A Hallmark Of Fascism: Historical Amnesia To Preserve The Illusions Of A Nation’s Mythical Past

“Fascist policies repudiate any dark moments of a nation’s past. In early 2018, the Polish parliament passed a law making it illegal to suggest that Poland bore responsibility for any of the atrocities committed on its soul during the Nazi occupation of Poland, even the well-documented pogroms during this time. According to Radio Poland, “Article 55a, clause 1, of the draft law states that ‘whoever accuses, publicly and against the facts, the Polish nation, or the Polish state of being responsible or complicit in the Nazi crimes committed by the Third German Reich … or other crimes against peace and humanity, or war crimes, or otherwise grossly diminishes the actual perpetrators thereof, shall be subject to a fine or a penalty of imprisonment of up to three years’: Turkey’s article 301 of its penal code outlaws “insulting Turkishness,” including mentioning the Armenian genocides during the First World War. Such attempts to legislate the erasure of a nation’s past are characteristic of fascist regimes.”

— Jason Stanley, How Fascism Works: The Politics Of Us And Them” 2018 (pp. 16-17)