Jan Tomasz Gross, a Princeton U. professor, made international headlines this week after the Polish government threatened to strip him of an award
PRINCETON - Historians are rallying behind a Princeton University professor this week after the Polish government criticized his research and threatened to strip a national award he received 20 years ago, reports say.
Princeton University History Professor Jan Gross. (Photo, AP) Princeton University History Professor Jan Tomasz Gross was awarded the Order of Merit from the Polish government in 1996, The Associated Press reported.
In a book called Neighbors, which Gross published several years after the award, he wrote that Poles were responsible for the killings of over 1,000 Jews during the Holocaust, according to the Princeton University website.
His statements angered the Polish government, which started investigating whether the Princeton professor had broken Polish defamation laws, according to The Guardian.
This week a leading Jewish human rights organization criticized the Polish government for "harassing" the Princeton Professor, the reports say.
Their criticism comes after other Polish historians recently wrote an open letter claiming the government would be repressing the freedom of research, reports say.
Gross, who joined Princeton University's history department in 2003, published a book on anti-Semitism in Poland in 2009 the university website said.
He is currently on leave for the 2015-2016 year, the university said.
Gross was not immediately available for comment Thursday.
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