On January 30th
an article entitled “Poland’s Holocaust Denial and Anti-Semitism Run Far Deeper….”
appeared in The Tablet. Unfortunately,
the article is written from a clearly biased and prejudiced viewpoint – strong terms,
but necessary when facts are misrepresented.
Among them were the assertion that at the Museum at Majdanek Zyklon B is
described as a disinfecting agent and that the history of Jewish victims was
eliminated.
The
spokesperson of the Museum at Majdanek, Agnieszka Kowalczyk-Nowak has sent a
letter to the Editor – enclosed is a copy.
It is regrettable
that The Tablet did not fact check the article and instead ran to publish material
which significantly diminishes the positive opinion that The Tablet has worked
for.
To Alana Newhouse
Editor-in-chief
Tablet Magazine
Dear Ms. Newhouse,
I am writing with
reference to the article “Poland’s Holocaust Denial and Anti-Semitism Run Far
Deeper Than Just Its Latest Controversial Law” by Benjamin Gladstone that was
published at tabletmag.com on January 30. Much to our
indignation, we have found there some untrue and misleading information
concerning the exhibitions and activities of the State Museum at Majdanek. Let
me list them below:
1. At
Majdanek, we learned from our tour guide about the gradual replacement of the
Jewish survivors’ testimonies that were once displayed at the camp with
non-Jewish Polish testimonies – The State Museum at Majdanek did not
remove any Jewish testimonies. In fact, lately, we installed plaques with
testimonies by former prisoners, including Jewish survivors. The texts are in
Polish, English and Hebrew.
2. The plaque in the biggest gas chamber, which
had once described its use in the mass murder of innocent Jews, had also been
replaced with a new sign claiming that the lethal Zyklon B poison was dropped
into the Auschwitz-style chamber merely to disinfect clothing – There is a plaque in gas chambers that
reads: “The bunker with gas chambers. In these chambers poison gases were used
to murder the prisoners. Carbon monoxide was supplied through metal pipes . . .
prisoners were also killed with Zyklon B, which was poured through an opening
in the ceiling. Most of the gas chamber victims were Jews (mainly women,
children and the elderly).” Again, the texts are in Polish, English and Hebrew.
3. Meanwhile, the Majdanek site administration
had dramatically reduced its estimates of how many Jews were murdered in that
camp – 15 years ago,
our historians, based on thorough historical research and new documents, revised
the overall number of the Majdanek victims, not only the Jewish ones.
4. Thus the administration of the Majdanek site,
over time, seems to have moved toward the erasure of Jewish experiences and the
distinctly Jewish history of the Holocaust – This sentence is entirely untrue. On a regular basis we
hold lectures, provide educational activities or publish books on the Holocaust
(just browse through our website).
We mark Holocaust Remembrance Days.
Currently, there are a few exhibitions presented at the Museum which are
devoted only to the Holocaust victims, including:
-
“They Arrived at the Ghetto... And Went into the Unknown...” presenting various
aspects and circumstances of the extermination of Jews carried out within the
framework of “Aktion Reinhardt,”
-
“Districts of Extermination. Ghettos for Jews in German-occupied Lublin,”
-
“Drawings on the Scraps of Life. The Extermination of Jews in the Lublin Region
in the Józef Richter's Sketches” opened on 3 November 2017 when the Museum
marks the anniversary of action “Erntefest” – mass shooting of over 18 thousand
Jews that was carried out by Germans at Majdanek on 3 November 1943.
With reference to the
above, we demand you to correct all the unreliable information in the
article. We place great value to the accuracy, including the information
about the history of the Majdanek camp and activities of the Museum provided by
the tour guides. It is of great importance to us to explain why the guide
allegedly told about the plaques. We hope Mr. Benjamin Gladstone will help us
in this matter. We will be grateful for all information concerning the guide.
