in-israel-engaging-poland-on-holocaust-law-1.5829045 |archive-date=24 August 2018 |url-status=live |access-date=20 March 2018 }}{{pb}} Stoffel, Derek (20 February 2018). [http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/canadian-historian-joins-uproar-in-israel-over-polish-holocaust-law-1.4542831 "Canadian historian joins uproar in Israel over Polish Holocaust law"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180326111036/http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/canadian-historian-joins-uproar-in-israel-over-polish-holocaust-law-1.4542831 |date=26 March 2018 }}. CBC News.</ref>
[[File:Uroczystości z okazji Narodowego Dnia Pamięci Polaków ratujących Żydów pod okupacją niemiecką w Markowej (9).jpg|thumb|The Markowa Ulma-Family Museum of Poles Who Saved Jews in World War II, in Markowa, Poland, March 2019]] In July 2017, Grabowski criticized the Ulma-Family Museum of Poles Who Saved Jews in World War II, which opened in Markowa in 2016. The garden will have plaques identifying the 1,500 towns in which the nearly 6,700 Poles lived who helped Jews and were recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.<ref name="biznesistyl">Gieroń, Aneta (21 July 2017). [http://www.biznesistyl.pl/kultura/oblicza-kultury/5829_.html "Przy Muzeum Ulmów w Markowej powstaje Sad Pamięci"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180619085936/http://www.biznesistyl.pl/kultura/oblicza-kultury/5829_.html |date=19 June 2018 }}. ''Biznesistyl''.</ref> In Grabowski's view, the museum should provide more information about the Polish neighbours of the Ulma family and others who aided Jews.<ref>Aderet, Ofer (22 March 2016). [https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2016-03-22/ty-article/.premium/museum-for-poles-who-saved-jews-stirs-controversy/0000017f-e10a-d804-ad7f-f1fa066d0001 "Polish Museum Honoring Poles Who Saved Jews Arouses Controversy"] , ''Haaretz''.</ref>
Grabowski co-wrote a ''Haaretz'' opinion piece in December 2018 criticizing Israeli historian Daniel Blatman, professor of modern Jewish history and Holocaust studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, for accepting the post of chief historian at the newly formed Warsaw Ghetto Museum in Warsaw, Poland, and thus agreeing to be "the poster boy of [Polish] state authorities bent on turning back the clock and distorting the history of the Holocaust".<ref>{{cite news |author1=Grabowski, Jan |author2=Engelking, Barbara |author3=Haska, Agnieszka |author4=Leociak, Jacek |url=https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/the-israeli-scholar-who-s-a-poster-boy-for-poland-s-distortion-of-the-holocaust-1.6768946 |title=Why Is This Israeli Jewish Scholar a Willing Poster Boy for Poland's Brutal Distortion of the Holocaust? |newspaper=Haaretz |date=24 December 2018 |access-date=16 March 2019 |archive-date=16 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190316164341/https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/the-israeli-scholar-who-s-a-poster-boy-for-poland-s-distortion-of-the-holocaust-1.6768946 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In January 2019 Blatman responded in ''Haaretz'' that, while scholars at the Center for Holocaust Research had provided valuable insights into involvement in the Holocaust by parts of the Polish population, they did not give due weight to the terror and violence perpetrated by the Germans against Poles under German occupation.<ref>{{cite news |author=Blatman, Daniel |url=https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2019-01-04/ty-article-opinion/.premium/warsaw-ghetto-museum-historian-a-tale-of-history-force-and-narrow-horizons/0000017f-f4de-d460-afff-fffe59cb0000 |title=Warsaw Ghetto Museum Historian: A Tale of History, Force and Narrow Horizons |newspaper=Haaretz |date=4 January 2019 |access-date=16 March 2019 |archive-date=16 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190316133520/https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-warsaw-ghetto-museum-historian-a-tale-of-history-force-and-narrow-horizons-1.6808158 |url-status=live }}</ref>
In 2022, Grabowski attended a conference "Hijacking Memory" about how right-wing actors have instrumentalized the Holocaust for political gain. He criticized the only Palestinian speaker Tareq Baconi and accused him of antisemitism after Baconi argued that the memory of the Holocaust should not justify violation of Palestinians' human rights.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Challenge of Defending Memory in Germany |url=https://jewishcurrents.org/the-challenge-of-defending-memory-in-germany |access-date=18 September 2025 |work=Jewish Currents |language=en}}</ref>
===Responses=== Since publication of ''Hunt for the Jews'', Grabowski has become subject to significant criticism in Poland, particularly from groups associated with Polish right-wing spectrum. Some of them{{which|date=February 2021}} attempted to have him fired from his academic position, and he has faced harassment and death threats, leading to increased security patrols in his department at the University of Ottawa.<ref name="legion2018">Thorne, Stephen J. (14 February 2018). [https://legionmagazine.com/en/2018/02/the-truth-about-poland/ "The truth about Poland"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180323030710/https://legionmagazine.com/en/2018/02/the-truth-about-poland/ |date=23 March 2018 }}. ''Legion Magazine''.</ref><ref>[https://www.chronicle.com/article/A-Polish-Historians/132499 "A Polish Historian's Accounting of the Holocaust Divides His Countrymen"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322204820/https://www.chronicle.com/article/A-Polish-Historians/132499 |date=22 March 2018 }}. ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'', 25 June 2012</ref><ref name=Ottawa>{{Cite web |url=https://cdp-hrc.uottawa.ca/en/statement-attacks-against-professor-jan-grabowski |title=Statement on Attacks against Professor Jan Grabowski |publisher=University of Ottawa|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180823014212/https://cdp-hrc.uottawa.ca/en/statement-attacks-against-professor-jan-grabowski|archive-date=23 August 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>
On 7 June 2017, the Polish League Against Defamation (PLPZ) published a statement signed by about 130 Polish scholars — none of them historians of the Holocaust — protesting against Grabowski's research, which allegedly portrayed a "false and wrongful image of Poland and Polish people".<ref name="historians2017">Gera, Vanessa (20 June 2017). [https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/international-historians-defend-ottawa-scholar-who-studies-poland-and-holocaust/ "International historians defend Ottawa scholar who studies Poland and Holocaust"] , The Associated Press.{{pb}} {{cite web |last1=Perkel |first1=Colin |date=20 June 2017 |title=University of Ottawa scholar says he's a target of Polish 'hate' campaign |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/jan-grabowski-holocaust-hate-campaign-1.4169662 |publisher=The Canadian Press |ref=none |access-date=16 April 2018 |archive-date=13 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180113124156/http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/jan-grabowski-holocaust-hate-campaign-1.4169662 |url-status=live }}{{pb}}The letter can be read [https://michael-wildt.de/blog/solidarity-jan-grabowski here] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180823061533/https://michael-wildt.de/blog/solidarity-jan-grabowski |date=23 August 2018 }}.</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów |date=10 June 2017 |title=Bibliotekoznawcy i technologowie żywności zarzucają prof. Grabowskiemu "szkalowanie Narodu". Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów odpowiada |url=https://wyborcza.pl/7,75398,21942643,bibliotekoznawcy-i-technologowie-zywnosci-zarzucaja-prof-grabowskiemu.html?disableRedirects=true |website=Gazeta Wyborcza |access-date=15 March 2023 |archive-date=15 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315214725/https://wyborcza.pl/7,75398,21942643,bibliotekoznawcy-i-technologowie-zywnosci-zarzucaja-prof-grabowskiemu.html?disableRedirects=true |url-status=live }}</ref> In response, the Polish Center for Holocaust Research issued a statement of its own, entitled "In defence of Jan Grabowski's good name" — signed by seven of its members, including Barbara Engelking, Jacek Leociak and Dariusz Libionka, it called the criticism "as brutal as it is absurd".<ref name=":0" /> On 19 June 2017, about 180 historians of Holocaust and modern European history, including Christopher Browning, Mary Fulbrook, Deborah Lipstadt, Antony Polonsky, Dina Porat, Yitzhak Arad, and Robert Jan van Pelt, signed an open letter in Grabowski's defence, describing the campaign against Grabowski as "an attack on academic freedom and integrity", the letter emphasized that "[h]is scholarship [held] to the highest standards of academic research and publication", and that the PLPZ attempted to put forth a "distorted and whitewashed version of the history of Poland during the Holocaust era".<ref name="historians2017" /> In November 2018, Grabowski filed a defemation lawsuit in Warsaw against the PLPZ; he asked that each of their signatories buy a copy of ''Dalej jest noc'' and donate it to a Polish high school.<ref>Markusz, Katarzyna (18 November 2018). [https://www.jta.org/2018/11/18/global/holocaust-researcher-files-libel-lawsuit-polish-group-accused-falsifying-history-poland "Holocaust researcher sues Polish group that accused him of falsifying history"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227052357/https://www.jta.org/2018/11/18/global/holocaust-researcher-files-libel-lawsuit-polish-group-accused-falsifying-history-poland |date=27 February 2021 }}. ''Jewish Telegraphic Agency''.</ref><ref name="Lungen22Nov2018" />
On 30 May 2023, a lecture by Grabowski at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw was cancelled after far-right MP Grzegorz Braun smashed Grabowski's microphone.<ref>{{cite news |first=Jacek |last=Lepiarz |work=DW |url=https://www.dw.com/en/polish-radical-right-wing-mp-disrupts-lecture-on-holocaust/a-65795483 |title=Polish radical right-wing MP disrupts lecture on Holocaust |date=June 1, 2023 |access-date=October 16, 2024}}</ref>
==Selected works== {{refbegin|26em}} *(2001). ''Historia Kanady''. Warsaw: Prószyński i S-ka. {{isbn|978-8372550446}} {{oclc|169635941}} *(2004). ''"Ja tego Żyda znam!": Szantażowanie Żydów w Warszawie 1939–1943''. Warsaw: Wydaw. {{isbn|978-8373880580}} {{oclc|937072035}} *(2008). ''Rescue for Money: Paid Helpers in Poland, 1939-1945''. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem. {{ISBN|978-9653083257}} {{oclc|974380257}} *(2010, with Barbara Engelking). ''Żydów łamiących prawo należy karać śmiercią! "Przestępczość" Żydów w Warszawie, 1939-1942''. Warsaw: Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów. {{isbn|839268317X}} {{oclc|750651880}} *(2011, with Barbara Engelking). ''Zarys krajobrazu: wieś polska wobec zagłady Żydów 1942–1945''. Warsaw: Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów. {{isbn|978-8393220243}} {{oclc|761074409}} *(2011). ''Judenjagd: Polowanie na Zydow 1942–1945''. Warsaw: Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów. {{isbn|978-8393220236}} {{oclc|715338569}} **(2013). ''Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland''. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. {{ISBN|978-02-53010-74-2}} {{oclc|900191796}} **(2016). ציד היהודים; בגידה ורצח בפולין בימי הכיבוש הגרמני. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem. {{ISBN|978-9653085312}} {{oclc|993142125}} *(2014, with Dariusz Libionka, eds.). ''Klucze i kasa: o mieniu żydowskim w Polsce pod okupacją niemiecką i we wczesnych latach powojennych, 1939–1950''. Warsaw: Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów. {{isbn|978-8363444358}} {{oclc|892600909}} * (2017). [https://archive.org/details/bib256980_001_001 "The Polish police: Collaboration in the Holocaust"]. Washington, DC: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Ina Levine annual lecture, 17 November 2016). * (2018, co-edited with Barbara Engelking),\. ''Dalej jest noc: losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski'' (Night without End: The Fates of Jews in Selected Counties of Occupied Poland). Warsaw: ''Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów'' (Polish Center for Holocaust Research), 2 volumes (1,640 pp.). {{ISBN|978-8363444648}} {{oclc|1041616741}} * (2020). ''Na posterunku. Udział polskiej policji granatowej i kryminalnej w zagładzie Żydów'' (On Duty: Participation of Blue and Criminal Police in the Destruction of the Jews). Wydawnictwo Czarne, Wołowiec. {{ISBN|978-8380499867}} *(2021). ''Polacy, nic się nie stało! Polemiki z Zagładą w tle'' (Poles, Nothing Happened! Polemics with the Holocaust in the Background), Wydawnictwa Austeria. {{refend}}
==See also== {{div col|colwidth=28em}} *Anti-Jewish violence in Poland, 1944–1946 *Collaboration in German-occupied Poland *''Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz'' (2006) *History of the Jews in Poland *Polish Righteous among the Nations *Rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust *Szczuczyn pogrom (June 1941) *Kielce pogrom (4 July 1946) *Wąsosz pogrom (5 July 1941) *Jedwabne pogrom (10 July 1941) *Żegota {{div col end}}
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * [https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/?lang=en#/members/546 Homepage], University of Ottawa. * [http://www.holocaustresearch.pl/index.php?show=320&lang=en Jan Grabowski], Polish Center for Holocaust Research. * Grabowski, Jan (29 and 30 January 2018). [http://www.manchesterjewishstudies.org/bogdanow-lectures-2018/ Bogdanow Lectures in Holocaust Studies '18], University of Manchester. ** Lecture 1: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdW7yMk7nvk "Bystanders and the Holocaust in Poland"]. ** Lecture 2: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqXiLi6q_Us "The Polish 'Blue' Police and its Role in the Implementation of the 'Final Solution'"]. * {{Cite news |last=Grabowski |first=Jan |date=4 May 2018 |title=Poland must remember the truth of the Warsaw uprising |work=The Globe and Mail |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-poland-must-remember-the-truth-of-the-warsaw-uprising/ |access-date=14 May 2020}}
==External links== *{{cci}}
{{Holocaust Poland}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grabowski, Jan}} Category:1962 births Category:20th-century Canadian historians Category:Living people Category:Historians of the Holocaust in Poland Category:Polish emigrants to Canada Category:21st-century Polish historians Category:Polish male non-fiction writers Category:Université de Montréal alumni Category:Academic staff of the University of Ottawa Category:University of Warsaw alumni Category:Polish people of Jewish descent Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Category:20th-century Polish historians Category:21st-century Canadian historians