Polish Far-Right Leader Charged After Calling Auschwitz Gas Chambers a “Hoax”

"Radio Poland" reported today (Wednesday) that the country’s prosecutors and Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) have filed charges against Grzegorz Braun, leader of the far-right Confederation of the Polish Crown party and a member of the European Parliament, for denying Nazi crimes.

Braun was charged in a court in the city of Krakow after claiming in July 2025 that the gas chambers at Auschwitz were a "hoax" and had not been used for the mass murder of prisoners. He made the remarks in two interviews, with Radio Wnet and on YouTube channels, where he described the evidence about them as a propaganda narrative.

Braun was summoned to the prosecutor’s offices in Krakow, where he pleaded not guilty but did not deny making the statements. In Poland, officials noted that the proceedings are being conducted under Article 55 of the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance. The IPN said the claims contradict historical knowledge based on documents, eyewitness testimony, perpetrators’ confessions, and criminal investigations, both past and present.

If convicted, the defendant faces a fine or up to three years in prison. Before the charges were filed, the European Parliament lifted his parliamentary immunity to allow the prosecution to move forward.