Gross' book on anti-Semitism is checked by prosecutors

Krakow's public prosecutor's office is examining the new book by US historian Jan Tomasz Gross – "Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz" - for possible "slander against the Polish people." Aleksander Kaczorowski protests: "The Krakow prosecutor's office, by considering a suit against Gross' book, is trying to use police-state methods… to nip in the bud an important and needed discussion about the genesis of domestic anti-Semitism. To do so, it is relying on an absurd law, which holds that 'anyone who publicly accuses the Polish nation of participation, organization or responsibility in communist or National Socialist crimes' faces a possible prison sentence of three years. … So that's the result of the so-called history policy, one of the most important catchwords of the PiS [the previous ruling party, Law and Justice]. But it has nothing to do with the rules of a democratic state."

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