Whitewash

Poland, the epicentre of the Holocaust, began denying responsibility as soon as the Nazi atrocities ended. The nation's distortion of history continues today - with disturbing consequences.

"Holocaust denial has now been replaced by a much more dangerous and insidious foe."-Jan Grabowski

Poland is the place where the Holocaust was perpetrated - where close to 5 out of 6 million Jews were killed. Today, it is the place where a new threat is unfolding: the hijacking of history to transform the nation's past.Whitewash grapples with modern Poland's failure to acknowledge its role in the Holocaust.

World-renowned Holocaust historian Jan Grabowski examines how the government, museums, schools and state institutions have been deployed to propagate a narrative of Polish national innocence. He recounts his own experience as the victim of smears and a notorious lawsuit for questioning the complicity of Poles in the destruction of the country's Jews, and explores the far-reaching consequences of Poland's historical distortions, which have been echoed and replicated worldwide to challenge the truth of the Holocaust.

Jan Grabowski is a Polish-Canadian professor of history at the University of Ottawa. His books include Hunt for the Jews, Night Without End and On Duty: The Role of the Polish Blue and Criminal Police in the Holocaust.