FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION SHOULD APPLY TO US ALL, EVEN TO DEBBIE SCHLUSSEL

Debbie Schlussel, a free lance journalist and an attorney, known for her racist, anti-islamist and now anti-Polish views, encountered wrath of Polish surfers online for publishing on May 30, 2012, a post entitled: "Poles Were Complicit in Holocaust: Outrage over Obama 'Gaffe' is Fraudulent, Ignorant". She claimed in the post that president Obama should not apologize for his gaffe ("Polish death camp") . Incidentally, president Obama apologized, sort of, for the erroneous use of the phrase and acknowledged that there were no "Polish death camps", paid tribute to  Polish resistance and victims. Ms. Schlussel wrote that the Poles murdered majority of her family in Holocaust, that there were in fact Polish death camps in World War II, built and ran by the Poles, that Poland collaborated with nazi Germany, that Poles formed several SS divisions, etc. All of the above claims, except relating to her family (which I could not verify), were either outright lies or distortions. I have engaged into discourse with Ms. Schlussel's followers on her blog, and notwithstanding that I have admited anti-semitism of certain parts of Polish society in pre-World War II Poland and during German and Soviet occupation of Poland, and certain incidents of pogroms (like Jedwabne or Kielce), I have rejected the claims of Poland's collaboration with nazi Germany, of Polish death camps, of Polish SS divisions and of Polish complicity in Holocaust, and supported my rejections with quotes and citations from reputable historians. I have also supplied information about the scale of Polish sacrifices and of Polish resistance and fight against German nazis as well as about history of Jewish population in Poland from 14th century (when Polish king Casimir the Great granted them various privileges and refuge in Poland from pogroms in Spain, Portugal, England, France and German Roman Empire) until the partitions of Poland at the end of 18th century. Then, through 19th century when the Poles fought for independence until 1918, when they regained statehood, and through the Second Republic until World War II. Alas, none of my arguments changed the views of ardent followers of Ms. Schlussel. Then, certain Polish media online mentioned Ms. Schlussel's post and suddenly wave of Polish online surfers started to submit hundreds of comments to Ms. Schlussel's blog. I have published a post on my own blog, asking the Poles to disregard Ms. Schlussel's provocative claims as she was apparently selling more ads thanks to the sudden rush of visitors to her website. It appears that Ms. Schlussel's website has been overran by the Polish surfers approximately three days ago, most of them disputing her outrageous claims. However, there were also those who insulted her in reverse and made threats. Apparently, the freedom of expression as known in the United States, has certain limits in Poland. For example, Poland has strict laws against denying Holocaust and people doing so must be prosecuted by Polish authorities. A great number of Polish surfers even used the threat of reporting Ms. Schlussel to authorities for denying that German nazis were responsible for Holocaust. However, majority of the surfers were not familiar with American concept of freedom of expression which allows anybody to express freely their own views, particularly, if those views, or opinions, are based on colorable facts. Were the facts on which Ms. Schlussel based her opinions colorable? Majority of them, not. Particularly, that she utilized anti-semitic incidents, either to come to conclusion or imply that Poland was complicit in Holocaust, that Poland collaborated with nazi Germany, that Poland organized and ran death camps, that Poland formed several SS divisions. In truth, Poland was an occupied country, its population was to be in majority eliminated, its government fled to London, UK where it organized Polish armies in the West and resistance inside of occupied Poland, and there was no Polish collaboration except for the Volksdeutches (Polish citizens of German descent). Still, we cannot deny freedom of expression to anybody in the US, even to Debbie Schlussel while she spreads hatred, without a court order. Therefore, let her speak, but find other avenues of reaching the US audience and making that audience realize what Debbie Schlussel in fact does. And moreover, make the Americans realize that their history programs are not up to the world standards, particularly that they differ so much from state to state and tend to confuse people. Particularly, when various newspapers, or speach-writers for the president of the United States, themselves create confusion.

Janusz Andrzejewski
The author of this post is a New York based attorney and a publisher of his own blog on legal and various community subjects. You can reach him at (732-527-2195), or through his website: www.adwokatandrzejewski.com