How Poland's Newest President is Rewriting the Holocaust

Karol Nawrocki was recently elected Poland’s president on June 1, 2025, with 50.89% of the vote in a runoff against Rafał Trzaskowski, is a 42-year-old historian, former director of the Museum of the Second World War (2017–2021), and head of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) since 2021. Backed by the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, Nawrocki ran as an independent, emphasizing a “Poland first” agenda, Euroscepticism, and traditional Catholic values. His presidency, set to begin August 6, 2025, is seen as a setback for Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s pro-EU, liberal reforms, given the president’s veto powers and influence over historical narratives.

For Jews though, his presidency is nothing other than a royal disaster, and a scary one at that. Here's why.

The Jedwabne Pogrom and Exhumation Demands

The Jedwabne pogrom of 1941, where at least 340 Jews were massacred, is a contentious issue in Polish history. Official investigations, including a 2000 study by the IPN, confirmed that ethnic Poles, under German occupation, perpetrated the killings, though some Polish nationalists dispute this, claiming exhumations could challenge the narrative.

Nawrocki, as IPN head, has been linked to calls for exhumations in Jedwabne, particularly by far-right figures like Grzegorz Braun, who placed fourth in the 2025 election’s first round. Braun, a known antisemite, publicly urged Nawrocki to resume exhumations to “uncover the truth,” calling it as a defense against “Jewish historical propaganda.”

2. Holocaust Revisionism Allegations

Nawrocki’s tenure at the IPN has drawn criticism for promoting narratives that emphasize Polish victimhood and resistance during World War II while downplaying or delegitimizing research on Polish antisemitism and collaboration with Nazis.

The IPN, under Nawrocki, supported laws (2018–2019) that initially criminalized attributing Holocaust complicity to Poland or Poles, later downgraded to civil offenses after international outcry, including from Israel’s Yad Vashem.

Critics, including historians like Adam Leszczyński and Michał Bilewicz, argue these policies create a chilling effect on academic freedom, discouraging research into Polish involvement in Jewish persecution. Nawrocki’s campaign rhetoric, including his pledge to fight “disgusting attacks” by Holocaust scholars like Gross, Barbara Engelking, and Jan Grabowski, aligns with this nationalist revisionism.

Yet, Nawrocki has publicly condemned the Holocaust, calling it the “Shoah” and emphasizing Poland’s role as a victim of German totalitarianism. In a 2024 article, he wrote, “We are special custodians of the memory of the Shoah,” noting the extermination camps on Polish soil and Polish martyrdom.

3. Hanukkah and Antisemitic Allegations

Nawrocki’s promise to end the tradition of lighting Hanukkah candles in the presidential palace, initiated in 2006 by President Lech Kaczyński, has sparked significant controversy. This pledge came in response to far-right candidate Grzegorz Braun, who infamously extinguished a Hanukkah menorah in parliament in 2023 with a fire extinguisher and disrupted a Holocaust lecture by Grabowski. Braun’s campaign openly lamented the “Judaization” of Poland, and Nawrocki’s failure to distance himself from such rhetoric has raised concerns among Jewish communities and Israel.

However, Nawrocki has refrained from directly criticizing Israel during his campaign and visited the Knesset in 2023, suggesting some diplomatic engagement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Nawrocki on his victory, expressing hope for stronger bilateral ties, despite earlier tensions over Poland’s Holocaust laws.

The accusation that On X, critics like @academic_la and @FoxmanAbraham call him a “raging antisemite” and warn of a “terrible road ahead” for historical truth.