"Poland did not start World War II. It was the victim of aggression by Germany and the Soviet Union," the institute said in a post on X on Tuesday, adding that it condemned any "attempts to justify or defend Hitler's aggression against Poland."
The row follows a podcast interview in which Carlson spoke with broadcaster Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former British Cabinet minister and pro-Brexit campaigner.
Carlson argued that Germany had been stripped of "German territory with Germans in it" before the war.
Rees-Mogg countered that Prussia had earlier taken part in the partitions of Poland. Carlson did not address that point, saying instead that this had been Hitler's argument "and by the way, that was true."
The institute said the historical facts were clear. Before attacking Poland, Germany had annexed Austria and dismantled Czechoslovakia. On August 23, 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, whose secret protocol paved the way for the partition of Poland between the two totalitarian powers.
Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, using propaganda and staged provocations to present its aggression as justified, the institute said. The Soviet Union attacked from the east on September 17.
"Historical context matters. Territorial disputes, the Treaty of Versailles or pre-war diplomacy cannot justify Hitler's war of aggression," the institute said, warning that repeating arguments once used by German propaganda risked reversing roles by portraying the aggressor as the victim.
"The facts of September 1939 are clear. They must not be rewritten!" it added.
Carlson's remarks angered Polish politicians and diplomats.
Government spokesman Adam Szłapka called them outrageous. Parliamentary Speaker Włodzimierz Czarzasty said there could be no agreement to "any historical relativism."
On Monday, Poland's embassy in Washington published a message from its chargé d'affaires, Bogdan Klich, who said he was "outraged" by what he called "false and deeply disturbing statements" and demanded an immediate public retraction and apology.
Klich described the remarks as a "colossal insult to the millions of victims of Nazism, including hundreds of thousands of American soldiers who had been killed or wounded while liberating Europe."
The US ambassador to Poland, Tom Rose, wrote on X that Carlson was "the most dangerous demagogue in America" and "an historical illiterate posing as a modern-day Herodotus."
Portraying Nazi Germany as the victim and Poland as the criminal was "a grotesque insult to a nation that paid in blood unmatched in the annals of human crime," he said.
During the interview, Rees-Mogg repeatedly challenged Carlson, saying he was "verging on defending Hitler." Carlson replied that he was not a "secret Nazi."
Carlson, a former Fox News host known for pro-Russian views, has previously criticised the Allied war effort against Nazi Germany and has hosted historian and podcaster Darryl Cooper, who is known for revisionism and for downplaying Hitler's crimes.
Carlson has also spoken favourably of Vladimir Putin's Russia, suggesting it is superior to the West.
In the same interview, he claimed, contrary to the facts, that Russia's economy is "much larger" than Britain's.
(jh/gs)
Source: PAP, Polish Radio