Page 299 - Ciancia, On Civilization's Edge

marched on the streets of Warsaw on November 11, 2017—marking almost one hundred years from

the declaration of Polish independence with which our narrative began—crowds protested against a

new phantom foe in the shape of the Muslim and valorized an older sense of what “civilization”

means for Poles. Rather than drawing on Europe as a model of peaceful eastern expansion, some

Poles are now denigrating the role of the European Union and arguing that Poles are the true

defenders of Europe not only against “the East,” but also against a multicultural and degenerate

West. Honest discussions of Poland’s difficult past are also being muffled. In January 2018, the day

before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Polish parliament in Warsaw voted for an

amendment to a law that would criminalize the act of claiming that “the Polish Nation or the

Republic of Poland is responsible or co-responsible for Nazi crimes committed by the Third

32
Reich.” Less covered in the Western media, but of profound significance for Poland’s ongoing
relationship with Ukraine, were penalties for anyone who denied Ukrainian crimes against Poles, a

reference to the UPA-orchestrated Volhynian massacres that began in 1943.

***

In the midst of authoritarian politics, resurgent fascism, economic protectionism, openly expressed

hatred toward minorities, and the weakening of democratic institutions, the interwar period seems of

immediate relevance once again. If protagonists of right-wing movements believe that certain

interwar trends should be celebrated—it was, after all, at the statue of Roman Dmowski that the

Independence Day marchers began in November 2017—those who oppose right-wing movements in

32 “Ustawa z dnia 26 stycznia 2018 r.o zmianie ustawy o Instytucie Pamięci Narodowej – Komisji Ścigania Zbrodni
przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, ustawy o grobach i cmentarzach wojennych, ustawy o muzeach oraz ustawy o
odpowiedzialności podmiotów zbiorowych za czyny zabronione pod groźbą kary,” accessed online:
http://orka.sejm.gov.pl/proc8.nsf/ustawy/771_u.htm

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