Published: 3 September 2018
Last updated: 4 March 2024
And as he prepares for his visit to Australia, Blatman acknowledges in an extensive interview with The Jewish Independent that his research into the Holocaust and the horrors of genocide and ethnic cleansing have melded with his world view, guiding both his academic and political life.
Blatman is professor of Contemporary Jewry and Holocaust Studies and head of the Research Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is the author of numerous books and articles on the history of Polish Jewry in the 20th century and the Holocaust.
He first came to this field of study, he says, from his own background – his mother was a Holocaust survivor – but continued because he found the discipline of history academically compelling.
The interview takes place in his apartment in northern Tel Aviv, which is filled with books and art, and the walls painted in soft pastels. Blatman is passionate about his research and his conclusions, yet speaks precisely, at times almost dryly.
Blatman will be in Australia this week to deliver a lecture on, and teach about, his most recent research paper, Polish Memory, Jewish Memory: The Debate over the Polish Holocaust Law, at the University of Sydney (September 6, see details below).
The “law” refers to legislation passed by the Polish parliament in February that outlawed blaming Poland for any crimes against Jews? during the Holocaust. Following protests from around the world, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he would request that the law be amended so as not to impose criminal responsibility and prison on its violators.
Contrary to prevailing opinion, Blatman says he does not view the law as “a historical drama.”
“There is too much hype about the law,” he says. “There are claims that it is going to silence the historians. That is nonsense. The law has specifically made exceptions for artistic expression and objective historical research. And there are even some good parts to the law – for instance, the Polish government’s commitment to promoting objective research.”
He is, however, critical of the behaviour of both the Polish and the Israeli governments, which, he says, are using Holocaust commemoration for political purposes.
“When the State of Israel brings Philippines President Duterte, who has been accused of Holocaust denial, expressed admiration for Hitler, and is suspected of extrajudicial killings; or, more recently, Hungarian President Orban, who is a far-right populist and has praised Nazi collaborators – well, that is disgustingly hypocritical."
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“I have created a model for comparative research on the conditions in Poland that led to this new law and on the conditions that led the Knesset to pass a bill in 1986 that criminalises Holocaust denial. My research shows that ‘Holocaust legislation’ in both Israel and Poland serve purposes that are not related to Holocaust denial or blame.
“In Israel, for instance, there was no need to pass legislation against Holocaust denial since, obviously, Holocaust denial is hardly a problem in Israel. Nor is the Polish legislation attending to a real, concrete problem. In both cases, the legislation is intended to determine how to define the Holocaust and how to construct historical memory.”
Blatman is also critical of the agreement reached by Morawiecki and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, in a joint declaration, stated: “We acknowledge and condemn every single case of cruelty against Jews perpetrated by Poles during World War II.”
Netanyahu, Blatman contends, agreed to this statement because he believes that Israel needs the support of Poland in the European Union to further his nationalist agenda.
The Polish government, which, like Israel’s government, is right-wing and nationalistic, used Israeli “approval” of Poland’s rejection of blame for its part in the Holocaust to pander to its own constituencies and promote nationalistic pride.
“These are two governments are ideologically allied and they signed a political agreement. It is morally wrong for politicians to use history for their own purposes,” he says.
Blatman is no less critical of the way in which Israel has commemorated the Holocaust.
“Israel has made instrumental use of the Shoah for many years. Netanyahu is no different than [founding prime minister David] Ben-Gurion. Nor is Israel so different from other peoples, who, in other times and places, have used historical events to serve nation-building purposes,” he says.
“But when the State of Israel brings [Philippine President] Rodrigo Duterte, who has been accused of Holocaust denial, expressed admiration for Hitler, and is suspected of extrajudicial killings; or, more recently, [Hungarian President Viktor] Orban, who is a far-right populist and has praised Nazi collaborators – well, that is disgustingly hypocritical.
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"The State of Israel has maintained relationships with regimes that are suspected of mass crimes, war crimes and genocide – so who are we to speak about morality and the Holocaust?
“I certainly do not minimise the importance of the nationalist message that the State of Israel has promoted – the Jews were a persecuted people for generations, and we are entitled to our own state,” he says. “But, as Jews, we should be promoting a universal message, recognising the tragedies of other peoples who were victims of genocide.”
Instead, he says: “Israel has turned the Holocaust into the primary focus of our identity. And we use the Holocaust to justify any problematic episode in our own history.
A mature state must be able to look to its past and say, ‘This was a bad episode, I am sorry about this, I cannot turn the clock back, but I can try to bring ourselves to a better place.’ The State of Israel is not able to do this. Israel brings up the Holocaust in order not to deal with our own behaviour.”
He is referring to the Naqba, the Palestinian narrative about what Israel refers to as its War of Independence. “Yes, I believe that Israel committed crimes during the War of Independence, some deliberately, others not.
Blatman believes that the discipline of history must be guided by scientific method, and yet, at the same time, he says “there is no such thing as objective history. I don’t believe in the politicisation of history and you do not invent a new history because you believe in a certain political view – that is merely fraud.
“But history is part of the humanities, and it is given to discussion and composed of varied historical approaches. Intellectual pluralism is very important to understanding history.”
While maintaining intellectual rigor, Blatman says, he also believes “that the humanist has a role in society. I don’t believe in academic writing solely to enrich knowledge. An academic must be involved in issues on the social agenda.”
And that has brought him, he says, like almost all scholars of genocide, to liberal political views and a critical position on the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
He is an active public figure, frequently writing in Israeli and international publications. And he is not afraid to compare – and contrast – Israel’s current situation and treatment of the Palestinians to the periods before, and during, World War II.
“First of all, Israel is not committing genocide against the Palestinians. It never did. But there was certainly ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the war in 1948, just as there was in Europe during and after World War II and in other places, such as India and Pakistan,” he says.
“With regard to the Palestinian case, we can argue about how pervasive it was, how deliberate and premeditated. But there is no doubt that there was ethnic cleansing here. Even if we accept that the Palestinians fled, it was ethnic cleansing, because if people flee, they are fleeing from something.”
His knowledge of history and the Holocaust, he continues, has also made him very wary of the uni-ethnic state in general, and particularly of Israel’s most recent “Nation Law,” which defines Israel as a Jewish State.
“When nations define themselves as a one-ethnic state, they define everyone else as an outsider. We Jews suffered from these exclusionary processes, which, under the right circumstances, can lead to the horrors that we have seen.
“I am worried about violence against Palestinians. The emotional racism we see in Israel has no reason or political insight behind it. But it relies on public personalities, rabbis and politicians for whom racism and hatred of Palestinians is an ideology. And that emotional racism is not so different from the atmosphere that prevailed in the Polish state in the years before the war. The Poles went much further than the State of Israel has ever gone, and the atmosphere at the time was much more volatile, but the phenomenon is the same.”
Blatman acknowledges that the constant involvement with one of the most horrific episodes in history sometimes takes a toll on him, “but with time, you learn to deal with these difficult materials, so that your feelings will not affect your scientific work.”
But it does affect his world view. “There is no justification for murdering people on the street, as the Palestinians have done,” he says. “Just as there is no justification for dropping a one-tonne bomb on a school, as Israel has done in Gaza. I have compassion for any innocent victim, from anywhere, who has lost his life in this terrible conflict.
“But I have no compassion for those who reach terrible conclusions that lead to racist conclusions or to thinking about genocide, or ethnic cleansing or mass violence.
“Yes, we Jews were victims. But having been victims does not mean we are deserving of special treatment, or that we are not capable of becoming perpetrators and victimisers.”
Photo: Benjamin Netanyahu meets Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte in Jerusalem yesterday (Times of Israel)
Professor Blatman will speak at Sydney University at 5pm on September 6, in the Kevin Lee Room, Level 6, Lobby H, Quadrangle Building
To book, click here
