Polsko-angielsko-niemiecki Glosariusz regionalny Województwa Opolskiego

Cover of the Glosariusz regionalny.

Polsko-angielsko-niemiecki Glosariusz regionalny Województwa Opolskiego ("The Polish-English-German Glossary of the Regional Terminology of the Province of Opole") is a Polish book written by Tomasz Kamusella, which has been banned by the Polish government.

Censorship in Opole Province

The reference work, Polsko-angielsko-niemiecki Glosariusz regionalny Województwa Opolskiego (The Polish-English-German Glossary of the Regional Terminology of the Province of Opole), written by Tomasz Kamusella was published in 2004 in Opole by the publishing house, Oficyna Piastowska (ISBN 8389357186). The book’s run of 2000 copies was destroyed by Roman Hlawacz, the owner of the Oficyna Piastowska, on the order of the Self-Governmental Regional Authority (Urząd Marszałkowski) of the Province of Opole, Poland, transmitted to him orally by Ewa Rurynkiewicz, a Deputy President of the Province of Opole.^[1] The step was taken, because in the overview of the history of the region the reference, apart from giving the Polish and Soviet view according to which the new German-Polish border was recognized in 1945 at the Potsdam Conference, also included the view propounded by the Western Allies and West Germany, namely, that the border was finally and fully recognized in light of international law only when the German-Polish Border Treaty (1990) was ratified in 1992.^[2] Although the glossary was positively reviewed for publication (including the information on the status of the German-Polish frontier) by the Opole sociologist, Danuta Berlińska and the Opole politician, Danuta Jazłowiecka, at present a MEP; Deputy President Ryszard Galla publicly appealed for burning all the copies of the Glossary.^[3]

A press campaign against the Glossary and its author^[4] commenced on May 8, 2004 when the radical nationalist,^[5] Jerzy Czerwiński (pl), at a press conference in Opole, falsely announced that the Glossary claims that Opole Province is part of Germany. The leading Polish dailies repeated this claim without checking what is actually written in the book.^[6] Within days, Józef Musielok (pl), Rector of Opole University, publicly announced his wish to punish the author of the Glossary, who then worked at the University.^[7] The University’s Faculty of Philology, headed by Dean Stanisław Kochman (pl) condemned Tomasz Kamusella and his glossary, without informing him about the matter, or letting him present his own opinion on the issue.^[8]

Censorship in the National Library of Poland

The Opole Province President, Grzegorz Kubat (pl), accused the Glossary’s author of a crime unknown to the Polish law, namely, of ‘breaching Poland’s raison d'état.’ Hence, the accusation was dismissed as unfounded.^[9] Meanwhile, the regional authority secretly, in an extrajudicial manner and thus illegally, ordered the National Library of Poland (Biblioteka Narodowa) not to lend its two copies of the Glossary. This library complied readily, providing no legal basis for its decision.^[10]

The information on the Glossary from the electronic catalog of the National Library of Poland reads ‘The copy of the book is not made available to readers, due to objections raised by the Regional Authority of the Province of Opole.’

The library made its two copies of the Glossary accessible to readers only in early 2012, after the regionally authority, withdrew this extrajudicial ban, claiming that the library had never been bound by the authority's 'advice' on the Glossary.^[11] Furthermore, the library admitted that it was the first time in its history that a book in its holdings was made inaccessible to readers.

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