On April 25, 2005, then President George W. Bush announced the appointment of 13 individuals to the governing board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in the District.

They were all heartily welcomed by board chair Fred Zeidman, who termed the newcomers "an exceptionally talented group of individuals."

One of those appointees is indeed considered exceptional by some not because of his talents, but because he appears to have been a bizarre choice for the board.

He is Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, a deeply conservative Polish-born historian, commentator, anti-communist and ardent opponent of political correctness whose paper trail and organizational associations indicate to some of his critics that he is also an anti-Semite.

Which begs the question: Given his background, how was Chodakiewicz able to pass muster and gain membership to the museum board (known officially as the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council)?

"It's a bit of a mystery," said Rafal Pankowski, a Polish human rights activist, who reported that Chodakiewicz "has been on our radar since the mid-1990s."

Concerns over Chodakiewicz's membership on the council were first made public in an extensive report issued in November by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil rights organization devoted to fighting intolerance.

Chodakiewicz's controversial reputation stems largely from his published views regarding Polish Jews who were massacred by Polish Catholic nationalists when the Jews returned to their homes during and immediately after World War II.

Consistently downplaying Polish complicity with the Nazis, Chodakiewicz and like-minded Polish nationalist historians have also soft-pedaled the role of ethnic hatred in the killings, according to the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University. Such portrayals, meanwhile, have reinforced anti-Semitic stereotypes, the institute reported.

In his accounts, Chodakiewicz has maintained variously that the Jews instigated the violence because of their collaboration with communists, that Poles were more likely to be victimized by Jews after the war than vice versa and that estimates of the Jewish death toll in the slayings have been exaggerated.

Chodakiewicz, who could not be reached for comment before press time, has flatly denied that he is anti-Semitic, maintaining in the SPLC report that his attempts to "raise consciousness" about Polish Catholic suffering during the war "is not to denigrate the suffering and the genocide of the Jews."

Likewise, he has said he sought membership on the council to broaden discussion of the Shoah by offering the perspective of a "Christian conservative of Polish ancestry."

In a 2007 interview in the Journal of Polish American Affairs, Chodakiewicz said his only goal is to seek the truth. "I consider myself an icebreaker," he said. "I go [where] no one else wishes to pursue a lead."

Therefore, he added, "my interests are in topics which scholars generally avoid because of the terror of political correctness. And that also concerns Polish-Jewish relations."

Some of Chodakiewicz's supporters have charged that he is the victim of an anti-Catholic smear campaign orchestrated by "far left" organizations such as the SPLC.

"The SPLC has a history of virulently anti-Catholic bigotry, and it seems their main complaint is that Chodakiewicz is a Catholic and has the audacity to stick up for Polish Catholics," an organization known as the Council of Conservative Citizens said in a 2007 posting on its Web site.

Even some of Chodakiewicz's critics contend that his outlook may be less a product of anti-Semitism than of deeply ingrained Polish Catholic nationalism coupled with a distorted view of history.

"He's a mediocre historian who is rehashing views that have long been discredited," said Michael Berenbaum, former director of research at the USHMM and ex-opinion page editor at WJW. "His historical views probably do not impact the way he relates to Jewish neighbors or friends. It comes with his mother's milk."

Other observers maintain that anti-Semitism and hard-core Polish nationalism are often virtually indistinguishable.

"Anti-Semitism is a very deep part of Polish nationalist traditions, historically and today, although not every Polish patriot is an anti-Semite," said Pankowski, the author of a soon-to-be published book on Polish populist rightists.

A spokesperson for the White House declined comment, and attempts to reach Zeidman, who was also a Bush appointee, were unsuccessful.

Chodakiewicz's five-year term on the council expired Jan. 15, and it is not known if he will seek reappointment.

Regardless of his intentions, however, the legitimacy conferred by his tenure on the council will remain on his resume, presumably deflecting allegations that "he's a kind of Holocaust revisionist," in the words of historian Laurence Weinbaum, executive director of the Jerusalem-based World Jewish Congress Research Institute.

"Prestige is what he's after," added Pankowski. "Chodakiewizc has used his membership on the council a lot, and he's not shy about it. He has exploited it to the max. He has his own agenda, which has little to do with the goals of the museum."

Chodakiewicz has also come under fire for his connections with several Polish organizations that human rights watchdogs have condemned for reportedly espousing neofascist views and trafficking in conspiracy theories that often draw on anti-Semitic stereotypes.

"That such company is acceptable to him speaks volumes," said Pankowski.

A naturalized American citizen, Chodakiewicz holds the Kosciuszko Chair of Polish Studies at the District-based Institute of World Politics, a self-described independent, nonprofit, accredited graduate school of national security and international affairs. A former assistant professor of history at the University of Virginia, Chodakiewicz has both a Ph.D and a master's degree from Columbia University, according to the IWP Web site.

Many questions surrounding Chodakiewizc's appointment to the council have yet to be answered. Although Bush appointed him, it is not known how he came to the attention of the White House. (The council has 68 members, and 55 of them are presidential appointees.)

Asked for comment, museum spokesperson Andrew Hollinger said only that the White House is responsible for vetting presidential appointees, not the council.

The White House office responsible for screening appointee candidates while Chodakiewicz was under consideration was headed by Dina Powell, according to a spokesperson for the Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Texas. Attempts to reach Powell, who now works for the firm Goldman Sachs, were unsuccessful.

The White House liaison to the Jewish community at the time (April 2005) was Noam Neusner, now a private businessman, who said he was often asked to suggest names of potential appointees.

Chodakiewicz's nomination was not brought to his attention, Neusner said, adding in an e-mail: "If what the SPLC says is accurate, this was a regrettable failure to conduct the necessary background checks. President Bush was a strong opponent of Holocaust denial, and he personally confronted world leaders who sought to minimize the suffering of Jews during and after the Shoah."

Polish-born historian, sociologist and author Jan Gross, who has written extensively on Polish complicity in the killing of Jews, said that when he learned of Chodakiewicz's appointment, he was prepared to lodge an official protest along with nearly a dozen other historians.

But a council member informed the group that such an action would be futile, he reported. "We were told, 'This is a done deal,' " Gross recalled, declining to name the council member who gave that advice. "If we protested, it wouldn't do any good."