In the latest development surrounding Poland's controversial new Holocaust law, the country’s Deputy Minister of Culture, Jarosław Daniel Sellin, has backed calls for a special “Polocaust” museum to commemorate the non-Jews killed by the Nazis in Poland during the Second World War.

Museums have not done enough

According to Sellin, current museums have done a disservice to the approximately 1.9 million non-Jewish Poles murdered by the Nazi regime, arguing that these victims are not well commemorated. In an interview on Tuesday with Poland’s Radio One, he lamented that Poland’s suffering is little known internationally and expressed his belief that a "Polocaust" museum would provide a much-needed education for those who are "very ignorant" of the plight of the Poles.

Sellin made these comments in response to an article by academic Marek Kochan in a Polish newspaper, who coined the term "Polocaust" in his push for a better commemoration of Polish victims.

"The State of Israel has succeeded in imposing a narrative reducing the victims of the war to the victims of the Holocaust. And yet no death resulting from criminal intentions is better or worse than another,” he wrote.

The latest twist in the tale of Poland's new Holocaust law

Sellin's remarks follow Poland's passing last week of its controversial Holocaust law, which makes it illegal to suggest that Poles were complicit in Nazi war crimes and bans terms such as "Polish death camps" when speaking about Auschwitz and other camps located in Nazi-occupied Poland.

The new law has sparked sharp criticism from Israel and the United States, as well as among Poland's contemporary Jewish community.

Revising history

Despite the fact that most historians agree that certain Polish individuals and groups collaborated with the Nazi occupiers, the Polish government, led by the populist Law and Justice Party, is seeking to challenge that narrative.

"We have to realize that when he or she says that the Polish state or the Polish nation is responsible for the Holocaust, they diminish the responsibility of the real perpetrators," Poland's Deputy Foreign Minister Bartosz Cichocki told CNN.

Confusion and concern

On Tuesday, Poland's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, told CNN that many members of the local Jewish community are now feeling uneasy about their status in Poland.

"It's not just the new law but the tone of the discussion with almost no reaction from leadership to that tone. A deafening silence by the leadership," he stated.
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