Book sparks debate over anti-Semitism in post-war Poland

KIELCE, Poland (AP) — The newly re­leased Polish edition of a book by a Princeton University professor has dredged up painful memories in Po­land, forcing the country to confront a difficult chapter in its history: the deaths of Jews at the hands of Poles in the aftermath of the Second World War. Jan T. Gross’s Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz hit bookstores in Poland earlier this month, and has sparked a debate about anti-Semitism in this Eastern European country, which saw its Jewish population near­ly wiped out in the Holocaust.The book was released in the U.S. in 2006, where it was greeted with warm reviews. In Poland, however, the book has been criticized in newspaper edito­rials, book reviews and by historians accusing Gross of using inflammatory language and labelling postwar Polish society as anti-Semitic.
Gross has headlined a pair of debates in front of news cameras and standing­room only crowds in Kielce and War­saw.