Marek Jan Chodakiewicz

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Reviewing Intermarium: The Land between the Black and Baltic Seas (2012) for the Sarmatian Review , Karl A. Roider Jr. describes the main theme of the book as a struggle between the democratic Polish model and the Russian totalitarian model over the Intermarium which per Chodakiewicz's includes the Baltic States, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova. Roider's review is relatively negative. [33] The review by Dovid Katz was also critical of the book, commenting the book's final chapter as a "hatchet job against Jewish partisans... [that] resorts to a number of abuses of academic structure to mask the genre of nationalist polemic." [2]

Peter Stachura published his more positive review of the book in The Slavonic and East European Review . He calls the book "impressively ambitious, panoramic examination of a substantial part of Central and Eastern Europe". [34] Silviu Miloiu's review of the book in Journal of Baltic Studies was also favorable; in his conclusion Miliou stated: "On the whole, the book is one of the most competent and well-written accounts of the Intermarium that I have read. It is based on an impressive range of sources. It sheds new light on historical and present-day processes". [35]

Alexander Prusin reviewing the book for the Slavic Review said the work seems to be rather derivative of and of lesser significance and quality to similar works published recently by scholars such as Timothy Snyder, Kate Brown or Piotr Wandycz although "it will certainly find propitious ground among those who favor a new cordon sanitaire in Europe". [36]

Donald E. Pienkos in his review published in The Polish Review in 2018, commented that the parts of the books focused on history of Eastern Europe make for a "worthy, if not flawless, publication", but is more critical of its polemical part in which "the author castigates western scholars for their alleged ignorance of the region and their Russofilia", concluding that the polemical part significantly lowers the overall quality of the book. [37]

Critical assessment

Chodakiewicz wrote several books in response to works by Jan T. Gross about The Holocaust in Poland. His approach to the Holocaust was criticized by Joanna Michlic as an attempt to erase the "dark past" by showing only a "good past". [38] Other critics have criticized Chodakiewicz for his reluctance to accept Polish responsibility for the Kielce pogrom. [39] Critics take particular issue with Chodakiewicz's argument that Jewish-born communist partisans' and functionaries' killing of Poles during the Soviet occupation "contextualizes", if not justifies, Polish violence against Jews. Laurence Weinbaum compares Chodakiewicz's writing to pseudo-scholarly screeds and says that Chodakiewicz believes that scholars of antisemitism in Poland are advancing an "anti-Western" and "anti-American" agenda. [40]

Joanna Michlic characterizes Chodakiewicz as one of "the main representatives of the post-1989 historiography characterized by prejudicial views towards Jews and other minorities ... These historians belong to the school of (ethno)nationalist history writing in which the themes of martyrdom and victimhood of ethnic Poles vis-a-vis other groups play a key role in shaping their arguments and interpretation", with Chodakiewicz being the most extreme of the lot. [6]

Jan T. Gross was quoted as saying that "[Chodakiewicz] is an ideologist of the radical right, I don't have any doubts that he's anti-Semitic." [7] [22] [41] While Polish-Canadian historian Piotr Wróbel said that "he would never use a phrase or adjective that would clearly identify him as an anti-Semite", but "There is no doubt whatsoever that he doesn't like the Jews.". [7] Chodakiewicz rejected the allegations as "baseless", and his term on the council ended in 2010. [22]

Andrzej Żbikowski writes that Chodakiewicz, along with Jan Żaryn, leads the "nationalist/national democratic camp" of Polish historians, affiliated with Fronda and Glaukopis , "a publication that has arisen mainly to rehabilitate unconditionally the wartime activities of the [nationalist] Narodowe Siły Zbrojne (NSZ)." Chodakiewicz's writing, according to Żbikowski, is characterized by selective usage of examples, justification of Poles' negative attitudes towards Jews during the war, and a lack of empathy with Jewish victims. [8]

In his critical review of Intermarium in the Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs , Dovid Katz writes that Chodakiewicz "is a forceful advocate of a Republican Party-type platform, with ample specific references to the Reagan years ... [he] is socially conservative—that is to say pro-religion, anti-secularist, anti-gay, anti-left, and anti-liberal. [In his writings] there is an implicit call for the disenfranchisement of the Russian-speaking minorities in [Eastern Europe and the Baltic states]. ... [He] is also somewhat fixated with the purported dangers of 'homosexual frolic' and 'so-called "gay pride" parades' (both p. 253), 'gay liberation' (p. 378), 'radical lifestyles' (p. 421), 'gender, queer and other guises' (p. 468), 'sexual politics (including feminism and gay rights)' (p. 528) ... Turning to Jewish issues, it is no secret that Chodakiewicz comes to the table with a controversial record that has included disguising Polish nationalism and anti-Jewish sentiment on Poland-related issues as objective historical research. Notorious episodes include his vitriolic attacks on Jan T. Gross's pioneering scholarship and the omniscient search for Jews among the evil Communists." Katz writes that Chodakiewicz "winds up praising the Ukrainian Nazi groups that actually helped perpetrate the Holocaust". He contrasts Chodakiewicz's work with that of Western scholars like Timothy Snyder (Bloodlands, 2012) and Alexander Prusin (The Lands Between: Conflict in the East European Borderlands, 1870–1992, 2010)." [2]

In July 2008, Chodakiewicz wrote that Barack Obama was once a Muslim, a radical, and associate of communists. [7] [42] In 2014, Chodakiewicz spoke at a rally of the Ruch Narodowy party, saying: "We want a Catholic Poland, not a Bolshevik one, not multicultural or gay!". [22]

In July 2017, Chodakiewicz helped draft US President Donald Trump's speech delivered at Warsaw Uprising Monument, and traveled with the Presidential delegation. [22] [23] [43]

In 2019, Chodakiewicz released the book About the Civilization of Death: How to stop the anti-culture of totalitarian minorities, stating: "I saw with my own eyes how LGBT, gender, and feminism emerged from the underground and was gradually embraced in American politics: introducing a new version of Marxism that I call Marxism-Lesbianism." [44] In July 2019, during a book tour in Poland, [45] [44] [5] [46] Chodakiewicz gave a talk at the Institute of National Remembrance's Janusz Kurtyka IPN Educational Center in Warsaw. [44] During the talk, which was moderated by Najwyższy Czas! editor Tomasz Sommer, Chodakiewicz made severely homophobic remarks. For example, he described the urban legend of "gerbilling" as factual. [45] [5]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Marek Jan Chodakiewicz biography at the Institute of World Politics. Archived 2011-05-22 at the Wayback Machine Washington, DC
  2. 1 2 3 4 Katz, Dovid (2013). "Review of Intermarium". Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs. 7 (2): 125–193. doi:10.1080/23739770.2013.11446559. ISSN   2373-9770. S2CID   219289929.
  3. 1 2 Inversion of the Historical Truth about Jedwabne, Joanna Michlic, American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies
  4. ↑ Weinbaum, Laurence (2008-05-23). "Whoever Controls the Past". Haaretz. Retrieved 2019-05-10.
  5. 1 2 3 "Wykład pod auspicjami IPN. Chodakiewicz opowiadał m.in. o "chomiku w odbytnicy"". Wiadomości (in Polish). August 3, 2019.
  6. 1 2 Michlic, Joanna (2007). "The Soviet Occupation of Poland, 1939–41, and the Stereotype of the Anti-Polish and Pro-Soviet Jew". Jewish Social Studies. 13 (3): 135–176. JSTOR   4467778.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Historian Marek Jan Chodakiewicz with Controversial Views Serves on Holocaust Museum Board, SPLC, 29 November 2009
  8. 1 2 Żbikowski, Andrzej (2018). "The Dispute over the Status of a Witness to the Holocaust: Some Observations on How Research into the Destruction of the Polish Jews and into Polish–Jewish Relations during the Years of Nazi Occupation Has Changed since 1989". In Antony Polonsky; Hanna Węgrzynek (eds.). New directions in the history of the Jews in the Polish lands. Jews of Poland. Boston, MA: Academic Studies Press. ISBN   978-83-949149-0-5.
  9. ↑ The Institute of World Politics Faculty. Archived 2015-02-27 at the Wayback Machine IWP Graduate School of National Security and International Affairs, Washington, DC
  10. ↑ Patrick Henry College. "Marek J. Chodakiewicz, Ph.D.". Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  11. ↑ PAP (November 11, 2003). "Jozef Mackiewicz Literary Prize". Culture.pl .
  12. ↑ Literary Award Józef Mackiewicz. Only the truth is interesting, Polska Times, 8 Nov 2017
  13. ↑ The Pogrom at Eishyshok, Op Ed, New York Times, Yaffa Eliach, 6 Aug 1996
  14. ↑ There Once Was a World: A 900-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok, 1999, Yaffa Eliach
  15. ↑ "Shtetl". Frontline. Retrieved 2017-08-15.
  16. ↑ Life Beyond the Holocaust: Memories and Realities, Mira Ryczke Kimmelman, page xxiv
  17. ↑ Family Frames: Photography, Narrative, and Postmemory, Marianne Hirsch, page 256
  18. ↑ Poland in America's Crooked Mirror: An Installment in Culture Wars, Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, Feb 2008
  19. ↑ The Last Rising in the Eastern Borderlands: The Ejszyszki Epilogue in its Historical Context Archived 2011-09-27 at the Wayback Machine , Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, 2003
  20. ↑ Ejszyszki, Chodakiewicz, Marek Jan Paweł Wroński 4 January 2004 Gazeta Wyborcza
  21. ↑ Polish paper: fanaticism in New York Times, UPI, 8 Aug 1996
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Did a Polish Far Right Activist Help Donald Trump Write His Speech in Warsaw?, Newsweek, 6 July 2017
  23. 1 2 "Trump's Visit to Poland Ignites Controversy Over Far Right Links", Hope not Hate, 5 July 2017
  24. ↑ "Polish public promotion scheme backfires". Politico. 2019-09-18. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  25. ↑ Feder, J. Lester; Krasnowolski, Marcin (2018-03-03). "The First People Have Just Been Accused Of Violating Poland's New Holocaust Law". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  26. ↑ Stankiewicz, Andrzej (2019-09-18). "Opowieści o wydatkach Polskiej Fundacji Narodowej w USA część 2, czyli rodzina na swoim". Onet.pl. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  27. ↑ Polonsky, Antony (June 2004). "Reviews of Books:After the Holocaust: Polish-Jewish Conflict in the Wake of World War II Marek Jan Chodakiewicz". The American Historical Review. 109 (3): 1000–1001. doi:10.1086/530716. ISSN   0002-8762. JSTOR   10.1086/530716.
  28. 1 2 3 Friedrich, Klaus-Peter (2007-03-01). "Reviews of Jewish Life in Cracow, 1918–1939, Sean Martin (London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2004); After the Holocaust: Polish-Jewish Conflict in the Wake of World War II, Jan Chodakiewicz Marek (Boulder: Social Science Monographs [distributed by Columbia University Press], 2003); Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland, 1939–1947, Jan Chodakiewicz Marek (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2004), 497 pp.; The Neighbors Respond: The Controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland, Polonsky Antony and Michlic Joanna B., eds. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003), xiv + 489 pp.; Antisemitism and Its Opponents in Modern Poland, Blobaum Robert, ed. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005), 348 pp". Holocaust and Genocide Studies. 21 (1): 135–146. doi:10.1093/hgs/dcm014. ISSN   8756-6583.
  29. ↑ Stachura, Peter D. "The Massacre in Jedwabne, July 10, 1941: Before, During, and After‐By Marek Jan Chodakiewicz." History 92.306 (2007): 276–277.
  30. ↑ "The Massacre in Jedwabne: SR, September 2006". www.ruf.rice.edu.
  31. ↑ Goska, Danusha. "Golden Harvest or Hearts of Gold? Studies on the Fate of Wartime Poles and Jews". Polin. The American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
  32. ↑ Engel, David (2013). "[Review] Golden Harvest: Events at the Periphery of the Holocaust. By Jan Tomasz Gross with Irena Grudzihska Gross. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012". Slavic Review. 72 (1): 124–126. doi:10.5612/slavicreview.72.1.0124. ISSN   0037-6779. S2CID   164899278.
  33. ↑ "Roider, Karl A. "Intermarium: The Land Between The Black and Baltic Seas." Sarmatian Review 33.3 (2013): 1776–1778" (PDF).
  34. ↑ Stachura, Peter D. (2013). "Review of Intermarium: The Land between the Black and Baltic Seas, Chodakiewicz, Marek Jan". The Slavonic and East European Review. 91 (3): 662–664. doi:10.5699/slaveasteurorev2.91.3.0662.
  35. ↑ Miloiu, Silviu (2014-08-27). "Intermarium: The Land between the Black and Baltic Seas–Silviu Miloiu". Journal of Baltic Studies. 45 (4): 545–547. doi:10.1080/01629778.2014.954759. ISSN   0162-9778. S2CID   145292575.
  36. ↑ Prusin, Alexander (Spring 2014). "Intermarium: The Land between the Black and Baltic Seas. By Marek Jan Chodakiewicz". Book Reviews. Slavic Review. 73 (1): 163–164. doi:10.5612/slavicreview.73.1.0163. ISSN   0037-6779. S2CID   164990528.
  37. ↑ Pienkos, Donald E. (2018). "Review of Intermarium: The Land Between the Black and Baltic Seas". The Polish Review. 63 (1): 85–87. doi:10.5406/polishreview.63.1.0085. ISSN   0032-2970. JSTOR   10.5406/polishreview.63.1.0085.
  38. ↑ The Holocaust in the Twenty-First Century: Contesting/Contested Memories, David M. Seymour, Mercedes Camino, p. 143.
  39. ↑ Kaminski, L. Żaryn, J. (2006). Reflections on the Kielce pogrom. Inst. of nat. remembrance-Commiss. for the prosecution of crimes against the Polish nation. pp. 129–131
  40. ↑ Weinbaum, Laurence, "Amnesia and Antisemitism in the 'Second Jagiellonian Age', in Robert S. Wistrich, ed., Anti-Judaism, Antisemitism, and Delegitimizing Israel, University of Nebraska Press, 2016, pp. 222–223.
  41. ↑ Anti-Semitism Book Could Land Historian in Jail, Spiegel, 18 Jan 2018
  42. ↑ Obama's Mirroring, Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, Salon24
  43. ↑ Donald Trump’s Visit to Poland Further Emboldens Far-Right Elements, SPLC, 17 July 2017
  44. 1 2 3 "IPN odnosi się do wykładu prof. Chodakiewicza, na którym obrażał osoby homoseksualne". Onet Wiadomości. August 8, 2019.
  45. 1 2 "Wyborcza.pl". wyborcza.pl.
  46. ↑ "PFN, czyli jak państwo PiS dba o swoich". 18 September 2019.
  47. ↑ "Jozef Mackiewicz Literary Prize". Culture.pl. Retrieved 2019-05-20.
  48. ↑ "Postanowienie Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 3 maja 2007 r. o nadaniu orderów". prawo.sejm.gov.pl. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
Marek Jan Chodakiewicz
Born (1962-07-15) July 15, 1962 (age 61)
Warsaw, Poland
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Education SFSU (BA)
Columbia University (MPhil, PhD)
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