Published: 14 February 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
A new study found that Wikipedia entries related to the history of the Holocaust in Poland are being manipulated to remove Polish culpability.
A new study has found a group of Polish nationalists is intentionally distorting Wikipedia entries to downplay the role of ethnic Poles in the Holocaust.
An active group of regular Wikipedia editors is changing entries to distort and falsify the history of the Holocaust in a way which reflects the vision of history espoused by Polish nationalists.
The study was conducted by Jan Grabowski, a history professor in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ottawa and Shira Klein, associate professor of history at Chapman University in California, and published by The Journal of Holocaust Research.
“In the cases which we analysed in our article, the complicity of Poles in the Holocaust, or the participation of ethnic Poles in anti-Jewish acts, is being downplayed or denied,” Grabowski said. “Simultaneously, the role of Poles in rescuing the Jews during the Holocaust is being inflated to a great degree. At the same time, the nationalistic Wikipedians spread and propagate antisemitic cliches and stereotypes.”
The article contains two parts: the first looked at what entries/facts/interpretations are being distorted and falsified and the second looked at the behind-the-scenes processes and editorial mechanisms inside Wikipedia which allow small groups of people with an ideological axe to grind to take control of the information consumed by millions of Wikipedia users.
“The entries which we looked at are read by hundreds of thousands of readers per month,” Grabowski said. “We also show how such a small group of Wikipedia insiders makes it practically impossible to restore the balance to the Wiki entries and to correct the distortions and falsifications.”
READ MORE
Wikipedia’s intentional distortion of the history of the Holocaust (The Journal of Holocaust Research)
Wikipedia’s intentional distortion of the history of the Holocaust (University of Ottawa)
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Photo: Liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto, Poland, in 1943
