Andrzej Leszek Szcześniak (November 29, 1932 – March 15, 2003) was a controversial Polish doctor of historical sciences, author of over thirty historical books and school textbooks. While he was praised for his research of the

Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre was a series of mass killings under Communist regimes, mass executions of nearly 22,000 Polish people, Polish military officer, military and police officers, border guards, and intelligentsia prisoners of war carried out by t ...

, he was also accused of

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

Research in Katyń massacre

Szcześniak was among the first who raised the issue of the

Katyń massacre The Katyn massacre was a series of mass executions of nearly 22,000 Polish military and police officers, border guards, and intelligentsia prisoners of war carried out by the Soviet Union, specifically the NKVD (the Soviet secret police), at ...

in the mid-1980s and published several books on the subject. In 2004, the , whose statute goal is the commemoration of the victims of the massacre, awarded him posthumously the "Golgotha of the East - Katyń 1940" Medal (Medal Golgoty Wschodu – Katyń 1940).

Accusations of antisemitism

Szcześniak is known for reviving the

conspiracy theory A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...

of Judeopolonia, authoring two volumes under this title, which present Jews as "informers and spies for the

tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

, tightfisted hyenas and arrogant sassy people who oppress the Polish people." . Polish journalist

Anna Bikont Anna Bikont (born 17 July 1954) is a Polish journalist for the ''Gazeta Wyborcza'' newspaper in Warsaw. She is the author of several books, including ''My z Jedwabnego'' (2004) about the 1941 Jedwabne pogrom, which was published in English as '' ...

writes that during the Communist times he had a near-monopoly on the history textbooks, but with the

fall of Communism The revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, were a revolutionary wave of liberal democracy movements that resulted in the collapse of most Marxist–Leninist governments in the Eastern Bloc and other parts of the world. Th ...

he switched the rhetoric in the textbooks from Communist to nationalist. She writes that she raised the issue of

in his textbooks in her articles ''

Gazeta Wyborcza (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish nationwide daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It was launched on 8 May 1989 on the basis of the Polish Round Table Agreement and as a press organ of the Solidarity (Polish trade union), t ...

'', which caused public protests by over 200 prominent people against using these textbooks in education, but an equally large group defended his textbooks for the "Polish values" in them.

, She cites him saying on the occasion of Jedwabne Massacre that "The hysteria around Jedwabne is aimed at shocking Poles and extracting sixty-five billion dollars from our people in the framework of the Holocaust business".

Books

* ''Katyń: lista ofiar i zaginionych jeńców obozów Kozielsk, Ostaszków, Starobielsk'', Alfa, Warsaw, 1989, . * ''Katyń: relacje, wspomnienia, publicystyka'', Alfa, Warsaw, 1989, . * ''Katyń. Tło historyczne, fakty, dokumenty'', Alfa, Warsaw, 1989, . * ''Wojna polsko-radziecka 1918-1920'', Wyd. Ośrodka Dokumentacji i Studiów Społecznych, Warsaw, 1989, . * ''Zmowa. IV rozbiór Polski'', Alfa, Warsaw, 1990, . * '' Judeopolonia. Żydowskie państwo w państwie polskim'', , Radom, 2001, . * ''Plan zagłady Słowian –

Generalplan Ost The (; ), abbreviated GPO, was Nazi Germany's plan for the settlement and "Germanization" of captured territory in Eastern Europe, involving the genocide, extermination and large-scale ethnic cleansing of Slavs, Eastern European Jews, and o ...

'', Polskie Wydawnictwo Encyklopedyczne, Radom, 2001,. * ''Holokaust''. Wyd. Polskie Wydawnictwo Encyklopedyczne, Radom, 2001, . * ''Judeopolonia II - Anatomia Zniewolenia Polski'', Polskie Wydawnictwo Encyklopedyczne, Radom, 2002, . * ''Deportacje w XX wieku'', Polskie Wydawnictwo Encyklopedyczne, Radom, 2002, . * ''Katyńska zbrodnia'', Polskie Wydawnictwo Encyklopedyczne Polwen, Radom, 2004,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Szczesniak, Andrzej Leszek 1932 births 2003 deaths 20th-century Polish historians Polish male non-fiction writers Antisemitism in Poland Katyn massacre investigators