The Witold Pilecki International Book Award | an open letter - Instytut Pileckiego
13.11.2021 (Sat)
The Witold Pilecki International Book Award | an open letter
An open letter from Wojciech Kozłowski, Director of the Pilecki Institute, to Eliyana Adler, the prizewinner of the Witold Pilecki International Book Award in the "Academic history book" category.
Dear Professor Adler,
The contents of the message that you had sent to the jury of the Witold Pilecki International Book Award and the Pilecki Institute on November 4, 2021 have just been made public. Therefore, I think it only fair to address you in an open letter.
You decided to decline the Witold Pilecki International Book Award in the “Academic Historical Book” category in this year’s inaugural edition. The members of the jury – a body of eminent scholars (not only historians), journalists, war reporters and museologists who represent not only several countries, but also different views and sensibilities – have already expressed their sadness and regret. I do not in the slightest question the rightness of the jury’s independent choice. I find it all the more regrettable that instead of discussing the merits of your wonderful book, we are pondering the reasons behind your unexpected decision.
In your message, you have briefly outlined the circumstances in which Nazi Germany implemented the Holocaust of the Jews during the Second World War. You have emphasized the significance of the collaboration between the invaders on the one hand and the governments and societies of the occupied countries on the other. You have pointed to various attitudes towards the Holocaust adopted by non-Jewish Poles. I agree with you in principle, though we might differ in particular assessments and interpretations. We can never find it out, however, if there is no will to meet, discuss, and face a different point of view. I agree that “recognizing and researching this entangled past is part of moving forward”. This cannot be done, however, in the absence of plurality of opinion and a culture of open dialogue.
I respect your view on the current state of Holocaust research in Poland, though I do not concur with it. However, I must protest against some demonstrably untrue remarks. You wrote that the Pilecki Institute “has also been involved in suppressing the work of historians who strive to show the complex and indeed tragic aspects of Poland’s wartime past” and supports the government in its attempts “to curtail this crucial research through the threat and reality of legal action”. I am not surprised that you make these allegations with neither proof nor example, and that is because they are completely unfounded. Just as with studying the past, consulting the sources and verifying the readily available narratives is also required to develop an informed opinion about the present. This, however, takes more time than the four days that had passed between your positive response to the information that you have won the award and your final decision to decline it.
One of the reasons for establishing the Witold Pilecki International Book Award was to broaden the scope of discussion on the 20th-century history of Poland, so that books on the same subject published in various languages and in different cultures could engage in direct dialogue and compete on equal terms. We still believe that this is possible. As one of the winners of the first edition, you are always welcome at the Pilecki Institute – in Warsaw, Berlin or online – for a seminar, lecture, panel discussion, conference or a book promotion. This is a standing invitation.
I would like to congratulate you both on your excellent book and the complimentary decision of the jury of the Pilecki Award.
Yours sincerely,
Wojciech Kozłowski, PhD
Director of the Pilecki Institute
See also
- „Soviet Central Asia as a Totalitarian Testing Ground” - international academic conference
News
„Soviet Central Asia as a Totalitarian Testing Ground” - international academic conference
Three days, dozens of presentations, and researchers from Poland and abroad summed up the international academic conference held at the Pilecki Institute in Warsaw on 2–4 September.
- The hitherto unknown memoirs of a German official from occupied Poland have been donated to the Pilecki Institute
News
The hitherto unknown memoirs of a German official from occupied Poland have been donated to the Pilecki Institute
A unique document has been added to the Pilecki Institute’s archives: the previously unpublished and unknown memoirs of a German official who worked in the civil administration of the General Government during the Second World War.
- Evil Woven into Everyday Life | Dr Joanna Nikel on the Memoirs of a German Official from His Stay in the General Government
News
Evil Woven into Everyday Life | Dr Joanna Nikel on the Memoirs of a German Official from His Stay in the General Government
"It is rare for a document to find its way into archival collections in which the voice of an official of the occupation apparatus himself – written down without any intention of accusation, and even stressing his own sense of normality – becomes one of the most eloquent testimonies to the criminal nature of the system he served", writes Dr Joanna Nikel in her initial commentary on the materials received by the Pilecki Institute.
- 14 books nominated for this year’s Witold Pilecki International Book Award
News
14 books nominated for this year’s Witold Pilecki International Book Award
On Saturday, 5 September, at the Autumn Book Fair in Warsaw, the Pilecki Institute announced the titles and authors of 14 books nominated for this year’s Witold Pilecki International Book Award.
- New Jork | Exhibition: Between Life and Death. Stories of Rescue during the Holocaust
News
New Jork | Exhibition: Between Life and Death. Stories of Rescue during the Holocaust
Through October 29, the Pilecki Institute in New York is hosting an exhibition about the people who risked their own lives to save Jews during the Holocaust—and those who survived thanks to their courage.
- „Soviet Central Asia as a Totalitarian Testing Ground” - international academic conference
News
„Soviet Central Asia as a Totalitarian Testing Ground” - international academic conference
The international academic conference organized by the Pilecki Institute is the first initiative in Poland to bring together interdisciplinary research on Soviet Central Asia, a region with an exceptionally complex history of totalitarianism, mass repression, and forced deportations, that also include the experiences of Poles.
- Karol Madaj appointed Director of the Witold Pilecki Institute of Solidarity and Valor
News
Karol Madaj appointed Director of the Witold Pilecki Institute of Solidarity and Valor
Marta Cienkowska, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, has appointed Karol Madaj Director of the Witold Pilecki Institute of Solidarity and Valor in Warsaw. His five-year term will begin on 30 August 2026. From 1 September 2025, Karol Madaj served as the acting director of the Pilecki Institute.
- Hacker attack on the websites of the Pilecki Institute in Warsaw, Berlin, and Augustów
News
Hacker attack on the websites of the Pilecki Institute in Warsaw, Berlin, and Augustów
On the night of August 13–14 our websites suffered another serious hacking attack. Content bearing the hallmarks of Russian propaganda and disinformation — targeting Polish history and reinforcing anti-Ukrainian narratives — was deliberately placed on the Institute's pages devoted to Augustów, Berlin, and Warsaw.
- Academic conference “Oppositional Engagement of Women in Authoritarian and Totalitarian Systems of the 20th Century: Poland in a Comparative European Perspective (1919–1989)”
News
Academic conference “Oppositional Engagement of Women in Authoritarian and Totalitarian Systems of the 20th Century: Poland in a Comparative European Perspective (1919–1989)”
The second academic conference in a series “Oppositional Engagement of Women in Authoritarian and Totalitarian Systems of the 20th Century: Poland in a Comparative European Perspective (1919–1989)” brought together representatives of various fields of the humanities and social sciences from numerous research centers in Poland and abroad.
- Accountability for War Crimes. New book from Pilecki's expert
News
Accountability for War Crimes. New book from Pilecki's expert
It is an expanded English-language edition of the monograph "Problem odpowiedzialności karnej za zbrodnie wojenne w pracach rządu polskiego na emigracji (1939–1945)", which in 2023 was awarded a grant under the Ministry of Science and Higher Education’s “Excellent Science II” program for the translation and open-access publication of the book abroad.
- 12 July | Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Augustów Roundup
News
12 July | Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Augustów Roundup
12 July is celebrated as the National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Augustów Roundup. The roundup began 81 years ago on this day – on 12 July 1945, two months after the end of the Second World War.
- The Volhynian Crime: The Pilecki Institute and its scholarly and research activities
News
The Volhynian Crime: The Pilecki Institute and its scholarly and research activities
On the Sunday of 11 July 1943, units of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, the armed wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (Stepan Bandera faction) – a radical fascist organization striving to build an independent Ukrainian state without any national minorities – carried out a coordinated attack on almost a hundred Polish settlements in the German-occupied Volhynian Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic.