Campaign targets 'disgusting and defamatory' book

Published on Tuesday 11 January 2011 16:11

The publishers of a book that claims Poles dug up the remains of Holocaust victims in search of gold teeth and jewels said an "organised" campaign is trying to stop them releasing it.

Directors of Znak said that opponents of Golden Harvest were sending hundreds of messages every day in order to jam the company's e-mail accounts.

Written by Princeton professor Jan Gross, Golden Harvest examines Polish attitudes towards Jews in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. Its title refers to Poles sifting through the remains of the hundreds of thousands murdered at the Treblinka death camp for gold teeth and anything precious missed by the Nazis.

The Warsaw-born historian also argues that Poles profited financially from hiding Jews from the Nazis.

Andrzej and Anna Kolakowski, the husband and wife team who have organised the e-mail campaign, described the book as "disgusting and defamatory" and called on people to "defend the honour of Poland and the Poles" by sending as many spam e-mails as possible to the publisher.

Mr Gross has also been criticised by fellow historians.

One academic, Piotr Gontarczyk, dismissed Mr Gross as "irresponsible and frivolous" and "guilty of obvious fraud".