Nortom

NORTOM is a privately owned Polish publishing house, founded in 1992 in Wrocław, specializing in books on Polish history with special focus on the Kresy region of the Second Polish Republic, the Polish literature and political thought, including on post-communism economic crises and nationalism. Nortom is listed by the Roth Institute in Tel Aviv among the four Polish publishers known for their "antisemitic, Holocaust distorting or Holocaust denying books."^[1] It also publishes religious books for children and youth. Nortom was founded by Norbert Tomczyk,^[2] re-elected as member of the Board of Control of the Polish Chamber of Book Publishers in December 2000,^[1] a leader of the marginal Polish political party Stronnictwo Narodowe ("National Party")^[1] whose ideology is based on that of the pre-war National Democratic movement, and which received 0.16% of the Polish vote in the presidential elections.^[1]

Authors featured by Nortom include: antisemitic^[3][4] Polish politician, diplomat and statesman Roman Dmowski (1864-1939), who was a chief architect of the new Polish state,^[5] with a series on the return of Polish sovereignty; Jan Ludwik Popławski (1854-1908) the founder of The National-Democratic Party (1897); right-wing politician Janusz Dobrosz, member of the Polish Parliament;^[6] Dmowski's political ally Jędrzej Giertych, Polish war correspondent and Franco ally during the Spanish Civil War,^[7] expelled from the emigration party Stronnictwo Narodowe because of his extremism and antisemitism ^[8]; Zbigniew Żmigrodzki; Adam Doboszyński (1904-1949); Roman Rybarski (1887-1942), one of the best economists in prewar Poland,^[9] (another ally of Roman Dmowski); Czesław Czaplicki; Andrzej Sołdrowski, political prisoner under Stalinism; Lubomir Czupkiewicz; Piotr Kosobudzki; Maciej Giertych, a member of the European Parliament who created a scandal with his antisemitic writing ^[10][11]; Stanisław Jastrzębski, veteran Polish underground fighter during World War II; controversial politologist Edward Prus; Stanisław Żurek; Norbert Tomczyk; Stanisław Sosenkiewicz; Henryk Komański; Szczepan Siekierka; Witalij Masłowśkyj; Aleksander Korman; Mieczysław Dobrzański; Feliks Koneczny, a Polish historian and social philosopher who claimed that Jews were conspiring to destroy Latin-Christian civilization and that Nazism was example of Jewish civilization type^[12]; Michał Poradowski; Stanisław Bełza; Izabella Wolikowska and others.^[2]

Controversy

In 2000, Nortom was forced to withdraw its 12 controversial titles from the Frankfurt Book Fair by the Polish Ministry of Culture representative Andrzej Nowakowski overlooking the Polish exposition. Nortom was accused of selling anti-German, Anti-Ukrainian and antisemitic books, especially the following titles: Być czy nie być by Stanisław Bełza, Polska i Niemcy by Jędrzej Giertych and I tak nie przemogą. Antykościół, antypolonizm, masoneria by his son Maciej Giertych.^[13][14] As a result of the above request, the president of the Polish delegation Andrzej Chrzanowski from Polska Izba Książki decided to penalize Nortom by removing it from the 2000 book fair altogether.^[15]

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{a b c d} The Steven Roth Institute for the study of Contemporary Antisemitism Racism University of Tel Aviv.
2. ^ ^{a b} (Polish) Wydawnictwo NORTOM, homepage
3. ^ Mendelsohn page 38.
4. ^ Paulsson page 21.
5. ^ Zamoyski, Adam The Polish Way A Thousand-Year History of the Poles and their Culture, London: John Murray Ltd, 1987 ISBN 0-7195-4674-5. Page 334.
6. ^ Janusz Dobrosz at www.sejm.gov.pl/poslowie
7. ^ (Polish) "Polska a hiszpańska wojna domowa" at salon24.pl, 2009-08-27
8. ^ Chodakiewicz, Marek Jan & Radzilowski, John, ed. Spanish Carlism and Polish Nationalism: The Borderlands of Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Charlottesville, Virginia: Leopolis Press, 2003
9. ^ Roman Wapiński, Narodowa Demokracja 1893-1939. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy Imienia Ossolińskich, (1980). ISBN 83-04-00008-3.
10. ^ "Dateline World Jewry", April 2007, World Jewish Congress
11. ^ The President of the European Parliament
12. ^ Joanna Beata Michlic, Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present, U of Nebraska Press, 2006, ISBN 0803232403Google Print, p.179
13. ^ "Wycofani z targów" (in Polish). rmf.fm Radio Muzyka Fakty. 20 October 2001. http://www.rmf.fm/fakty/?next=1&ptr=0&id=14780. Retrieved 2009-09-22. 
14. ^ (Polish) Krzysztof Woźniak, Polska książka na targach we Frankfurcie, Miesiecznik Kultury TYGIEL
15. ^ (Polish) "Wrocławskie wydawnictwo usunięte z targów książki," 2000-10-19 19:43:09, NaszeMiasto.pl

External links

• Nortom's home page