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Polish far-right leader Grzegorz Braun has been charged with denying Nazi crimes, a criminal offence in Poland that carries a prison sentence of up to three years.
The charges relate to statements last year in which Braun, who has a long history of promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories, suggested that the gas chambers at Auschwitz, which was the Nazis’ main killing centre during the Holocaust, are “fake”.
Komunikat o przedstawieniu posłowi do Parlamentu Europejskiego zarzutów publicznego i wbrew faktom zaprzeczania zbrodniom ludobójstwa popełnionym w niemieckim nazistowskim obozie koncentracyjnym i zagłady KL Auschwitz-Birkenau w Oświęcimiu. https://t.co/nLq3XKnXCK
— IPN Kraków (@ipn_krakow) August 25, 2026
On Tuesday morning, Braun was summoned to appear as a suspect at the Kraków branch of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), a state historical body that has the power to prosecute crimes relating to the periods when Poland was under Nazi and communist rule.
A group of his followers gathered outside the building to express their support for Braun, who finished fourth in last year’s presidential elections. Since then, his Confederation of the Polish Crown (KKP) party has risen to around 9% in polls, making it a potential kingmaker after next year’s parliamentary elections.
After meeting with Braun, IPN prosecutor Robert Janicki announced that they had presented Braun with charges for “publicly and contrary to the facts denying the crimes of genocide committed by officers of the Third Reich in the German concentration and extermination camp KL Auschwitz-Birkenau”.
The charges relate to two interviews Braun gave in July last year. He declared that “Auschwitz with its gas chambers is unfortunately a fake” and said that claims about the use of gas chambers are part of a “propaganda narrative” supporting a “quasi-religious cult”.
In actual fact, gas chambers were used at Auschwitz, which was located in German-occupied Poland, to kill around 900,000 people, the vast majority of them Jews.
Janicki noted that Braun’s remarks “clearly contradict common historical knowledge based on documents, witness accounts, perpetrators’ statements and findings from past criminal proceedings”.
Far-right leader Grzegorz Braun says the gas chambers at Auschwitz are “fake” and it is a “fact” that Jews have committed ritual murder.
Prosecutors have launched an investigation into whether he violated Poland's law against denying Nazi crimes https://t.co/7UUKzH5ndG
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) July 10, 2025
When Braun originally made his remarks, they were widely condemned in Poland, which suffered enormously under German occupation during World War Two. Justice minister Waldemar Żurek asked the European Parliament, where Braun sits as an MEP, to lift his legal immunity so he could be charged.
“For me, it is a scandal that, in a country that suffered such enormous war losses, there is a politician who can deny historical facts that are so painful for Poles,” said Żurek at the time, quoted by the Onet news website. “I won’t let this go. We must bring such people to justice.”
In March, the European Parliament approved Żurek’s request, allowing Braun to face charges in relation to his Auschwitz comments, as well as for other alleged crimes.
The European Parliament has again voted to strip Polish far-right leader Grzegorz Braun of immunity to face further charges for Holocaust denial as well as various antisemitic, anti-Ukrainian and anti-LGBT incidents during last year's presidential campaign https://t.co/4EHVEuSDnM
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 26, 2026
On Friday last week, the district prosecutor’s office in Warsaw charged Braun with those other crimes, including the theft of Ukrainian and EU flags he tore down and vandalism of an LGBT+ exhibition being displayed in parliament.
In a separate case, in February this year, Żurek also asked the European Parliament to strip Braun of immunity to face charges of denying Nazi crimes over another incident in which he called the gas chambers at both Auschwitz and Majdanek, another Nazi-German camp in occupied Poland, “fake”.
Meanwhile, Braun is already on trial in Poland for four other alleged crimes, including using a fire extinguisher to attack a Jewish Hanukkah ceremony in the Polish parliament in December 2023.
The trial of Polish far-right leader Grzegorz Braun for his attacks on a Hanukkah celebration in parliament and a Holocaust lecture has begun.
He declared in court that he was facing trial because he had "dared to defend myself against Jewish supremacy" https://t.co/NRZLw7yzyo
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) December 8, 2025
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Alexis HAULOT, © European Union 2026 – Source : EP
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
