Poland and hard truths

Re: Historian says he’s target of Polish ' hate’ campaign, June 21 As a former scientist myself, albeit in different hard matters, I admire forensic researchers in soft sciences, such as Prof. Jan Grabowski. I admire him because it is even more difficult when one’s research shows that the Polish nation, brutalized by Nazis and Soviets, ethnically cleansed from a third of its territory, and having lost 20 per cent of its prewar population, was also complicit in the Holocaust — complicit perhaps in an indirect manner, mostly through tacit approval of the unthinkable, but also through active participation.

Such basic historical truths are very hard to accept by many Poles, brought up on a menu of victimhood, even if active participation might not have been as widespread as that of German or Hungarian populations.

Rejecting the ownership of history is not a healthy path for any nation. Quite to the contrary, accepting historical truths, even painful ones, is a sign of national maturity.

Germans are an example here. They, however grudgingly, decided not to white- wash their role in the Holocaust and other atrocities of the Second World War. The signatories of the letter against Prof. Grabowski are willing participants in a witch hunt that is likely orchestrated by rejectionists of history in Poland.

Hopefully, Poland’s economic and political successes will extend to a mature approach to history and the ownership of the reality. But the letter against Prof. Grabowski does disservice to the Polish nation. Dr. Alec Bialski, Calgary