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Edited by: Fern Sidman
Writing a comprehensive history of Polish citizens during the Holocaust is a complex and controversial endeavor, made even more challenging by a 2018 Polish law criminalizing claims of Polish responsibility or complicity in Nazi crimes. Against this backdrop, acclaimed Holocaust historian Jan Grabowski has released a groundbreaking new book, On Duty: The Polish Blue & Criminal Police in the Holocaust. As the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported, Grabowski’s meticulously researched work offers a sobering examination of the role Polish institutions played in the Nazi extermination campaign.
Grabowski, a professor at the University of Ottawa, devoted more than a decade to his research for the book, spending years poring over archives in Poland. According to the recently published JTA report, his sources include private diaries, police records, and documents from over 100 small towns where Jews once lived in significant numbers.
The findings are harrowing. “I read horrifying things in the diaries of Polish policemen describing how many Jews they killed each day,” Grabowski, 61, told JTA. He recounted chilling anecdotes, such as a policeman requesting vodka before shooting a Jew or using hot water to clean blood from his hands. These records, many of which had never been examined before, reveal a stark portrait of complicity and initiative among Polish police during the Holocaust.
At the heart of Grabowski’s book is an analysis of Poland’s Blue Police, officially known as the Polish Police of the Generalgouvernement. Established after the German occupation of Poland in 1939, this force of 20,000 officers was initially tasked with enforcing civilian laws, such as ensuring horses wore horseshoes. However, as the JTA report indicated, Grabowski’s research illustrates how these ordinary prewar officers rapidly transformed into active participants in Nazi atrocities.
“What fascinates me is how quickly these normal ordinary cops were transformed into ruthless killers,” Grabowski told JTA. His book documents instances where these officers not only carried out orders but also took independent actions to locate and murder Jews.
Grabowski’s work is not without significant opposition. As the JTA report highlighted, his research has faced criticism from well-funded Polish organizations that seek to rewrite the nation’s history, presenting Poles as predominantly saviors of Jews during the Holocaust. This narrative has been bolstered by the controversial 2018 Act on the Institute of National Remembrance, which penalizes assertions of Polish complicity.
Despite these challenges, Grabowski remains steadfast. “Thorough and independent historical research is necessary to make sure that a nation can’t rewrite its history into a happy story of righteous Poles saving Jews,” he told JTA.
This is not Grabowski’s first major contribution to Holocaust scholarship. His earlier book, Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland, won the Yad Vashem International Book Prize in 2013. With On Duty, Grabowski continues to shed light on a darker and often overlooked aspect of Holocaust history.
The 496-page book, now available on Yad Vashem’s website, expands on the understanding of how a vibrant Jewish community of 3.3 million was decimated in Poland during the Holocaust. As Havi Dreifuss, director of the Center for Research on the Holocaust in Poland at Yad Vashem and a professor of Jewish history at Tel Aviv University explained to JTA, the importance of studying these smaller communities. “Research often focuses on large ghettos like Warsaw and Lodz… but these smaller ghettos, representing the majority of Polish Jewish communities, remain understudied,” Dreifuss said.
As JTA reported, smaller ghettos constituted 83% of the over 340 ghettos established in the Generalgouvernement, the Nazi-controlled area of Poland. Despite housing fewer than 5,000 Jews each, these ghettos played a critical role in understanding the broader experience of Polish Jewry during the Holocaust.
Grabowski’s research, as detailed by JTA, identifies three chronological phases of Polish complicity in the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust. These phases illuminate the transition of Polish police forces from civilian law enforcement to active participants in Nazi atrocities.
Phase 1: Ghettoization
After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Nazi regime relied on Polish police forces to implement and enforce new restrictions on Jewish communities. According to the information provided in the JTA report, these laws, designed to dehumanize and impoverish the Jews, included limits on movement, ownership, and basic freedoms.
“The first phase was the beginning of the inhuman ghettoization of the Jews,” Grabowski explained to JTA. Yet, despite the Polish police’s integral role in this process, the extent of their involvement has been largely overlooked by historians. “Virtually no historians have examined how the large Polish police force suddenly became so deeply involved with Jewish affairs,” Grabowski noted, emphasizing the Polish police’s role in ensuring the conditions that led to mass starvation and suffering.
Phase 2: Liquidation
By 1941, the persecution entered its second phase, with the liquidation of hundreds of ghettos. The JTA reported that Polish police assisted or independently conducted operations to round up Jews for deportation to extermination camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau and Treblinka. Resistance was met with immediate execution.
“It wasn’t the Germans coercing the Poles to shoot; it was the Polish execution squads making these decisions themselves,” Grabowski told JTA. By November 1941, Polish police had begun executing Jews regularly—well before such actions were common in Nazi-occupied Western Europe.
When asked if Polish collaboration stemmed from fear of Nazi punishment, Grabowski countered, telling JTA, “There is no record of any penalty given to someone who refused to kill a Jew, except maybe some sneers by your colleagues. If you didn’t want to do it, there was always someone else who would be happy to.”
Phase 3: The Hunt for Escaped Jews
Following the liquidation of the ghettos, Polish police entered the third and most chilling phase: hunting Jews who had escaped deportation. As the JTA report recounted, these operations were often carried out independently of German oversight.
“At this point, they are murdering with gusto, without any German involvement,” Grabowski stated to JTA. Polish police collaborated with local residents to locate and kill Jews, frequently keeping the Germans uninformed about their actions. This phase highlights the alarming level of initiative and zeal displayed by Polish forces.
Grabowski’s research, as detailed in the JTA report, reveals that Polish police forces often conducted killings of Jews without any coordination with Nazi authorities. These autonomous actions were driven by self-interest, particularly the desire to retain stolen money and property.
“They knew that if they reported their activities to the Nazis, they would have been forced to share the money and property they stole,” Grabowski told JTA. Another motivation was to avoid incriminating Polish neighbors who were sheltering Jews, an act that could bring unwanted attention from the Nazis. This dual motivation—greed and a sense of local solidarity—underscores the complexity of Polish complicity in the Holocaust.
The revelations in Grabowski’s book have been met with silence from Poland’s Foreign Ministry. As JTA reported, the ministry declined to comment on the claims, stating, “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not comment on the scientific activities of individual people, considering scientific sphere and activity exempt from political assessment.”
This official silence contrasts sharply with the aggressive legal actions Grabowski has faced. According to the information provided in the JTA report, the historian has been hit with multiple lawsuits from Polish organizations and individuals accusing him of defaming the nation. Two of these lawsuits remain unresolved, creating a tense and challenging environment for Grabowski.
The legal and political pressure has taken a toll on Grabowski’s well-being. “It has not been good for my psychological well-being,” he admitted to JTA. The personal cost of exposing uncomfortable truths is something he was unprepared for. “When you study for a PhD, no one trains you in how to handle attacks from the state for slandering the good name of the nation.”
Despite the opposition, Grabowski remains committed to his mission. His work challenges the prevailing nationalist narrative in Poland, which often portrays the country solely as a victim of Nazi aggression rather than acknowledging instances of local collaboration.
For Grabowski, his research is not just about setting the historical record straight—it is about preventing dangerous precedents in how governments manipulate history. “The Holocaust has become a universal benchmark of evil, but even after decades of Holocaust education, you have governments bending history out of shape to conform with their own needs,” Grabowski told JTA.
This manipulation of history, he argues, poses a significant threat to future generations. “This is a very dangerous precedent, and we have a responsibility to prevent it to preserve our future,” he said. By exposing the uncomfortable realities of Polish complicity, Grabowski seeks to ensure that historical truths are not lost to politically motivated revisionism.
As the JTA report highlighted, Grabowski’s work shines a spotlight on the tension between scholarly inquiry and nationalist agendas. The lawsuits and public attacks he faces illustrate the lengths to which some governments and organizations will go to suppress inconvenient truths. Yet, his perseverance demonstrates the vital importance of independent research in uncovering and preserving the full scope of historical events.
Grabowski’s findings reveal a dark chapter of Holocaust history that many would prefer to ignore. By documenting the actions of Polish police and their motivations, he provides a more nuanced and complete understanding of the Holocaust, one that acknowledges not just the victims and perpetrators but also the complicity and self-interest of local actors.
As the JTA report emphasized, Grabowski’s work is a stark reminder of the responsibility historians bear in confronting uncomfortable truths. His research not only challenges efforts to rewrite history but also serves as a powerful testament to the importance of preserving the integrity of Holocaust scholarship.
Despite the personal and professional challenges he faces, Grabowski continues to stand firm in his commitment to truth. Through his work, he ensures that the atrocities of the Holocaust and the complicity of those who enabled them are neither forgotten nor distorted. In doing so, he honors the memory of the victims and provides future generations with an unvarnished account of one of history’s darkest chapters.
