Marek Jan Chodakiewicz

Marek Jan Chodakiewicz
Born 1962 (age 5556)
Warsaw, Poland
Occupation Writer, academic
Nationality Polish-American
Citizenship American
Genre World War II history

Marek Jan Chodakiewicz (born 1962 in Warsaw, Poland) is a Polish-American historian specializing in East Central European history of the 19th and 20th century. Chodakiewicz lives in the Greater Washington, DC area.[1]

Academic career

Marek Jan Chodakiewicz earned a B.A. degree from the San Francisco State University in 1988, a M.Phil. from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. with distinction from Columbia University in 2001. His Ph.D. thesis was entitled: Accommodation and Resistance: A Polish County Kraśnik during the Second World War and its Aftermath, 1939-1947. Between 2001 and 2003 Chodakiewicz was an assistant professor at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville as the holder of the Kościuszko Chair in Polish Studies of the Miller Center of Public Affairs. In 2003, Chodakiewicz was appointed Research Professor of History and in 2004 Professor of History at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, DC, where he teaches and conducts research on East Central Europe and Russia.[2] His expert areas include History, Democracy Building, Communism, American Foreign Policy and International Relations. Since 2008, he has also held the Kościuszko Chair in Polish Studies at IWP. Chodakiewicz has also served as Adjunct Professor of International Relations at Patrick Henry College since 2008.[3]

In 2003 Chodakiewicz received the Józef Mackiewicz Literary Prize in Warsaw,[4] for his two-volume book of history entitled Ejszyszki.[5] According to Chodakiewicz his work refutes Yaffa Eliach's allegations of a 1944 post-liberation pogrom in Eišiškės against Jews by the Polish Home Army, in which Eliach said she survived beneath the body of her mother and baby brother who were shot multiple times after being discovered hiding in a closet, and as promoted in the american media and her book.[6][7][8][9][10] Per Chodakiewicz Jewish bystanders were killed accidentally during an "anti-Soviet assault by the underground", and not in a pogrom. However, per Chodakiewicz "unfortunately, and quite typically, unlike the charges, the refutation received no publicity in the American media".[11][12] Chodkiewicz's publication was reviewed positively in the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, whose editor Adam Michnik had previously called Eliach's account as an insult to Poland.[13][14]

In April 2005, Chodakiewicz was appointed by President George W. Bush for a 5-year term to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Controversy erupted towards the end of his term over Chodakiewicz's claims in several publications that Polish nationalists who murdered Jews after the Holocaust, in events such as the Kielce pogrom, were not motivated by Antisemitism.[15] Chodakiewicz's appointment was criticized by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which noted publications by Chodakiewicz in far-right Polish publications.[16] Historian Jan T. Gross said that "The guy is an ideologist of the radical right, I don't have any doubts that he's anti-Semitic."[16][15][17] While Polish-Canadian historian Piotr Wróbel said that "he would never use a phrase or adjective that would clearly identify him as an anti-Semite", but "There is no doubt whatsoever that he doesn't like the Jews.".[16] Chodakiewicz rejected the allegations as "baseless", and his term on the council ended in 2010.[15]

Chodakiewicz specializes in East Central European history of the 19th and 20th century including the history of Poland, Habsburg and Romanov Empires, Jewish-Polish relations, environmental politics, intellectual conservative tradition, and extremist movements including Communism and Fascism. His special area of interest is World War II and its aftermath.

Reviews

Reviewing The Massacre in Jedwabne, July 10, 1941: Before, During, and After on the Jedwabne pogrom, Peter Stachura in a very positive review described the book as meticulous and well researched.[18] In contrast, Joanna Michlic in her review writes that the book presents "intellectually and morally unacceptable interpretations", being part of a "ethno-nationalist historiography" trend that promotes "an image of Poland as only heroic, suffering, noble, and innocent".[19] Piotr Wróbel in his review, says that Chodakiewicz's aim, as stated in the introduction, is to show Jan T. Gross is wrong. Wróbel acknowledges that Chodakiewicz makes some good arguments, however they are "are overshadowed by numerous flaws" and the book lacks any sense of proportion. According to Wróbel, the book has a "visible political agenda" and is "difficult to read, unoriginal, irritating, and unconvincing".[20]

Reviewing Intermarium: The Land between the Black and Baltic Seas, Karl A. Roider Jr. describes the main theme of the book as a struggle between the democratic Polish model and the Russian totalitarian model over the Intermarium which per Chodakiewicz's includes the Baltic States, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova. While attempting to appeal to an American audience, the book demands the reader know quite a bit about Eastern European history. Much of the book focuses on the post-1989 Intermarium, describing a struggle between patriots and post-communist Russophiles. The Russophiles being described as "in cahoots with Western deconstructionists, feminists, environmentalists, gay rights advocates, nihilists, and postmodernists who are entrenched in American and Western European universities". According to Roider, "there are conspiracies everywhere in this book, but the author offers no names, no institutions, no objectives, and no strategies" other than undermining the Intermarium's return to the pre-1772 Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Chodakiewicz calls for an alliance between the Eastern European countries to contain Russia, however according to Roider such a call is likely to fall on deaf ears as the United State's attention is focused elsewhere.[21]

Criticism

Danusha Goska and Piotr Wróbel have also written unfavourable reviews of two of Chodakiewicz's monographs for The Sarmatian Review in 2004 and 2006.[22][23] Chodakiewicz included an essay by John Radzilowski (assistant professor of history at the University of Alaska Southeast) in Golden Harvest or Hearts of Gold?, a 2012 collection of essays co-edited by Chodakiewicz, which characterized several prominent Polish-studies scholars as "neo-Stalinists".[24] The characterisation of these historians was strongly criticised by Goska in her review of the book for Polin.[25]

Chodakiewicz wrote a few books in response to works by Jan T. Gross. In 2017 his approach to the Holocaust was criticized by Joanna Michlic, a professor of Polish-Jewish history at Lehigh University, as an attempt to erase the "dark past" by showing only a "good past".[26] Chodakiewicz has been criticized for his reluctance to accept Polish responsibility for the Kielce pogrom.[27] Critics particulaly take issue with Chodakiewicz's argument that Jewish-born communist partisans' and functionaries' killing of Poles during the Soviet occupation "contextualizes", if it does not justify, Polish violence against Jews. Laurence Weinbaum compares Chodakiewicz's writing to pseudo-scholarly screeds and says that Chodakiewicz believes the antisemitism scholars in Poland are advancing an anti-Western and anti-American agenda.[28]

Political views

According to Hope not Hate, Chodakiewicz is a frequent commentator on right wing Polish media.[15][29]

In July 2008, Chodakiewicz wrote that Barack Obama was once a Muslim, a radical, and associate of communists.[16][30]

In 2014, Chodakiewicz spoke at a rally of the Ruch Narodowy party, saying "We want a Catholic Poland, not a Bolshevik one, not multicultural or gay!".[15]

In July 2017, Chodakiewicz helped draft US President Donald Trump's speech delivered at Warsaw Uprising Monument, and traveled with the Presidential delegation.[15][29][31]

In January 2018, Chodakiewicz warned that the 50 year anniversary of March 1968 events would be used by "Volga Stalinsts" to "launch another anti-Polish campaign of hatred". According to Chodakiewicz, contrary to the popular view in the English speaking world viewing events through the prism of Antisemitism, March 1968 was a protest of Polish students against communist rule. Chodakiewicz suggested to counter the Jewish campaign by publicizing Pope John Paul II's accomplishments, explaining that a free and independent Poland is indispensable for peace and Europe, and finally by explaining that March 1968 was an anti-communist student rebellion while the purges were done by the communist party and not by Poles. According to Chodakiewicz, communists can not be Polish as communism is transnational.[32][33][34]

Publications

Books

  • 1996 [1995]: Ciemnogród? O Prawicy i Lewicy [Hicksville? On the Right and Left] Ronin Publishers, ISBN 83-86445-00-9 (in Polish).
  • 1997: Zagrabiona pamięć: Wojna w Hiszpanii, 1936-39 [Expropriated Memory: War in Spain], wyd. Fronda, ISBN 83-907210-2-4 (in Polish).
  • 1997-1999: Co-editor: Tajne Oblicze: Dokumenty GL-AL i PPR, 1942-1945 [Secret Face: Documents of the Communist underground], 3 vols. Burchard Edition, ISBN 83-87654-03-5 (in Polish).
  • 1994, 1999: Narodowe Siły Zbrojne: „Ząb" przeciw dwu wrogom [National Armed Forces: „Ząb" against two enemies], wyd. WAMA, 2nd. ed. Fronda, ISBN 83-911097-1-2 (in Polish).
  • 2000: Żydzi i Polacy 1918-1955: Współistnienie, Zagłada, Komunizm [Jews and Poles 1918-1955: Coexistence, Holocaust, Communism], wyd. Fronda, ISBN 83-912541-8-6 (in Polish).
  • 2002: Editor: Ejszyszki. Kulisy zajść w Ejszyszkach: Epilog stosunków polsko-żydowskich na Kresach, 1944-45: Wspomnienia-dokumenty-publicystyka [Ejszyszki: The Background to events in Ejszyszki: The Epilogue of Polish-Jewish relations in the Borderlands], wyd. Fronda, ISBN 83-911063-3-0 (in Polish).
  • 2003: Co-editor: Spanish Carlism and Polish Nationalism: The Borderlands of Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Leopolis Press, ISBN 0-9679960-5-8.
  • 2003: After the Holocaust: Polish-Jewish Relations in the Wake of World War II, East European Monographs, ISBN 0-88033-511-4.
  • 2003: Co-editor: Poland's Transformation: A Work in Progress, Leopolis Press, ISBN 0-9679960-2-3
  • 2004: Co-editor: Ronald Reagan: Moja wizja Ameryki [My vision of America], Wydawnictwo Arwil, ISBN 83-919221-5-4 (in Polish).
  • 2004: Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland, 1939-1947, Lexington Books, ISBN 0-7391-0484-5.
  • 2005: The Massacre in Jedwabne, July 10, 1941: Before, During, After, Columbia University Press and East European Monographs, ISBN 0-88033-554-8.
  • 2010: Co-editor, with Wojciech Jerzy Muszyński, Żeby Polska była polska: Antologia publicystyki konspiracyjnej podziemia narodowego 1939 – 1950 [So That Poland Remains Polish: An Anthology of the Polish Nationalist Underground Press] (Warsaw: IPN, 2010), ISBN 9788376292120.
  • 2011: Co-editor, with Wojciech Jerzy Muszyński, Złote serca czy złote żniwa. Studia nad wojennymi losami Polaków i Żydów [Hearts of Gold or a Golden Harvest? Studies on the Wartime Fate of Poles and Jews] (Warsaw: The Facto, 2011), ISBN 9788361808053.
  • 2012: Co-editor, with Wojciech Jerzy Muszynski and Pawel Styrna, Golden Harvest or Hearts of Gold? Studies on the Fate of Wartime Poles and Jews (Washington, DC: Leopolis Press), ISBN 0-9824888-1-5.
  • 2012: Intermarium: The Land between the Black and Baltic Seas (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers), ISBN 978-1412847742.

Awards

See also

References

  1. Marek Jan Chodakiewicz biography at the Institute of World Politics. Archived 2011-05-22 at the Wayback Machine. Washington, DC
  2. The Institute of World Politics Faculty. Archived 2015-02-27 at the Wayback Machine. IWP Graduate School of National Security and International Affairs, Washington, DC
  3. Patrick Henry College. "Marek J. Chodakiewicz, Ph.D.". Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  4. PAP (November 11, 2003). "Jozef Mackiewicz Literary Prize". Culture.pl. Warsaw: Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
  5. Literary Award Józef Mackiewicz. Only the truth is interesting, Polska Times, 8 Nov 2017
  6. The Pogrom at Eishyshok, Op Ed, New York Times, Yaffa Eliach, 6 Aug 1996
  7. There Once Was a World: A 900-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok, 1999, Yaffa Eliach
  8. "Shtetl – FRONTLINE". FRONTLINE. Retrieved 2017-08-15.
  9. Life Beyond the Holocaust: Memories and Realities, Mira Ryczke Kimmelman, page xxiv
  10. Family Frames: Photography, Narrative, and Postmemory, Marianne Hirsch, page 256
  11. Poland in America's Crooked Mirror: An Installment in Culture Wars, Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, Feb 2008
  12. The Last Rising in the Eastern Borderlands: The Ejszyszki Epilogue in its Historical Context, Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, 2003
  13. Ejszyszki, Chodakiewicz, Marek Jan Paweł Wroński 4 January 2004 Gazeta Wyborcza
  14. Polish paper: fanaticism in New York Times, UPI, 8 Aug 1996
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 DID A POLISH FAR RIGHT ACTIVIST HELP DONALD TRUMP WRITE HIS SPEECH IN WARSAW?, Newsweek, 6 July 2017
  16. 1 2 3 4 HISTORIAN MAREK JAN CHODAKIEWICZ WITH CONTROVERSIAL VIEWS SERVES ON HOLOCAUST MUSEUM BOARD, SPLC, 29 November 2009
  17. Anti-Semitism Book Could Land Historian in Jail, Spiegel, 18 Jan 2018
  18. Stachura, Peter D. "The Massacre in Jedwabne, July 10, 1941: Before, During, and After‐By Marek Jan Chodakiewicz." History 92.306 (2007): 276-277.
  19. Inversion of the Historical Truth about Jedwabne, Joanna Beata Michlic, American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies
  20. Wrobel, Piotr. "The Massacre in Jedwabne, July 10, 1941: Before, During, and After." Sarmatian Review 26.3 (2006): 1238-1241.
  21. Roider, Karl A. "Intermarium: The Land Between The Black and Baltic Seas." Sarmatian Review 33.3 (2013): 1776-1778.
  22. Goska, Danusha (2004-01-25). "After the Holocaust: Polish-Jewish Conflict in the Wake of World War II". The Sarmatian Review. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
  23. Wróbel, Piotr (2006-09-22). "The Massacre in Jedwabne, July 10, 1941: Before, During, and After". The Sarmatian Review. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
  24. Chodakiewicz., Marek. "Hearts of Gold". heartsofgoldpl. Archived from the original on 2 August 2011. Retrieved 5 June 2012. ; Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, Wojciech Jerzy Muszynski, and Pawel Styrna, eds., Golden Harvest or Hearts of Gold? Studies on the Fate of Wartime Poles and Jews (Washington, DC: Leopolis Press, 2012), ISBN 0-9824888-1-5
  25. Goska, Danusha. "Golden Harvest or Hearts of Gold? Studies on the Fate of Wartime Poles and Jews". Polin. The American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
  26. The Holocaust in the Twenty-First Century: Contesting/Contested Memories, David M. Seymour, Mercedes Camino, p. 143.
  27. Kaminski, L. Żaryn, J. (2006). Reflections on the Kielce pogrom. Inst. of nat. remembrance-Commiss. for the prosecution of crimes against the Polish nation. p129-131
  28. Laurence Weinbaum, "Amnesia and Antisemitism in the 'Second Jagiellonian Age', in Robert S. Wistrich, ed., Anti-Judaism, Antisemitism, and Delegitimizing Israel, University of Nebraska Press, 2016, pp. 222-23.
  29. 1 2 EXCLUSIVE: TRUMP’S VISIT TO POLAND IGNITES CONTROVERSY OVER FAR RIGHT LINKS, Hope not Hate, 5 July 2017
  30. Obama's Mirroring, Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, Salon24
  31. Donald Trump’s Visit to Poland Further Emboldens Far-Right Elements, SPLC, 17 July 2017
  32. Professor Marek Jan Chodakiewicz: The March plot, Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, Fronda.pl, Feb 2018
  33. The anniversary of March 68 will be accompanied by attacks on Poland! Professor Chodakiewicz explains how to defend, PCH24, 30 Jan 2018
  34. Professor Marek Jan Chodakiewicz for "TS": March plot., Tysol, Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, 9 Feb 2018
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