Polish MEP Grzegorz Braun charged with Holocaust denial over Auschwitz statements
Prosecutors from the Institute of National Remembrance charged Member of the European Parliament Grzegorz Braun on Tuesday with publicly denying Nazi genocide crimes at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
IPN charges in Kraków
On Tuesday morning, prosecutors from the Kraków branch of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) formally charged Member of the European Parliament Grzegorz Braun with public denial of Nazi genocide. The charges focus on two instances in July 2025 where the leader of the Confederation of the Polish Crown claimed that gas chambers in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp were fake. According to IPN prosecutors, Braun's assertions directly contradict established historical documentation, witness testimony, perpetrator confessions, and forensic findings conducted in the 1990s by the Jan Sehn Institute of Forensic Research in Kraków. If convicted, the politician faces penalties ranging from a fine to up to three years in prison.
Questioning and Braun's reaction
Braun appeared for interrogation in Kraków around 11:00 AM on 25 August 2026, where he refused to provide immediate testimony and pleaded not guilty. Following the session, he stated that he would submit written explanations after receiving the formal justification for the charges, while refusing to retract his previous statements. Standing outside the IPN building before supporters, Braun repeated his skepticism regarding what he described as the technical aspects of concentration camp crimes.
You are blackmailed with the idea that these are generally known and unquestioned facts. Well, I question them.
His legal counsel, Jacek Wilk, asserted before the hearing that Braun had not denied Nazi crimes as such, describing the matter as a scientific dispute over methodology and historical evidence.
Growing legal fallout and broader charges
The IPN indictment adds to a series of criminal cases opened against Braun over the past three years. On 20 August 2026, the District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw charged him with four criminal acts, including the theft of a Ukrainian flag in Biała Podlaska, the theft of an EU flag in Katowice, the destruction of an LGBT exhibition in the Sejm, and defamation concerning the Polin Museum. Those proceedings follow a July 2025 indictment covering seven separate incidents, among them the physical obstruction of former health official Łukasz Szumowski, property destruction at the German Historical Institute, and the December 2023 use of a fire extinguisher against Hanukkah candles in parliament.
- Braun extinguishes Hanukkah candles in the Polish Sejm with a fire extinguisher
- Braun calls Auschwitz gas chambers fake during a Radio Wnet broadcast
- IPN prosecutors in Kraków launch an investigation into Braun's Holocaust statements
- Warsaw prosecutors charge Braun over flag thefts and exhibition damage
- IPN formally presents Holocaust denial charges to Braun in Kraków
Political and institutional response
Polish Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek condemned Braun's statements during a press briefing, characterizing the denial of historical facts in a country severely devastated by World War II as unacceptable. Żurek noted that while statutory penalties provide up to three years of imprisonment, sentencing remains the exclusive prerogative of independent courts.
It is a scandal that in a country that suffered such enormous war losses, there is a politician who negates historical facts.
Outside the prosecutor's office, political associates gathered to protest the legal proceedings. Activist Mateusz Piskorski criticized the state funding allocated to the IPN, arguing that its 600 million zloty annual budget was being directed toward police and prosecutorial actions against elected representatives.
