Historical Record

Correcting the Historical Record

It took 47 years to correct David Irving's historical lies, but far less time to determine that Pawel Zyzak, author of the 2009 biography "Lech Walesa: The Idea and History" was slanderous when he claimed that Walesa served as a communist informant.

The Polish court ordered publisher Arcana to apologize and remove the slanderous passages.

According to the Krakow Informer, the book was based on the 24-year-old Zyzak's 2008 master’s thesis at Jagiellonian University (Wiki) which was later published by Krakow’s "right winged" publishing house ‘Arcana’.

What is interesting, Paweł Zyzak’s thesis supervisor is the editor in chief of ‘Arcana’. Zyzak is also employed at Krakow’s branch of IPN (Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – The Institute for National Remembrance), an institution establish to clear out names of people who were communist collaborator, and those who were the victims of the system.

The Institute has a mandate preserve the history under Soviets and Nazis and prosecute crimes against Poland. Zyzak's job, the Krakow Informer notes, was "operating the photocopier in the archive department" at the Institute (which may or not be a slur.) His translated Wiki Polish page says he was an archivist. He is described elsewhere as an "historian." Sources in his book are anonymous. It's interesting what happened to him.

Historian Pawel Zyzak currently works in America thanks to a scholarship sponsored by the Polish community in Washington. Following the scandal over the book he said he was forced to work in a supermarket, as no one else would hire him. He claimed that the Institute of National Remembrance contacted prospective employees and urging them not to employ the 25-year-old.

Which means the Institute of National Remembrance did not support him and, in fact, disassociated themselves from the book.

If only the Associated Press and the Washington Post did their homework.
Photo: of Zyzak: EastNews