Marek Jan Chodakiewicz
Marek Jan Chodakiewicz | |
---|---|
Born | |
Academic background | |
Education | SFSU (BA) Columbia University (MPhil, PhD) |
Academic work | |
Discipline | History |
Sub-discipline | World War II history |
Institutions | University of Virginia Institute of World Politics Patrick Henry College |
Marek Jan Chodakiewicz (born July 15, 1962) is a Polish-American
Early life and education
Chodakiewicz was born in
Career
Between 2001 and 2003,[
In 2003, Chodakiewicz received the Józef Mackiewicz Literary Prize in Warsaw,[11] for his two-volume book of history entitled Ejszyszki.[12] According to Chodakiewicz, his work refutes Yaffa Eliach's allegations of a 1944 post-liberation pogrom in Eišiškės against Jews by the Polish Home Army, in which Eliach said she survived beneath the body of her mother and baby brother who were shot multiple times after being discovered hiding in a closet, and as promoted in the American media and her book.[13][14][15][16][17] Per Chodakiewicz, Jewish bystanders were killed accidentally during an "anti-Soviet assault by the underground", and not in a pogrom. However, per Chodakiewicz "unfortunately, and quite typically, unlike the charges, the refutation received no publicity in the American media".[18][19] Chodakiewicz's publication was reviewed positively in the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, whose editor Adam Michnik had previously called Eliach's account an "insult" to Poland.[20][21]
In April 2005, Chodakiewicz was appointed by President George W. Bush for a five-year term to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Controversy erupted towards the end of his term over Chodakiewicz's claims in several publications that Polish nationalists who murdered Jews after the Holocaust were not motivated by antisemitism.[22] Chodakiewicz's appointment was criticized by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which said Chodakiewicz had published in far-right Polish publications.[7] In addition, the British anti-racism organization, Hope not Hate, has said Chodakiewicz is a frequent commentator for right-wing Polish media.[22][23]
Chodakiewicz is associated with the Polish National Foundation,[24] a "quasi-public organization funded by state-owned corporations to promote Poland's reputation abroad."[25] Within a period of two years, Chodakiewicz and his family received more than $250,000 from the foundation's funds.[26]
Reviews
After the Holocaust: Polish-Jewish Conflict in the Wake of World War II (2003)
Reviewing After the Holocaust: Polish-Jewish Conflict in the Wake of World War II (2003), Antony Polonsky wrote: "like the author's earlier book, Żydzi i Polacy 1918-1955... this volume is intended to correct 'anti-Polish stereotypes' (p. 347), and it does not rise above the clichés of old-fashioned nationalist apologetics." He criticizes Chodakiewicz for his simplistic view of the situation in post-war Poland, for ignoring the widespread antisemitism at the time and for equating Polish and Jewish "groups", despite the latter being utterly decimated during the Holocaust. He ends his article observing that "what is most striking about this book is the lack of empathy with those caught up in these tragic events."[27]
The Massacre in Jedwabne, July 10, 1941: Before, During, and After (2005)
Reviewing The Massacre in Jedwabne, July 10, 1941: Before, During, and After (2005) on the Jedwabne pogrom, Peter Stachura in a very positive review described the book as meticulous and well researched.[29] In contrast, Joanna Michlic in her review writes that the book presents "intellectually and morally unacceptable interpretations", being part of a "ethno-nationalist historiography" trend that promotes "an image of Poland as only heroic, suffering, noble, and innocent".[3] Piotr Wróbel in his review, says that Chodakiewicz's aim, as stated in the introduction, is to show Jan T. Gross is wrong. Wróbel acknowledges that Chodakiewicz makes some good arguments, however they are "overshadowed by numerous flaws" and the book lacks any sense of proportion. According to Wróbel, the book has a "visible political agenda" and is "difficult to read, unoriginal, irritating, and unconvincing".[30]
Golden Harvest or Hearts of Gold? (2012)
Golden Harvest or Hearts of Gold?, a 2012 collection of essays co-edited by Chodakiewicz, and a polemic with Gross' book Golden Harvest, was heavily criticized by Danusha Goska for anything from not using a spellchecker to "cherry picking" historical anecdotes, as well as for repeatedly attacking scholars on the other side of the debate.[31] David Engel said that the book "reaffirms the conventional Polish wisdom and impugns the academic integrity of prominent scholars (not only Gross) who have questioned it."[32]
Intermarium: The Land between the Black and Baltic Seas (2012)
Reviewing Intermarium: The Land between the Black and Baltic Seas (2012) for the Sarmatian Review, Karl A. Roider Jr. describes the main theme of the book as a struggle between the democratic Polish model and the Russian totalitarian model over the Intermarium which per Chodakiewicz's includes the Baltic States, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova. Roider's review is relatively negative.[33] The review by Dovid Katz was also critical of the book, commenting the book's final chapter as a "hatchet job against Jewish partisans... [that] resorts to a number of abuses of academic structure to mask the genre of nationalist polemic."[2]
Peter Stachura published his more positive review of the book in The Slavonic and East European Review. He calls the book "impressively ambitious, panoramic examination of a substantial part of Central and Eastern Europe".[34] Silviu Miloiu's review of the book in Journal of Baltic Studies was also favorable; in his conclusion Miliou stated: "On the whole, the book is one of the most competent and well-written accounts of the Intermarium that I have read. It is based on an impressive range of sources. It sheds new light on historical and present-day processes".[35]
Donald E. Pienkos in his review published in The Polish Review in 2018, commented that the parts of the books focused on history of Eastern Europe make for a "worthy, if not flawless, publication", but is more critical of its polemical part in which "the author castigates western scholars for their alleged ignorance of the region and their Russofilia", concluding that the polemical part significantly lowers the overall quality of the book.[37]
Critical assessment
Chodakiewicz wrote several books in response to works by Jan T. Gross about The Holocaust in Poland. His approach to the Holocaust was criticized by Joanna Michlic as an attempt to erase the "dark past" by showing only a "good past".[38] Other critics have criticized Chodakiewicz for his reluctance to accept Polish responsibility for the Kielce pogrom.[39] Critics take particular issue with Chodakiewicz's argument that Jewish-born communist partisans' and functionaries' killing of Poles during the Soviet occupation "contextualizes", if not justifies, Polish violence against Jews. Laurence Weinbaum compares Chodakiewicz's writing to pseudo-scholarly screeds and says that Chodakiewicz believes that scholars of antisemitism in Poland are advancing an "anti-Western" and "anti-American" agenda.[40]
Joanna Michlic characterizes Chodakiewicz as one of "the main representatives of the post-1989 historiography characterized by prejudicial views towards Jews and other minorities ... These historians belong to the school of (ethno)nationalist history writing in which the themes of martyrdom and victimhood of ethnic Poles vis-a-vis other groups play a key role in shaping their arguments and interpretation", with Chodakiewicz being the most extreme of the lot.[6]
Jan T. Gross was quoted as saying that "[Chodakiewicz] is an ideologist of the radical right, I don't have any doubts that he's anti-Semitic."[7][22][41] While Polish-Canadian historian Piotr Wróbel said that "he would never use a phrase or adjective that would clearly identify him as an anti-Semite", but "There is no doubt whatsoever that he doesn't like the Jews.".[7] Chodakiewicz rejected the allegations as "baseless", and his term on the council ended in 2010.[22]
Andrzej Żbikowski writes that Chodakiewicz, along with
In his critical review of Intermarium in the
Chodakiewicz has been accused of promulgating antisemitic or insensitive tropes about Jewish people, and his works were involved in a controversy involving the possible skewed coverage of the Holocaust on Wikipedia.[42]
In July 2008, Chodakiewicz wrote that
In July 2017, Chodakiewicz helped draft US President Donald Trump's speech delivered at Warsaw Uprising Monument, and traveled with the Presidential delegation.[22][23][44]
In 2019, Chodakiewicz released the book About the Civilization of Death: How to stop the anti-culture of totalitarian minorities, stating: "I saw with my own eyes how LGBT, gender, and feminism emerged from the underground and was gradually embraced in American politics: introducing a new version of Marxism that I call Marxism-Lesbianism."[45] In July 2019, during a book tour in Poland,[46][45][5][47] Chodakiewicz gave a talk at the Institute of National Remembrance's Janusz Kurtyka IPN Educational Center in Warsaw.[45] During the talk, which was moderated by Najwyższy Czas! editor Tomasz Sommer, Chodakiewicz made severely homophobic remarks. For example, he described the urban legend of "gerbilling" as factual.[46][5]
Awards
- 2003 Józef Mackiewicz Literary Award[48]
- Order of Polonia Restituta (2007)[49]
Books
- 1996 [1995]: Ciemnogród? O Prawicy i Lewicy [Hicksville? On the Right and Left] Ronin Publishers, ISBN 83-86445-00-9(in Polish).
- 1997: Zagrabiona pamięć: Wojna w Hiszpanii, 1936–39 [Expropriated Memory: War in Spain], wyd. Fronda, ISBN 83-907210-2-4(in Polish).
- 1997–1999: Co-editor: Tajne Oblicze: Dokumenty GL-AL i PPR, 1942-1945 [Secret Face: Documents of the Communist underground], 3 vols. Burchard Edition, ISBN 83-87654-03-5(in Polish).
- 1994, 1999: Narodowe Siły Zbrojne: „Ząb" przeciw dwu wrogom [National Armed Forces: „Ząb" against two enemies], wyd. WAMA, 2nd. ed. Fronda, ISBN 83-911097-1-2(in Polish).
- 2000: Żydzi i Polacy 1918–1955: Współistnienie, Zagłada, Komunizm [Jews and Poles 1918–1955: Coexistence, Holocaust, Communism], wyd. Fronda, ISBN 83-912541-8-6(in Polish).
- 2002: Editor: Ejszyszki. Kulisy zajść w Ejszyszkach: Epilog stosunków polsko-żydowskich na Kresach, 1944–45: Wspomnienia-dokumenty-publicystyka [Ejszyszki: The Background to events in Ejszyszki: The Epilogue of Polish-Jewish relations in the Borderlands], wyd. Fronda, ISBN 83-911063-3-0(in Polish).
- 2003: Co-editor: Spanish Carlism and Polish Nationalism: The Borderlands of Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Leopolis Press, ISBN 0-9679960-5-8.
- 2003: After the Holocaust: Polish-Jewish Relations in the Wake of World War II, East European Monographs, ISBN 0-88033-511-4.
- 2003: Co-editor: Poland's Transformation: A Work in Progress, Leopolis Press, ISBN 0-9679960-2-3
- 2004: Co-editor: Ronald Reagan: Moja wizja Ameryki [My vision of America], Wydawnictwo Arwil, ISBN 83-919221-5-4(in Polish).
- 2004: Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland, 1939–1947, Lexington Books, ISBN 0-7391-0484-5.
- 2005: The Massacre in Jedwabne, July 10, 1941: Before, During, After, Columbia University Press and East European Monographs, ISBN 0-88033-554-8.
- 2010: Co-editor, with Wojciech Jerzy Muszyński, Żeby Polska była polska: Antologia publicystyki konspiracyjnej podziemia narodowego 1939–1950 [So That Poland Remains Polish: An Anthology of the Polish Nationalist Underground Press] (Warsaw: IPN, 2010), ISBN 9788376292120.
- 2011: Co-editor, with Wojciech Jerzy Muszyński, Złote serca czy złote żniwa. Studia nad wojennymi losami Polaków i Żydów [Hearts of Gold or a Golden Harvest? Studies on the Wartime Fate of Poles and Jews] (Warsaw: The Facto, 2011), ISBN 978-8361808053.
- 2012: Co-editor, with Wojciech Jerzy Muszynski and Pawel Styrna, Golden Harvest or Hearts of Gold? Studies on the Fate of Wartime Poles and Jews (Washington, DC: Leopolis Press), ISBN 0-9824888-1-5.
- 2012: Intermarium: The Land between the Black and Baltic Seas (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers), ISBN 978-1412847742.
- 2019: About the Civilization of Death: How to stop the anti-culture of totalitarian minorities (Warsaw, 3S Media), ISBN 978-83-619-3599-5.
See also
- List of Poles
References
- ^ Washington, DC
- ^ S2CID 219289929.
- ^ a b Inversion of the Historical Truth about Jedwabne, Joanna Michlic, American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies
- ^ Weinbaum, Laurence (2008-05-23). "Whoever Controls the Past". Haaretz. Retrieved 2019-05-10.
- ^ a b c "Wykład pod auspicjami IPN. Chodakiewicz opowiadał m.in. o "chomiku w odbytnicy"". Wiadomości (in Polish). August 3, 2019.
- ^ JSTOR 4467778.
- ^ a b c d e Historian Marek Jan Chodakiewicz with Controversial Views Serves on Holocaust Museum Board, SPLC, 29 November 2009
- ^ ISBN 978-83-949149-0-5.
- Washington, DC
- ^ Patrick Henry College. "Marek J. Chodakiewicz, Ph.D.". Retrieved 5 May 2013.
- ^ PAP (November 11, 2003). "Jozef Mackiewicz Literary Prize". Culture.pl.
- ^ Literary Award Józef Mackiewicz. Only the truth is interesting, Polska Times, 8 Nov 2017
- ^ The Pogrom at Eishyshok, Op Ed, New York Times, Yaffa Eliach, 6 Aug 1996
- ^ There Once Was a World: A 900-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok, 1999, Yaffa Eliach
- ^ "Shtetl". Frontline. Retrieved 2017-08-15.
- ^ Life Beyond the Holocaust: Memories and Realities, Mira Ryczke Kimmelman, page xxiv
- ^ Family Frames: Photography, Narrative, and Postmemory, Marianne Hirsch, page 256
- ^ Poland in America's Crooked Mirror: An Installment in Culture Wars, Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, Feb 2008
- ^ The Last Rising in the Eastern Borderlands: The Ejszyszki Epilogue in its Historical Context Archived 2011-09-27 at the Wayback Machine, Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, 2003
- ^ Ejszyszki, Chodakiewicz, Marek Jan Paweł Wroński 4 January 2004 Gazeta Wyborcza
- ^ Polish paper: fanaticism in New York Times, UPI, 8 Aug 1996
- ^ a b c d e f "Did a Polish Far Right Activist Help Donald Trump Write His Speech in Warsaw?, Newsweek, 6 July 2017
- ^ a b "Trump's Visit to Poland Ignites Controversy Over Far Right Links", Hope not Hate, 5 July 2017
- ^ "Polish public promotion scheme backfires". Politico. 2019-09-18. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
- ^ Feder, J. Lester; Krasnowolski, Marcin (2018-03-03). "The First People Have Just Been Accused Of Violating Poland's New Holocaust Law". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
- ^ Stankiewicz, Andrzej (2019-09-18). "Opowieści o wydatkach Polskiej Fundacji Narodowej w USA część 2, czyli rodzina na swoim". Onet.pl. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
- JSTOR 10.1086/530716.
- ^ ISSN 8756-6583.
- ^ Stachura, Peter D. "The Massacre in Jedwabne, July 10, 1941: Before, During, and After‐By Marek Jan Chodakiewicz." History 92.306 (2007): 276–277.
- ^ "The Massacre in Jedwabne: SR, September 2006". www.ruf.rice.edu.
- ^ Goska, Danusha. "Golden Harvest or Hearts of Gold? Studies on the Fate of Wartime Poles and Jews". Polin. The American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
- S2CID 164899278.
- ^ "Roider, Karl A. "Intermarium: The Land Between The Black and Baltic Seas." Sarmatian Review 33.3 (2013): 1776–1778" (PDF).
- .
- S2CID 145292575.
- S2CID 164990528.
- .
- ^ The Holocaust in the Twenty-First Century: Contesting/Contested Memories, David M. Seymour, Mercedes Camino, p. 143.
- ^ Kaminski, L. Żaryn, J. (2006). Reflections on the Kielce pogrom. Inst. of nat. remembrance-Commiss. for the prosecution of crimes against the Polish nation. pp. 129–131
- ^ Weinbaum, Laurence, "Amnesia and Antisemitism in the 'Second Jagiellonian Age', in Robert S. Wistrich, ed., Anti-Judaism, Antisemitism, and Delegitimizing Israel, University of Nebraska Press, 2016, pp. 222–223.
- ^ Anti-Semitism Book Could Land Historian in Jail, Spiegel, 18 Jan 2018
- ISSN 2578-5648.
- ^ Obama's Mirroring, Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, Salon24
- ^ Donald Trump’s Visit to Poland Further Emboldens Far-Right Elements, SPLC, 17 July 2017
- ^ a b c "IPN odnosi się do wykładu prof. Chodakiewicza, na którym obrażał osoby homoseksualne". Onet Wiadomości. August 8, 2019.
- ^ a b "Wyborcza.pl". wyborcza.pl.
- ^ "PFN, czyli jak państwo PiS dba o swoich". 18 September 2019.
- ^ "Jozef Mackiewicz Literary Prize". Culture.pl. Retrieved 2019-05-20.
- ^ "Postanowienie Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 3 maja 2007 r. o nadaniu orderów". prawo.sejm.gov.pl. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
External links
- After the Holocaust:Polish-Jewish Conflict in the Wake of World War II, The Sarmatian Review, January 2004 book review
- After the Holocaust: Polish-Jewish Conflict in the Wake of World War II book review
- Whoever controls the past Discussion of Chodakiewicz' work in Haaretz.