Warsaw Historical Book Fair releases public apology following ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association complaint

A complaint by the NEVER AGAIN Association, Get the Trolls Out! partner in Poland, against antisemitic publications being included in a Warsaw book fair has led to a public apology by the organisers.  

NEVER AGAIN protested against the presence of the antisemitic publications at the 30th Historical Book Fair held in Warsaw Royal Castle. The publications were displayed at the Fair by 3dom publishing house and included books written by Holocaust denier Dariusz Ratajczak. 

By Kgbo - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

‘NEVER AGAIN’ sent a complaint to the organisers of the event, including the History and Culture Foundation, whose president Waldemar Michalski is also the director of the fair, the National Institute of Museology and Collections Protection, the Institute of National Remembrance, and the Association of Polish Museologists – Mazovian Branch. The event is also supported by the office of the Polish president, Andrzej Duda.  

After receiving no response to their complaint, ‘NEVER AGAIN’ passed on this information to both Polish and international media, including Wirtualna Polska, Algemeiner and Gazeta Wyborcza Warsaw. ‘NEVER AGAIN’ also informed the American Jewish Committee Central Europe Office, which then proceeded to issue a statement quoted in Gazeta Wyborcza.  

The article by Gazeta Wyborcza highlighted how it was both surprising and hard to understand how such publications could be present and have gone unnoticed at an event organised by very important institutions. Those same institutions should be held responsible for what is promoted at the event.  Director of the American Jewish Committee Central Europe Office, 

Dr. Sebastian Rejak said “the greatest astonishment is the fact that during such a prestigious cultural event as the Historical Book Fair, publications of an antisemitic nature were promoted”.  

As a result of the complaint by ‘NEVER AGAIN’ and the subsequent media coverage, the event organisers released a public statement with their formal apology. Gazeta Wyborcza included the apology in its article. Organisers of the Historical Book Fair expressed their condemnation of the ‘promotion of xenophobic, including antisemitic content, in the public space’ and promised to ‘do everything to prevent such situations in the future’.