Useful Quotes

9th June 2018

Some underinformed British and American politicians like Alex Sobel (Labor Party, UK) or Ro Khanna (Democratic Party, USA) have recently tried to undermine Poland’s very right to defend her good name and they have attacked the Polish anti-defamation law (IPN bill) by making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Poles. While confronting such individuals it is good to refer to expert opinions.

The following quotes should prove useful in countering claims that the Nazi German death and concentration camps were Polish, that Poland was responsible for the Holocaust and other issues related to the World War Two.

The quotes come from academics, authors, experts, and historians, and are put in thematic and alphabetical order.

Useful quotes from experts on the Holocaust such as academics and writers

Timothy Garton Ash (British historian and author): Watching a German television news report on the trial of John Demjanjuk a few weeks ago, I was amazed to hear the announcer describe him as a guard in “the Polish extermination camp Sobibor”. What times are these, when one of the main German TV channels thinks it can describe Nazi camps as “Polish”? In my experience, the automatic equation of Poland with Catholicism, nationalism, and anti-Semitism – and thence a slide to guilt by association with the Holocaust – is still widespread.

Reference: As at Auschwitz, the gates of hell are built and torn down by human hearts

Source: Guardian 23^rd December 2009

Timothy Garton Ash (British historian and author): The automatic equation of Poland with Catholicism, nationalism, and anti-Semitism – and thence a slide to guilt by association with the Holocaust – is widespread.

Source: Bieganski by Danusha Goska Boston (2010) ISBN 978-1-936235-15-5 Pages 19-20

Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum: During World War II, the Nazi Germans set up 6 extermination centers in occupied Poland and murdered millions of Jews there. Although it would seem natural to use the expression “German death camps” or “death camps in German-occupied Poland” when speaking of these tragic events, some people seem to regard this as less than obvious. A BBC newsreader made a similar mistake. On that occasion, the BBC reacted in a prompt and normal way to the Museum’s explanation of the error and issued an assurance that its staff would not utter such nonsense in the future.

Reference: Polish Death Camps or German Death Camps? On the need for learning history

Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum website

Luigi Cajani (Professor of modern history at the Università La Sapienza, Rome): For many years Polish diplomacy has been combating the use made from time to time of the unhappy expression “Polish concentration camps” to refer to Auschwitz, Treblinka and so on. This expression is certainly wrong and misleading because it conflates the geographical location of the Nazi death camps with their historical perpetrators.

Reference: Historians under Criminal Law, EU Legislation Casts a Shadow on Historical Research

Source: Liberté pour l’histoire 2^nd November 2009

Violetta Cardinal (director and screenwriter of Upside Down): the falsification of history in North America is “reaching the critical point,” and explains that she wanted her film to shock people. It shows how damaging such falsifications as “Polish concentration camps” can be, and how, if left unopposed, they “strip Poles of their self-esteem and dignity.”

Reference: Polish Death Camps? Against Falsehood

Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum

Professor Norman Davies (Author, British Historian): There were no “Polish Nazis” whether in Lemberg or in other parts of pre-war Poland.

Reference: Celebrated Norwegian journalist falsifies history

Source: Max Veritas website

Professor Norman Davies (Author, British Historian): There were no Polish Nazis. There was no Polish branch of the Nazi Party. In 1939-45, there were no Polish armed forces under German command, and, unlike almost every other German-occupied country, no Polish volunteer divisions in the Waffen SS. Despite what one often hears, there were no ‘Polish concentration camps’, and there was no collaborationist government, as in Vichy France or in Norway.

Reference: Article: Nazi Poland? (LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)

Source: History Today August 2005

International Center for Education (Responsible for the educational work of the Auschwitz Museum): It is intended as an effective instrument in the struggle against ignorance and the distortion of history. Today, in the context of both denial and the repeated formulations about “Polish concentration camps,” this is a particularly important task.

Reference: Ceremony to present Senator Gary Humphries with a decoration

Source: Embassy of Poland in Canberra Website

Steve Paulsson (Senior Historian of the Holocaust Exhibition Project Office (Imperial War Museum, Toronto), lecturer in Holocaust Studies at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, and author of Secret City: The Hidden Jews of Warsaw, 1940-1945) from his article “‘Polish Complicity In The Shoah Is A Myth'” in which he says Poles: “face accusation after accusation over their involvement in the Holocaust”. This, however, does not mean that accusation after accusation is true.

Reference: ‘Polish Complicity In The Shoah Is A Myth’

Source: Totally Jewish 29^th March 2007

Shana Penn (Director Media Relations United States Holocaust memorial Museum): The most common error of concern, which I will discuss further on, is the identification of Nazi concentration camps on Polish soil as being “Polish concentration camps” instead of, as they were in reality, Nazi-run camps in German-occupied Poland during World War II.

Source: Rethinking POLES and JEWS Edited by Robert Cherry and AnnaMaria Orla-Bukowska – Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (2007) Page 56

Richard Pipes (formerly of Harvard University): It must never be mistakenly believed that the Holocaust was perpetrated by the Poles.

Reference: The Truth about Kielce

Source: Polonia Today online

Jewish Quotes

The following is what Jewish leaders, Holocaust survivors, organisations, and media have to say about the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland.

Adolph Berman and Leon Feiner (Jews who were being sheltered by Poles in 1942): ‘We want you (Jan Karski) to tell the Polish and Allied governments and the great leaders of the Allies that we are helpless in the face of the German criminals. We cannot defend ourselves and no one in Poland can defend us. The Polish underground authorities can save some of us but they cannot save masses.

Source: J. Karski, Story of a Secret State, pp. 345-351

American Jewish Committee: We would like to remind those who are either aware of the facts or careless in their choice of words, as has been the case with some media outlets, that Auschwitz-Birkenau and other death camps…were conceived, built and operated by Nazi Germany and its allies.

The camps were located in German-occupied Poland, the European country with by far the largest Jewish population, but they were most emphatically not “Polish camps”

Source: Rethinking POLES and JEWS Edited by Robert Cherry and Anna Maria Orla-Bukowska – Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (2007) Page 65-66

Anti-Defamation League: As an organization devoted to nurturing Holocaust remembrance we share Poland’s concern over the frequent description of Auschwitz as a Polish camp, which suggests the object was built on behalf of the Polish nation,

Reference: Anti-defamation group supports Poland’s request to change name of Auschwitz

Source: People Daily 12^th April 2008

David Cesarani (English historian who specialises in Jewish history): The camp was, in fact, in a part of Poland annexed to Germany and was a German creation. Before it was expanded and adapted to include a death camp devoted to the mass murder of Europe’s Jews, tens of thousands of Catholic Poles died there. The camp’s initial function was to terrorise the Polish population.

Reference: Stephen Fry’s Auschwitz blunder

Source: The Guardian 12^th October 2009

Marek Edelman (Co-founder of Jewish Combat organisation and Author): Changing the name of Auschwitz is nonsense; just like saying Auschwitz is a Polish concentration camp

Reference: Marek Edelman quotes

Source: Think Exist

Abraham H. Foxman (National Director of the Anti-Defamation League): As Jews and Poles have joined together to remember and explore our histories, we have emphasized that the responsibility for the three million Jews who perished in Poland during the Holocaust lies with the Nazis.

Reference: Extremist Parties Have No Place in the New Poland

Source: ADL Website but originally in Warsaw Business Journal on May 15, 2006

Dr. Nahum Goldmann (Honorary president of the World Jewish Congress) stated: Poles suffered no less than we did … We suffered greater losses proportion wise, but the Poles also suffered enormously

Reference: Commonwealth of Australia Parliamentary debate

Source: Commonwealth of Australia Parliamentary debate: Senate Official Hansard No. 1, 2004, 16 November 2004

Yisrael Gutman (Director of research at the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem and editor in chief of “The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust” 1990): All accusations against the Poles that they were responsible for the Final Solution are not even worth mentioning. Secondly, there is no validity at all in the contention that Polish attitudes were the reason for the siting [sic] of the death camps in Poland.”

Reference: The Truth about Kielce

Source: Polonia Today Online

Yisrael Gutman (Director of research at the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem and editor in chief of “The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust” 1990): According to Professor Yisrael Gutman of the Yad Vashem Memorial Institute in Israel, the use of the term “Polish concentration camps” is a form of Holocaust denial. It is a conscious or unconscious way of changing victims into perpetrators and an attempt to blur the question of responsibility for the crime.

Reference: Denial of the Holocaust and the genocide in Auschwitz

Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum

Yisrael Gutman (Director of research at the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem and editor in chief of “The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust” 1990): There is no ground to label Poles as Nazis. Nazism was an entirely different form of racism, and cannot be compared to the various faces of anti-Semitism, which were also manifested among some Poles. As such Nazism stands out as in a league of its own in regards of cold-blooded cruelty.

Reference: Interview June 8th 2005

Source: Max Veritas website Interview June 8th 2005

Todd Gutnick, the ADL’s director of media relations and public information: The Anti-Defamation League has expressed full support for the efforts of the government of Poland to ensure that the official names of the death camps in Poland emphasize that the camps were built and operated by Nazi Germany

Reference: Warsaw stresses: Death camps in Poland were German

Source: The Jerusalem Post 16^th May 2011

Todd Gutnick, the ADL’s director of media relations and public information: As an agency which prioritizes remembrance of the Holocaust, we share Poland’s concerns over the frequent description of the camps as `Polish, Such a description implies that the camps were built in the name of the Polish people. This is manifestly not the truth

Reference: Warsaw stresses: Death camps in Poland were German

Source: The Jerusalem Post 16^th May 2011

David A. Harris (American Jewish Committee Executive Director): The camps were located in German-occupied Poland, the European country with by far the largest Jewish population, but they were most emphatically not “Polish camps”. This is not a mere semantic matter. Historical integrity and accuracy hang in the balance. Any misrepresentation of Poland’s role in the Second World War, whether intentional or accidental, would be most regrettable and therefore should not be left unchallenged.

Reference: Statement on Poland and the Auschwitz Commemoration

Source: Rzeczpospolita

David A. Harris (American Jewish Committee Executive Director): References implying that the Polish nation was responsible for the creation and operation of the Nazi death camps are a falsification of history and an unwarranted defamation of all Poles, particularly those who suffered so greatly under the German occupation,” said Harris in his letter to UNESCO.

Reference: Statement on Poland and the Auschwitz Commemoration

Source: Daily Estimate 24^th April 2006

Jewish Journal: In the June 5, 2008 article, “Shoah Survivors Graduate from New Jew,” the phrase “Polish concentration camps” was incorrectly used. The correct phrase should have been “concentration camps in Poland.”

Reference: Correction

Source: Jewish Journal 30^th July 2008

Petr Kadlcik (Chairman, The Union of Religious Jewish Communities in Poland): institutional and national responsibility for the Third Reich’s policy” is not historically accurate, “but also becomes a present-day necessity” in the wake of constant newspaper referrals to Auschwitz as a Polish death camp.

Reference: Auschwitz Might Get Name Change

Source: Jewish Journal 27^th April 2006

Bernard Korbman (President Australia Society of Polish Jews and Their Descendants): This is not about semantics, it is not about political correctness, it is about historical accuracy, it is about recognising the tragic loss of life, displacement, and suffering by Poles during World War II. It is about not belittling or destroying the integrity and dignity of an entire nation through falsehood and innuendo.

Reference: From the President

Source: Australian Society of Polish Jews and their Descendants

Walter Laqueur (Israeli Historian and Author): ((The Poles)) did what they could, usually at great risk and in difficult conditions”

Reference: UNDERGROUND ORGANIZATION “ŻEGOTA” CREATED TO HELP THE JEWS IN WARTIME POLAND

Source: Polish Home Army ex-Servicemen Association – Montreal branch website

David Marwell (director of the Museum of Jewish Heritage Museum in New York, which focuses on the Holocaust): Although the phrase `Polish Death Camp’ may simply be shorthand to describe the location, there are many who wrongly conflate the geography of the camps with those who ran them. When it comes to such important issues, absolute clarity and accuracy are essential.

Reference: Warsaw stresses: Death camps in Poland were German

Source: The Jerusalem Post 16^th May 2011

David Peleg (The Ambassador of Israel to Warsaw, Poland): We, being Jews and Israelis, reject resolutely terminology such as “Polish concentration camps”. These prejudicial and erroneous phrases represent primarily testimony about ignorance and lack of understanding of fundamental historical truth. Every thinking man knows that it was the Nazis who selected Poland for the central site for a dreadful genocide of extermination of European Jews. On the Polish soil, the Germans built terrifying camps where they systematically murdered 4.5 million Jews (including 3 million Polish Jews) and other nationalities including thousands of Poles.

Reference: Two nations fed with the same suffering

Source: Rzeczpospolita

Shimon Peres (Israeli President) said about it being hard to be in Poland: “that is not the fault of the Polish people, rather it is the incomparable extermination (of the Jews) carried out by the Nazis.”

Reference: Peres in Treblinka: Polish people not responsible for Holocaust

Source: Ynet 14^th April 2008

Yitzhak Rabin (Israeli Prime Minister): In the first place and it is always necessary to remember this – Auschwitz was a German death camp, built by German criminals on Polish soil. Whoever cannot make a distinction between these two things and links the camp at Auschwitz with Poland, commits a cardinal error

Reference: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Poles

Source: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Poles

Emanuel Ringelblum (Jewish author): The Polish people and the Government of the Republic of Poland were incapable of deflecting the Nazi steamroller from its anti-Jewish course.

Source: Polin Volume 13 Edited by Antony Polonsky ISBN 978-1-874774-47-1 Littman Library (2000) Page 6

Menachem Rosensaft (the founding chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors): absolutely legitimate ((to change the name of Auschwitz)). The death factory of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where more than 1,000,000 Jewish men, women, and children were murdered, was a German camp, conceived by the Nazi-German government and operated by Germans.

Reference: Auschwitz Might Get Name Change

Source: Jewish Journal 27^th April 2006

Michael Schudrich (chief Rabbi of Poland), when asked, is it possible to accuse Poles as a nation responsible for the Holocaust: Certainly not. I raise objection even the question itself. One cannot even ask such questions! That’s unbelievable that someone can formulate such a statement. That’s not just against Poland, but against the truth and history.

Reference: Jedwabne should be a symbol of reconciliation

Source: Info Poland but originally in Rzeczpospolita 14^th March 2001

Michael Schudrich said: that accusing Poles of participation in the Holocaust is a sin.

Reference: Jedwabne should be a symbol of reconciliation

Source: Info Poland but originally in Rzeczpospolita 14^th March 2001

Michael Schudrich (chief rabbi of Poland): Pope John Paul II, whom I nicknamed Jochanan-Pesach, fought anti-Semitism in the most effective way, more than anyone else in the last 2,000 years. He said that an anti-Semite was anti-Catholic, and dared to tell Christians to ask forgiveness from their ‘older brothers,’ the Jews. This had an enormous impact, first of all in Poland, but also in the entire Christian world.

Reference: ‘I’m a member of the family now’

Source: Ha’aretz 22^nd September 2010

Byron Sherwin (Author): the Poles all but replace the Germans as the perpetrators of the Holocaust, as the archenemies of the Jews throughout the thousand-year Jewish presence in Poland.

Reference: Poles and Jews: A Uniquely Thoughtful Approach

Source: Amazon website

Szymon Szurmiej (Head of Warsaw’s Jewish Theater): One would have to be really ill-willed or have little historical knowledge to link Auschwitz’s location in Poland with the Poles’ approval of the camp or even participation in its doings

Reference: Anti-Defamation League backs Poland over renaming of Auschwitz

Source: Ha’aretz 12^th April 2006

Dr. Laurence Weinbaum (World Jewish Congress and a historian specializing in Polish-Jewish relations): It should also not be forgotten that vast numbers of Poles, and on many fronts, in Poland, and beyond its borders, lost their lives in the struggle against the Germans — over 200,000 perished in Warsaw alone. Should they now be regarded as “Polish Nazis”?

Reference: Letter received February 3^rd 2005 by Dr Laurence Weinbaum

Source: Max Veritas website

Dr. Laurence Weinbaum (World Jewish Congress and a historian specializing in Polish-Jewish relations): It is an interesting reflection on the success of Germany’s post-war foreign policy that the world has become accustomed to referring to “Nazis” in place of “Germans” – and that in place of “Nazi German” we now find “Polish Nazi”. One can only wonder whether successive generations will associate the Holocaust with the Germans – and the first attempt to stem the German onslaught with the Poles.

Reference: Letter received February 3^rd 2005 by Dr Laurence Weinbaum

Source: Max Veritas website

Dr. Laurence Weinbaum (World Jewish Congress and a historian specializing in Polish-Jewish relations): Polish society as a whole cannot be seen as a perpetrator-nation

Reference: Holocaust scholars slam EU for backing Nazi-Communist comparison

Source: Ha’aretz 26^th January 2010

Simon Wiesenthal (Nazi hunter): I cannot blame 36 million Poles for those thousands of blackmailers

Reference: Promoting goodwill between Jewish and Polish people

Source: Polonia Today

Simon Wiesenthal Center: The Simon Wiesenthal Center wishes to note that in the above press release regarding its efforts to have Poland investigate the crimes committed by Ivan Demjanjuk in Poland during World War II, the extermination camps of Sobibor and Majdanek, where Demjanjuk served as a guard and participant in the implementation of the “Final Solution,” were originally referred to as “Polish death camps”. Lest anyone infer from the use of that term that these camps of mass murder were established, sponsored or run by the Polish authorities, we want to hereby clearly state that they were built and run by the Nazi occupation authorities in Poland and not by the Poles.

Reference: Wiesenthal center urges Poland to investigate Demjanjuk with view to possible extradition

Source: Simon Wiesenthal Center 16^th June 2002

World Jewish Congress: Poland should not be blamed for the Holocaust, to blame here are the Nazis and their allies.

Reference: Poland not to blame for Holocaust: World Jewish Congress

Source: People Daily 5^th May 2006

http://yad-vashem.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/in-response-to-comments-regarding-death.html

It has been brought to our attention that there are several instances on our website where camps are referred to as “Polish death camps.” Yad Vashem is dedicated to providing accurate and updated historical information. For example, as can be seen here, in 2006 Yad Vashem previously supported the request of the Polish Government to add the words “the former Nazi German Camp” to the name of Auschwitz – Birkenau, and continues to support this decision. We are grateful that this unfortunate mistake has been brought to our attention and we are already in the process of correcting it on our website.

Media and Media watchdogs Quotes

Examples of media and watchdog organisation admitting the usage of Polish camp and similar is wrong

ABC: On May 12, 2009, in a story about the deportation of a suspected Nazi war criminal from the United States to Germany, the ABC incorrectly reported that he was facing charges for the murder of people in a “Polish concentration camp”. There were no Polish concentration camps, rather it was a Nazi concentration camp during the occupation of Poland in World War II.

Reference: TV Corrections

Source: ABC News 12^th June 2009

ABC: ABC acknowledged that an initial broadcast included an inaccurate reference to a “Polish death camp”. The reference was corrected on the day, with the full context included in subsequent editions of the report. An on-air apology was broadcast by the program the following day and an Editor’s Note was attached to the online transcript of the report to clarify the matter.

Reference: The World Today, 14 July 2009

Source: ABC website 9^th September 2009

Australian Press Board: After a series of protests from the Central Council of Polish Organizations in Australia, the Australian Press Board ruled on May 14, 1999 (in favor of the Central Council) that the expression “Polish death camps” could mislead Australian readers, is offensive to Poles, and therefore violates the principles of Australian journalism.

Reference: “Polish Concentration Camps”. Misleading words

Source: Auschwitz Memorial and Museum Website 10^th May 1999

Canadian Broadcast Standards Council: CTV had held that it used the adjective “Polish” in a geographical context. Following the intervention of the Polish embassy and Canadian-Polish organizations, however, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council ruled that CTV’s explanation was unsatisfactory and ordered the network to issue a correction.

Reference: Canada: CTV Admits Error

Source: Auschwitz Memorial and Museum Website 10^th June 2005

Canadian Broadcast Standards Council: At issue is, of course, the use of the adjective “Polish” in juxtaposition with either the term “ghetto” or the term “[concentration] camp”. On the one hand, the original position of CTV News was that the word was merely a geographical or topographical indicator. On the other hand, the complainants argued, in effect, that it is historical, ethnographic or cultural, that the appending of “Polish” to ghetto or camp implies an involvement of the Polish people in the confinement or murder of the inmates in either instance. To better understand the meaning or import of a national adjective, the Panel considered definitions provided by numerous dictionaries of national adjectives, including “Polish”, of course, and the words “English”, “French” and “German”, since they all partake of common characteristics. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines “Polish” as “Of or pertaining to Poland or its inhabitants” or “In the names of things of actual or attributed Polish origin.” Webster’s Third International Dictionary says: “a: of, relating to, or characteristic of Poland b: of, relating to, or characteristic of the Poles.” The 4th edition of the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language adds a reference to culture, “Of or relating to Poland, the Poles, their language or their culture.” The OED defines “English” as “Of or belonging to England or its inhabitants,” “Marked by the characteristics of an Englishman. Often in laudatory sense: Possessed of the virtues claimed as particularly ‘English’.” In the case of “French”, the OED says, “Of or pertaining to France or its inhabitants” and “Having the qualities attributed to French persons or things; French-like.” Of French, Webster’s says, “a: of or belonging to the people, the culture, or the civilization of France […] b: befitting, derived from, or suggesting the people or the culture of France […]: settled by the French.” In the case of “German”, the OED says, “Of or pertaining to Germany or its inhabitants”, “Marked by the characteristics of a German; German-like” and “In names of things of actual or attributed German origin.” Of German, Webster’s says, under two separate word entries, “a native or inhabitant of Germany” and “a: of, or relating to, or characteristic of Germany b: of, relating to, or characteristic of the Germans.”

In other words, there is, in all of the foregoing examples, an ethnographic or cultural connection drawn between the national adjectives and the matters to which they apply. This is not to suggest that there is no geographical connotation to a national adjective but rather that such a term consistently extends well beyond simple geographical application. One can discern in all of those definitions the link between the use of the term and the inhabitants of the country, their characteristics and their attributes. Such adjectives are, in a national sense, very personal and local. However obvious the following example may be, the term “Polish” would not be applied to a tourist or temporary visitor to Poland, despite his or her geographical presence there, although it would be to a Pole travelling in another country. It would also be applied to a thing of actual Polish origin or, one appreciates, of legitimately attributed Polish origin. Thus, the Panel understands that the city of Oswiecim is undeniably Polish, having been established more than 700 years before the Second World War, while, the camp known as Auschwitz, in the suburbs of Oswiecim, on the other hand, was created by order of the head of the Nazi SS, Heinrich Himmler, a non-Pole, in 1940.

Reference: CTV Television and CTV Newsnet re news reports (ghettos and concentration camps in Poland)

Source: Canadian broadcasts standards council 15^th December 2004

Canadian Broadcast Standards Council: In the case of CTV Television, it is the following announcement that is to be used:

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council has found that CTV has breached the terms of provisions of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ Code of Ethics and the Radio-Television News Directors Association Code of (Journalistic) Ethics in a news report of November 2003. The CBSC concluded that, by referring to “Polish ghetto for Jews”, CTV’s report implied an involvement on the part of the Polish people, when the responsibility for the creation of the ghetto in question lay with the Nazis who then occupied Poland. The CBSC found the use of the national adjective “Polish” an inaccurate representation and an unfair and improper presentation of news in breach of Clauses 5 and 6 of the CAB Code of Ethics and an inaccurate and unfair informing of the public about “events and issues of importance” in breach of Article 1 of the RTNDA Code of (Journalistic) Ethics.

In the case of CTV Newsnet, it is the following announcement that is to be used:

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council has found that CTV Newsnet has breached the terms of provisions of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ Code of Ethics and the Radio-Television News Directors Association Code of (Journalistic) Ethics in a news report of April 2004. The CBSC concluded that, by referring to “Polish camp of Treblinka”, CTV Newsnet’s report implied an involvement on the part of the Polish people, when the responsibility for the creation of the concentration camp in question lay with the Nazis who then occupied Poland. The CBSC found the use of the national adjective “Polish” an inaccurate representation and an unfair and improper presentation of news in breach of Clauses 5 and 6 of the CAB Code of Ethics and an inaccurate and unfair informing of the public about “events and issues of importance” in breach of Article 1 of the RTNDA Code of (Journalistic) Ethics.

Reference: CTV Television and CTV Newsnet re news reports (ghettos and concentration camps in Poland)

Source: Canadian broadcasts standards council 15^th December 2004

CTV: CTV News programs must not use the adjective “Polish” when describing World War 2 concentration camps or ghettoes that were created, built and run by Nazi Germany.

Reference: Letters to the President of CTV news

Source: Citinet website

Stanislaw Cybulski (Senior Editor Polish Radio Hour Los Angeles): There never were any Polish concentration camps, only German concentration camps in occupied Poland. This is a critical distinction. This phrase not only is inaccurate but also offensive to the Poles

Reference: Nazi Concentration Camps

Source: Los Angeles Times 29^th January 1994

Daytona Beach News Journal: In a story on page 1A on Friday about the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the place where thousands of Jews were gassed and cremated was described by location as a “Polish death camp.” It should have been identified as a Nazi death camp in Poland.

Reference: Corrections and clarifications

Source: Daytona Beach News Journal 29^th January 2005

Gary Dickson (publisher of the Record-Bee): I do know that many Poles and American citizens of Polish descent are still angry by the extreme inaccuracy of countless authors and reporters who, to this day, refer to the concentration camps built by Nazi Germans in what had been Poland as “Polish concentration camps.”

Reference: Press On: Inexcusable

Source: Lake Country Record-Bee 29^th November 2010

Die Welt: This wording slanders Poland and has nothing to do with historical reality

Reference: ‘Polish Camps’ in Polish Court

Source: Gazeta Wyborcza 14^th August 2009

Die Welt: We regret that the description of Majdanek as a ‘Polish concentration camp’ has caused anger and misunderstanding. We are well aware of the emotional impact carried such subjects,” newspaper Die Welt said in a statement. “To avoid any further misunderstanding, we immediately changed the wording of the article… Majdanek was, of course, a German concentration camp. We apologise for this error,” the statement said.

Reference: Poland threatens to sue German newspaper over ‘Polish camps’

Source: European Jewish Press 25^th November 2008

Economist: IN NAZI-OCCUPIED Poland. But not “Polish”. 65 years after the liberation of Auschwitz and other Nazi German concentration and extermination camps in Poland, it is surprising that the outside world still finds such difficulty in grasping this basic distinction. Poles and their friends have long been trying to counter the journalistic laziness that terms Auschwitz a “Polish death camp” rather than one run by the country’s foreign occupiers, in which millions of Poles, gentile and Jewish, perished.

Reference: Insult to injury

Source: The Economist 11^th August 2010

Economist: Mrs Clinton will visit Auschwitz. However much she praises Polish sacrifice and heroism during the war, that will doubtless lead to some nitwit reporting about her trip to the “Polish death camp”.

Reference: Big visit

Source: The Economist 1^st July 2010

Economist writer: Many may dismiss the complaint as typical Polish prickliness. But that would be unfair. Having seen first their country, and then their own version of history, obliterated by foreign force of arms, it is quite understandable that Poles resent outsiders, whether out of laziness or malice, distorting the real course of events, particularly to the point where, grotesquely, the victims are tarred as perpetrators.

Reference: Insult to injury

Source: Economist 11^th August 2010

France 24: We did not mean polish concentration camp, we meant a Nazi concentration camp that was placed in Poland. We also recognize the big difference between those two terms. We would also like to express our deepest apologies for the mistake

Reference: France 24 apologizes to Poland

Source: Poland.com 14^th May 2009

Grzegorz Gauden (Editor-in-Chief Rzeczpospolita): I have noticed with pain and grief that in many renowned newspapers all over the world a term “Polish concentration camps” appears time and again with the harm to the Poles. Over decades this unacceptable shortcut in thinking seems to have gained more and more popularity rather than to have been replaced by knowledge of history.

Reference: Letter from the Editor in chief

Source: The Canadian Foundation of Polish-Jewish heritage Montreal chapter

Guardian: In an article headed Auschwitz bestseller a fraud, page 9, October 15, we referred to the terror of the Polish concentration camps. We should have referred to the terror of the German or Nazi concentration camps in Poland. Our apparent failure to recognise the difference offended a number of people to whom we apologise.

Reference: Corrections and clarifications

Source: Guardian 21^st October 1999

Guardian: In the article below we refer to ‘Polish gas chambers and crematoria’. We should have referred to Nazi gas chambers and crematoria in Poland

Reference: Eternal memory

Source: The Guardian 26^th January 2005

Guardian: “Polish death camps” and similar phrases confusing location with perpetrator should not be used when referring to countries occupied by Nazi Germany during the second world war; the appropriate phrase here would be “Nazi death camps in occupied Poland” or similar

Reference: http://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-p

Source: Guardian and Observer style guide: P 1^st May 2014

Edward Lucas (Central and Eastern Europe correspondent for The Economist) POLAND suffered more than any other European country during the Second World War. And there was an extra twist: the history of that suffering was then systematically distorted by the Soviet-imposed Communist rulers, and widely misunderstood abroad. Auschwitz, for example, is still often referred to as a “Polish death camp”—rather than one run by the country’s Nazi occupiers, in which huge numbers of Polish citizens perished.

Reference: Irena Sendler Obituary

Source: The Economist May 22nd 2008

Krakow Informer: Auschwitz is often called the ‘Polish death camp’ – this name is obviously wrong and somewhat misleading, as it suggests that the biggest Nazi German concentration camp was placed in Poland with some sort of permission, or even approval, from the Polish.

Reference: The Auschwitz Death Camp in Oswiecim

Source: Krakow Informer

Krzysztof Mazowski (editor in chief of Relacje): This ((Polish Death camp)) is an insult to the Polish people. It looks as though the Swedish media wants to respect Muslims but doesn’t mind insulting Poles.

Reference: Magazine roundup

Source: Gazeta Wyborcza 18^th February 2006

Marcin Mierzejewski (Warsaw Voice): The notion of “Polish concentration camps” has existed in the international media for years, becoming rooted in the awareness and language of many people. The argument that this is “a geographic description” does not help, since most people who use this phrase probably have a rather vague idea of the history of World War II and many may understand the phrase “Polish camps” literally—as camps built and run by Poles.

Reference: Pointing Fingers

Source: Warsaw Voice 16^th February 2005

Los Angeles Times: A review of the play “More Lies About Jerzy” in Friday’s Calendar section referred to the country where Jerzy Kosinski grew up as Nazi Poland. It should have said that Kosinski grew up in Poland during its occupation by Nazi Germany.

Reference: For the record

Source: Los Angeles Times 9^th June 2010

Ontario Press Council: Many years after the end of the Second World War, there is a reason to believe some Canadians have little or no knowledge about death camps that existed in Poland. To avoid misunderstanding, either the context or at least one reference in any article about wartime concentration camps should leave no doubt that the Nazi occupiers set them up and operated them. And in no instance should they be described as “Polish concentration camps.”

Reference: WHERE THE PRESS COUNCIL STANDS

Source: Ontario Press Council website

Palm Beach Post: The Palm Beach Post Sunday incorrectly referred to “Polish concentration camps” in a story about Holocaust survivors. The Nazis operated the camps during World War II.

Reference: CLARIFICATION

Source: Palm Beach Post 21^st February 1995

Parade: Due to an editing error, Ralph Blumenthal’s “The Last Nazi Hunter” in April 4, 2010, issue of PARADE incorrectly referenced “Poland’s Majdanek death camp,” a “Polish concentration camp,” and “Poland’s Warsaw Ghetto in 1943.” The article should have stated these Nazi camps and ghetto were located in “German-occupied Poland” instead.

Reference: The Last Nazi Hunter

Source: Parade 4th April 2010

Paul R. Martin (WSJ style and substance editor); Concentrate on this: There were no Polish concentration camps in World War II. Auschwitz and other such camps in Polish territory were operated by German Nazis.

Lucja Sliwa (Producer/Host – WPNA Radio 1490 AM): the inexcusable phrase “Polish concentration camp”. This was not the first time that CBS and other media outlets have resorted to such blatant distortion of history.

Reference: ABC News, CBS News – Polish death camps – II

Source: Enough Lies 19^th April 2009

Alex Storozynski (Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, a former member of the New York Daily News editorial board, founding editor of AM NewYork and former city editor of the New York Sun.) When I read the words “Polish concentration camps” in American newspapers, I cringe and point out that this is profoundly wrong.

Reference: An Interview with Alex Storozynski

Source: The Sarmatian Review September 2009 issue

Telegraph: Finally, and more seriously, there were no Polish concentration camps. There were camps run by the Nazis that were situated in Poland.

Link: Style notes 10: Dec 12 2008

Source: Style notes 10: Dec 12 2008, Telegraph 12^th December 2008

Telegraph: Do not describe former concentration camps situated in Poland as “Polish death camps”. This gravely offends Poles who think we are accusing them of having run these shocking places. They are to be described as Nazi camps.

Reference: Style notes 28: February 12 2010

Source: Style notes 28: February 12 2010, Telegraph 12^th February 2010

Telegraph: We cause grave offence to our Polish friends by referring to Auschwitz as “a Polish concentration camp”; it was a Nazi concentration camp established by the Germans on Polish soil.

Reference: Style notes 30: May 28 2010

Source: Style Notes 30, Telegraph 28^th May 2010

Time: In the March 16, 1998 issue of Time a Milestone item incorrectly used the phrase “Polish concentration camps” to refer to the Nazi death camps in Poland. We regret the error.

Reference: Letters

Source: Time 20^th April 1998

Tubylewicz (Swedish paper) reports that the spokesman of Dagens Nyheter has in the meantime admitted that “Polish death camp” was “incorrect and sloppy wording” that would be amended. The author of the article, Bengt Albons, has now apologized.

Reference: Magazine Roundup

Source: Sign and sight website 21^st February 2006

Washington Post: A May 9 Style review of the play “Either Or” at Theater J incorrectly referred to a “Polish concentration camp.” It should have been described as a German concentration camp in Poland.

Reference: ‘Either Or’: A Cog In the Nazis’ Killing Machine

Source: Washington Post 9^th May 2007

Wall Street Journal: There were no Polish concentration camps in World War II. Auschwitz and other such camps in Polish territory were operated by German Nazis.

Reference: Style & Substance Vol. 23, No.11

Source: Wall Street Journal 28^th November 2010

WLIM: We sincerely apologize for any misrepresentation construed and offense taken by the statement, which was accidental. ‘Swimming in Auschwitz’ is being broadcast April 4 as part of WLIW21’s special programming in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day throughout April as a way of acknowledging all the victims of Nazi actions.

Reference: NY TV Station Apologizes for Error Blaming Poland Instead of Germany for Auschwitz

Source: Polish Times

Miscellaneous Quotes

There are quotes which don’t fit into the other categories.

Bigepedia: Auschwitz is the name loosely used to identify three main Nazi German concentration camps and 45-50 sub-camps. The name is derived from the Germanized form of the nearby Polish town of Oświęcim, situated about 60 km southwest of Krakow. Beginning in 1940, Nazi Germany built several concentration camps and an extermination camp in the area, which at the time had been annexed by Nazi Germany. The camps were a major constituent of the Holocaust.

Reference: Auschwitz concentration camp

Source: Bigepedia

Alexander Danel (son of a Christian survivor of Auschwitz): Please be aware that when discussing the Holocaust, it is important to not use the unfortunate juxtaposition of words “Polish concentration camp” which appears in this article. This phrase is gravely insulting to Poles. By international agreement, the correct phrase is “Nazi German concentration camp.”

Reference: Please don’t say “Polish concentration camp”

Source: Pincher Creek Echo website

Peter Darski (Editor WikiPoland): Simply, by use of misleading statement they wrongfully imply Polish role in the Holocaust and depict Poles as collaborators of Nazi Germany. Whether it is purposely or accidentally, such comments are untrue and damaging to Poland.

Reference: UNDERSTAND OUR APPROACH

Source: WikiPoland 4^th April 2010

Alcee L. Hastings (Congressman): Learning the important lessons from the atrocities of Auschwitz takes more than schools and teachers. It takes a professional press. I regret that some mainstream news agencies reporting about Auschwitz called it a ‘Polish concentration camp.’ It is especially important for young generations just learning this history that it be correctly described as a Nazi German concentration camp in occupied Poland.

Reference: STATEMENT ON 65TH ANNIVERSARY OF LIBERATION OF AUSCHWITZ

Source: Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) – Statement on 65^th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz

Senator Humphries (Australian Capital Territory): The article goes on to say that she discovered that her mother had perished in ‘a Polish concentration camp’. This is a perfect example of the journalistic misconceptions tormenting people of Polish origin. From the way the journalist has worded this sentence one could be forgiven for thinking that the Poles were running the concentration camps. Bearing these facts in mind, I can see how distressing it must be to Polish people all over the world when such terms as ‘Nazi Poland’, ‘Polish concentration camps’ and ‘Polish ghettos’ are used by newspaper columnists and TV commentators writing or reporting for the press. Sadly, such terminology is repeatedly used by journalists in this country.

Reference: Ceremony to present Senator Gary Humphries with a decoration

Source: Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Canberra

Hon. Jason Kenney (Minister of Citizenship, Immigration, and Multiculturalism, Canada): Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for raising this important and sensitive matter.

He is absolutely right that it is offensive to the memory of so many Poles who fought the Nazi occupation and invasion and who have been declared Righteous Among the Gentiles to refer to Nazi concentration camps as being Polish ones.

That is why the Government of Canada has supported at UNESCO the official designation of the Nazi German concentration and extermination camps in occupied Poland.

Let there be no mistake about this point in history. The Government of Canada certainly asks that all people be sensitive to the legitimate historic concerns of the Polish community in this regard.

Reference: Monday, September 26, 2011

Source: Parliament of Canada Website 41^st Parliament, 1^st Session

Labour Friends of Poland: We remain appalled that the press and other media outlets in this country can still freely publish absurd and potentially defamatory references to ‘Polish concentration camps’. They do so without taking any heed of the concerns in the Polish community in this country about the false picture that these descriptions give of the Polish people’s own heroic struggle against the occupation of their country by Nazi Germany

Reference: Insult to injury

Source: The Economist 11^th August 2010

Labour Friends of Poland: The full press release on August 10th 2010 by Labour Friends of Poland criticising media references to “Polish concentration camps” read:

We, the Labour Friends of Poland, are grateful that the British media still give considerable coverage to the horrors of the Holocaust during World War II and to the deliberate attempt by Hitler to exterminate the Jewish nation. However we remain appalled that the press and other media outlets in this country can still freely publish absurd and potentially defamatory references to “Polish concentration camps”. They do so without taking any heed of the concerns in the Polish community in this country about the false picture that these descriptions give of the Polish people’s own heroic struggle against the occupation of their country by Nazi Germany. We regret that the British press is not receiving any guidelines on this issue from the Press Complaints Commission similar, for example, to the ruling on March 24th 1988 from the Ontario Press Council that “it would be wrong to use a term such as ‘Polish concentration camps’ since such camps were established and operated by the Nazis in occupied Poland during World War II.”

It is more than 60 years since World War Two has ended. Newer generations do not have a clear idea about what role Poland played in that war. It is worth reminding them that Poland was the only country apart from Britain to fight Nazi Germany from the very beginning of the War right up to its end, that more than 3 million Polish Jews and more than 3 million Polish Christians perished under the Nazi occupation (many in those same death camps and concentration camps such as Auschwitz, Belzec and Treblinka which UK journalists and commentators still refer to as “Polish”), and that Poland’s capital city Warsaw, as well as much if its infrastructure and industry, were levelled to the ground at Hitler’s orders. Yet when young British people read articles or learn lessons today about “Poland’s” or “Polish concentration camps” they could conclude wrongly that these camps were in some way either, set up, or staffed, or administered, by Poles. In this way ,the Polish nation would be seen by implication as being responsible for the Holocaust. It was not.

It was this kind of lazy misrepresentation in the English-speaking press which had led the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO in 2007 to change the name of Auschwitz on its World Heritage List to read “Auschwitz-Birkenau, German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945)”. There is rightly no mention of the word “Polish” in this title.

The location of most of these camps by Nazi Germany in what was then occupied Poland does not justify the description “Polish”. We do not refer to ancient amphitheatres in France as “French” but as “Roman”; we do not refer to the Krak des Chevaliers castle in Syria as a “Syrian” but as a “Crusader” fortress; we do not refer to the former colonial slave forts in Ghana as “Ghanaian” but as “British”; we do not refer to Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba as “Cuban” but as “U.S.”. In each case the symbol of oppression is associated by its description with the perpetrator and not the territory in which it is currently sited.

We therefore submit 10 examples of such inappropriate and inaccurate terminology to the Press Complaints Commission, and urge it, in the interests of historical truth and journalistic clarity, to follow the example of the Ontario Press Council and issue guidelines to the press in this country to desist from referring to these camps as “Polish” or “Poland’s” and to use other appropriate terminology such as “German Nazi”.

For the Labour Friends of Poland
signed:
Dr Denis MacShane MP
Stephen Pound MP
Andrew Slaughter MP
Dr Alan Whitehead MP (secretary LBF)

Mr. Wladyslaw Lizon (Mississauga East—Cooksville, Canadian MP): Mr. Speaker, last week The Globe and Mail used the phrase, “Polish concentration camps” in reference to the Nazi German concentration and extermination camps in occupied Poland.

Brave Polish citizens were the victims of Nazi occupiers and not the perpetrators of their evil crimes.

The reference in the The Globe and Mail article was an insult to thousands of Polish Righteous Among the Nations who risked their lives to save Jewish neighbours.

Could the minister update the House on what our government has done to correct the offensive misconception about the existence of Polish concentration camps?

Reference: Monday, September 26, 2011

Source: Parliament of Canada Website 41^st Parliament, 1^st Session

OSCE: To this day, Poland battles with misconceptions, illustrated by references to the extermination camps built and run by the German Nazis as “Polish concentration camps”, which indirectly associate Poles as responsible for the Holocaust.

Reference: EDUCATION ON THE HOLOCAUST AND ON ANTI-SEMITISM

Source: From a document prepared for the OSCE Conference on Anti-Semitism and on Other Forms of Intolerance, Cordoba, 8-9 June 2005.

OSCE: After the Second World War a persistent irritant in Polish-German relations was the use by German mass media of the term Polish death camps with reference to Nazi death camps located during World War II on the territory of occupied Poland (camps that were located in Austria and Germany are described as Nazi Konzentrazionslager—without the geographic adjective denoting their location). In effect, new generations of German readers were being misled to believe that “Polish” death camps existed during WWII. There are various other minor problems of this kind that irritate Polish public opinion. However, they have never hindered Polish-German reconciliation because the guilt and responsibility of Germany for crimes committed by the Nazi regime has not been questioned. The Third Reich lost the war and the occupying powers imposed the process of de-Nazification of public life. Responsible political forces in Germany worked together to overcome the Nazi past, bring the criminals to justice and establish good relations with all the neighbours in the East and West. As a result,

Poland has never had such good relations with Germany as it did after German unification within the Euro-Atlantic security structures and within the European Union.

Source: Workshop “Towards a Strategy for Reconciliation in the OSCE Area” Vienna, 18 December 2012

Mr. Ted Opitz (Etobicoke Centre, Canadian MP): I was troubled to see that in last Friday’s print edition of the Globe and Mail an article on the new war museum in Dresden used the erroneous phrase “Polish concentration camps” in reference to the Nazi German concentration and extermination camps in occupied Poland.

Polish citizens were victims of the brutal Nazi occupiers during the second world war. This phrase is offensive to the Polish people, who formed the largest home army resisting Nazi tyranny and fought shoulder to shoulder with Canadians on the western front. It insults the thousands of Polish righteous among the nations, who risked their lives to save Jewish neighbours from certain death in Hitler’s death camps.

This is not the first time this erroneous phrase has been used. Canada has been clear in our support for the UNESCO designation of Auschwitz as Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi German concentration and extermination camp.

It is important for Canadians to be aware of this distinction, and I hope journalists will take this matter seriously and never again refer falsely to Polish concentration camps.

Reference: Monday, September 26, 2011

Source: Parliament of Canada Website 41^st Parliament, 1^st Session

Poland: The country fears younger generations may not be aware that Nazi Germany was responsible for its operation and may believe the Poles were responsible for the camp.

Reference: UN Criticised Over Auschwitz Website

Source: Totally Jewish 6^th April 2006

Polish-Jewish Heritage Foundation of Canada (Montreal Chapter): The reference to Auschwitz or any other of those camps as a Polish concentration camp will inevitably lead your readers to erroneously conclude that a death camp was sponsored or administered by the Polish government (whereas no Polish government existed during the German occupation !) or that Polish people participated in perpetrating the Holocaust. Any such implication besmirches the memory of all those Poles who suffered so greatly under the German occupation, including the many thousands who died at the hands of the Germans in Auschwitz.

Reference: Letter to the Editor

Source: Polish-Jewish Heritage Foundation of Canada Montreal Chapter website

Reconciliation of European Histories group: Due to the fact that a few journalist of international newspapers have been using the most unfortunate phrase “a Polish concentration camp” in regards to the Nazi German camps in occupied Poland, the Reconciliation of European Histories group would like to remind those concerned that the usage of this wording is incorrect. Moreover, such a misrepresentation is insensitive and can be hurtful towards the people who were the victims of Nazi persecution, their descendants, and all nations whose territories were occupied by Nazi Germany. It is important for all of us to remember that the Polish people, as well as other European peoples, were also prisoners of Nazi concentration camps.

Reference: Statement of the Reconciliation of European Histories group

Source: Reconciliation of European Histories group

United Nations: Poland requested the change to ensure that future generations understand it had no role in the camp established by Adolf Hitler’s forces during their brutal occupation of the country. Polish officials have complained that Auschwitz is sometimes referred to as a “Polish concentration camp,” a phrase they fear may be misleading to younger generations who may not associate the camp with Nazi Germany.

Reference: New name of Auschwitz

Source: Embassy of Poland in Ottawa 27^th June 2007

Polish Officials, experts and Media

Ewa Błaszczyńska (Master’s Degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies): due to sheer ignorance or perhaps outright disdain for Poland, columnists in mainstream media outlets like the UK’s Guardian and the Washington Post keep referring to “Polish concentration camps” (rather than German or Nazi) when writing about the Holocaust.

Reference: A tribute to the fallen

Source: Warsaw Business Journal 13^th April 2010

Karol Bachura (Ambassador to Macedonia): The erroneous formulations referring to my country appearing in different Macedonian media and publications in recent years cannot be described or designated as technical error, abstract noun or geographic qualifier. They are deeply unjust and undeserved, not only to the memory of six million of my compatriots, half of whom Polish Jews killed during World War II, but also towards present Poland and its citizens. The irresponsible use of formulations appearing among certain Macedonian journalists and individuals in the science field can result in confusion among young people and improper interpretation of facts, where the hangman is regarded identical as the victim. This could be dangerous for future generations

Reference: Polish Embassy urges media to precisely name Nazi camps

Source: MINA 8^th March 2011

Malgorzata Cabezas – Bogdanska (Great Grandmother and Grandfather were victims of the Nazi Germans): There were no Polish concentration camps; all concentration camps during WW2 were GERMAN or RUSSIAN… Even the apologies were wrong; he was not a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp located in Poland as it had been corrected. He was a survivor of DACHAU & MAUTHAUSEN concentration camps, both situated in AUSTRIA.

Reference: Mediawatch: Your say

Source: ABC 25^th September 2005

Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz (Minister of Foreign Affairs Republic of Poland): Labelling the camp as “Polish” shifts the responsibility thus falsifying the fundamental truth about the Holocaust perpetrators.

Reference: So called “Polish concentration camps”

Source: Military Photos 5^th February 2005

Catherine Czerkawska (playwright and author): I remember vividly how, only a handful of years ago, somebody actually asked me which side the Poles had fought on in the war, and had they been ‘in with the Nazis’ then?

Reference: Rewriting history

Source: Scottish review 18^th January 2011

Michał Gałek (Author “Episodes from Auschwitz”—the first historical comic book about Auschwitz”) By publishing the comic books in different languages knowledge about the Second World War, the occupation, and German concentration camps in occupied Poland is spread among readers outside of Poland, destroying the notorious lie about so-called “Polish concentration camps”.

Reference: For the press

Source: Episodes from Auschwitz website

Elzbieta Halas (Professor of Sociology at the University of Warsaw): The wording ‘Polish concentration camps’ that appears in the global communications media is an example of the gravity of the problem. The expression infringes upon historical truth about the genocide committed by Nazi Germany on the territories of the occupied Poland and affects the reputation of the Polish nation.

Reference: Issues of Social Memory and their Challenges in the Global Age

Source: Issues of Social Memory and their Challenges in the Global Age by Elzbieta Halas (Time Society 2008 17: 103)

Paul Hardej (co-founder of Polish American Awareness Foundation): we see a problem when WWII Nazi concentration camps are called ‘Polish camps’ in a reputable newspaper. We don’t think there is a bad will there, it’s just that they need more education. There haven’t been any ‘Polish concentration camps’ ever

Reference: PAAF starts operations in Chicago, IL

Source: Polish-American Awareness Foundation Website

Jerzy Haszczynski (Journalist Rzeczpospolita): Polish concentration camps: how easily journalists from many countries come to write these words about Auschwitz or Birkenau. This is a much more succinct formulation than “a concentration camp created by the Nazis on the territory of occupied Poland”. But it is a lie, states the Rzeczpospolita daily’s commentator Jerzy Haszczynski. According to him, it is high time that the foreign media came to value truth above all.

Reference: Newspaper, minister in campaign against term Polish concentration camps

Source: PAP news agency, Warsaw – January 25, 2005

Andrzej Jaroszyski (Polish ambassador to Australia): Any reference to “Polish concentration camps” is entirely inaccurate, deeply unjust and offensive to all Polish people//This is not a mere semantic matter. Historical integrity and accuracy hang in the balance.

Reference: Auschwitz was not a Polish camp

Source: The Australian 20^th April 2010

Peter Jassem (President, Polish-Jewish Heritage Foundation of Canada): The term “Polish camp” is both historically inaccurate and highly defamatory to the Poles.

Reference: So called “Polish concentration camps”

Source: Military Photos 5^th February 2005

Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka (Consul General of Poland, New York): An extensive system of extermination, concentration, labor and prisoner-of-war camps was built and operated by Nazi Germany. Describing a concentration camp as “Polish,” only because it was located on the occupied territory of Poland, is tantamount to indicating that Poland was a participant in the Nazi crime.

Reference: WSJ: Polish Consul General: There Were No Polish Death Camps

Source: Wall Street Journal via soc.culture.jewish.moderated

Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka (Consul General of Poland) Describing a concentration camp as “Polish,” only because it was located on the occupied territory of Poland, is tantamount to indicating that Poland was a participant in the Nazi crime.

Reference: There Were No Polish Death Camps

Source: The Wall Street Journal 17^th May 2010

Łukasz Kamiński (historian of the Institute of National Remembrance): Time passes and the level of public knowledge of World War Two decreases. The more we hear about “Polish death camps” the less we will think about what it really means – if it means they were built in Poland, or by Poles. We must defend the historic truth on this matter with determination.

Reference: CNN made to apologize for offending Poles

Source: Poland.pl 23^rd April 2009

Jan Kasprzyk (Culture Ministry spokesman): In the years after the war, the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was definitively associated with the criminal activities of the national socialist Nazi regime in Germany. However, for the contemporary, younger generations, especially abroad, that association is not universal

Reference: Poland seeks Auschwitz name change

Source: Ynet 30th March 2006

Jan Kasprzyk (Culture Ministry spokesman): We cannot continue to ignore repeated publications that defame Poland. The new name is completely accurate. By stating who was the perpetrator of a war that ended more than 60 years ago, honest mistakes could be avoided.

Reference: Poland Wants Name Change for Auschwitz

Source: DW World 13^th April 2006

Stefan Korbonski (Author, Lawyer and leader of Polish resistance): The charges leveled by the Jews against the Poles for allegedly sharing responsibility for the Holocaust by not preventing the slaughter of the Jews by the Nazis are groundless, unfair, and slanderous.

Source: The Jews and the Poles in World War II by Stefan Korbonski (1989) ISBN 0-87052-591-3 Page vii

August Kowalczyk (Auschwitz inmate number 6804): If Pope Benedict says we’re in the German Nazi camp of Auschwitz, people may finally understand, Lots of people say this camp is Polish, but if a German pope says it isn’t, maybe people will listen”

Reference: Poland fears world forgets Auschwitz was Nazi camp

Source: Ynet 26^th May 2006

Maciej Kozlowski: In the main, this stereotype is a result of ignorance sometimes intentionally cultivated (the famous “Polish concentration camps”), sometimes simply from a lack of access to reliable sources of information.

Reference: About the Museum in the media

Source: Museum of the history of Polish Jews Summer 2005

Andrew Krzywdzinski: For example, hearing about the “Polish concentration camps”, an uninformed viewer may (and does) assume they were built and staffed by the Poles for the purpose of extermination of Jews

Reference: Shtetl

Source: PBS Website

Piotr Kucka: As soon as there is the talk of an `Oswiecim camp’ instead of `Auschwitz’, a line is crossed as to the falsification of `Polish concentration camps’

Reference: French town cuts off ties with Oswiecim

Source: ‏Polskie Radio 10^th November 2011

Witold J. Ławrynowicz and Małgorzata Ławrynowicz: Even if some portion of readers is aware that this is untrue, a large number of citizens of the Western world have little knowledge of the historical fact, and may come to wrongful conclusions. A good example of the poor level of historical knowledge among American students was documented by Edmund Lewandowski in the San Francisco Bay Area Polish American Community Newsletter in Santa Clara County, California. Lewandowski interviewed a group of high school students in 1998, showing them a picture of a concentration camp guard and asking “Who were the Nazis?” The response was shocking. The students overwhelmingly claimed that the Nazis were Poles.

Reference: “Polish Concentration Camps”- History versus Reality

Source: NYC Police Department Pulaski Association Website

Witold J. Ławrynowicz and Małgorzata Ławrynowicz: One must remember that the structure of the English language is such that many expressions have multiple meanings, and their Polish translation is not always apparent. An excellent example is the phrase “Polish Concentration Camp victim.” Does this phrase imply a Polish individual who was imprisoned in a concentration camp or the prisoner of a “Polish” concentration camp? The misleading wording of the phrase often leads to its wrongful interpretation.

Reference: “Polish Concentration Camps”- History versus Reality

Source: NYC Police Department Pulaski Association Website

PAP (Polish news agency): Polish media are involved in a campaign against the term “Polish death camps.” Persons who do not know the history of World War II very well may erroneously infer that the extermination camps set up by the German aggressors were the work of Poles.

Reference: Against falsifying history – the term “Polish death camps”

Frank Milewski (Chair, Polish American Congress): Quite frequently, the Times has chosen to call Auschwitz a “Polish” death camp instead of describing it as the “German” death camp it was. Several newspapers in Germany have done this as well. They scrupulously avoid linking the word “German” with anything as evil as Auschwitz or the other German death camps. In German newspapers, “Polish” is clearly and consistently the preferred way to describe the camps the Germans operated in Poland. That this would be a misrepresentation and a bold deception seems to be of no concern to the Germans.

Reference: Will the N.Y. TIMES ever get it straight?

Source: Polish News 5^th January 2010

Dr. Mokrzycki (President of the Federation of Poles in Great Britain): So we came to an understanding, just like with the BBC, who agreed to stop talking about ‘Polish’ concentration camps during WW2.”

Reference: Our man in London (Part II)

Source: Krakow Post April 2009

Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Nazi German Camps on Polish Soil during World War II: One sometimes hears the words “Polish concentration camps” being uttered by ignorant people who know the history neither of Poland nor of the Second World War. The saddest fact is that even today—in a time of peace—people are doing far too little to shield others from the real danger of systematic hatred and genocide.

Various centers around the world, such as the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem or the Holocaust Museum in Washington, are counteracting this tendency. In Poland, too, many institutions are contributing to preserving the memory of the crimes of genocide committed in the Nazi German camps.

Reference: Nazi German camps on Occupied Polish Soil during World War Two

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs booklet

Stefan Nowicki (Author): Lanzmann and many Jewish writers claim that these camps could have existed only in Poland.//This lies go so far that many publications of the phrase “Polish concentration camps” or “Polish death camps” is used without explanation that they were really German.

Source: The Defamation of the Poles by Stefan Nowicki (1989) ISBN 0 7316 6767 0

Piotr Ogrodzinski (Ambassador to Canada): It’s absolutely false that Poles had anything to do with concentration camps, with the exception that they were the first prisoners

Reference: Sorry, Poland

Source: Macleans 20^th November 2009

Jacek Olejnik (first secretary at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Israeli): Sir, – In “Death of a Warsaw Ghetto heroine” (January 13) about the great Chavka Folman Raban, who was my close friend, I noticed a totally biased and horrible term in the sub-headline: “Nazi Poland.”

Poland was occupied by the Nazis but was never Nazi itself.

In fact, Polish and Jewish resistance groups joined forces to fight the Nazis.

We continue to fight the biased statement that appears in the media from time to time, that there were “Polish death camps.” But it has been a rare moment when we read something even worse and more offensive as appeared in your article. It is especially offensive at a time when Poland is one of Israel’s best friends in the European Union and various international forums.

In addition, you are probably aware that no other country has had as many of its citizens honored as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.

Dr. Teodor Polak and Artur Zygmont (Members of the Polish American Congress, Anti-Defamation Committee of California): Poles are portrayed as anti-Semites who collaborated with the Nazis. Even after numerous complaints, the press uses terms such as Polish concentration camps.

Reference: Poles Were Not Victims of the Nazis?

Source: Polish American Journal 1^st March 2000

Polish American Congress: the mass media continue to often misidentify these camps as “Polish death camps”//the passing from the scene of the generation of Holocaust eyewitnesses makes it imperative to leave an accurate historical record in order to combat Holocaust denial

Reference: Resolution on renaming of Auschwitz Concentration Camp

Source: Polish American Congress New Jersey division website

Polish Journalists’ Association: Poland’s largest journalists’ association appealed to foreign reporters Tuesday to avoid the term “Polish death camp” when referring to Auschwitz and other camps set up by the Nazis in occupied Poland. Ahead of Thursday’s 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Polish Journalists’ Association said it wanted to remind foreign reporters that Germans, and not Poles, carried out genocide at the camps.

Reference: Polish group asks reporters to stop calling Auschwitz a ‘Polish death camp’

Source: Associated Press 25^th January 2005

Polish Pastoral Letter: In expressing our sorrow for all the injustices and harm done to Jews, we cannot forget that we consider untrue and deeply harmful the use by many of the concept of what is called Polish anti-Semitism, as an especially threatening form of that anti-Semitism; and in addition frequently connecting the concentration camps not with those who were actually involved with them but with Poles in a Poland occupied by the Germans.

Reference: A Polish Pastoral Letter on the Jews

Source: Bieganski by Danusha Goska Boston (2010) ISBN 978-1-936235-15-5 Page 91

Michael Preisler (Auschwitz Survivor and co-chair of the Holocaust Documentation Committee of the Polish American Congress): It’s as if the media want to exonerate the Germans from their guilt and blame the Polish people for the German atrocities

Reference: Remembering the start of WWII and the day before it started

Source: Canada Free Press 20^th August 2008

Michael Preisler (Auschwitz Survivor): Nowhere else is Holocaust history as distorted and as misrepresented as it is about Poland

Reference: Hitler told Germans to kill Poles “mercilessly and without compassion”

Source: Canada Free Press 25^th August 2010

Michael Preisler (Auschwitz Survivor): They like to call these camps ‘Polish.’ We would like them to be accurate and not mislead the public by calling the German camps Polish. It’s been repeated so often, a lot of people have come to believe it.

Reference: NY TV Station Apologizes for Error Blaming Poland Instead of Germany for Auschwitz

Source: Polish Times 2009

Canadian Polish Congress, A Preliminary study on anti-Polonism in Canada: The most common revisionism is the use of the terms “Polish concentration camps”, “Polish death camps”, and “Polish ghettos”. All of these were established by the Germans after Poland was defeated and occupied, with no input from the subjugated Polish population who was interned in these camps by the hundreds of thousands.

Reference: A Preliminary study on anti-Polonism in Canada

Source: Canadian Polish Congress Archives section of the website

Marek Purowski (Press counselor for Poland’s ambassador to the United States): I have to strongly object to the article’s description of Auschwitz as “a Polish concentration camp.” This term is historically incorrect. Instead, Auschwitz should be described as a German concentration camp in the occupied territory of Poland. The term “Polish concentration camp” implies that it was the Poles who organized and operated the concentration camps during World War II. This is the impression a reader might get reading the article. It is of great importance to remember the unprecedented history of atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II and to teach children about them, but it is also important not to allow for any misinterpretation.

Reference: Holocaust reporting

Source: Las Vegas Review Journal 23^rd March 2006

Ambassador Janusz Reiter (Polish Ambassador to the United States): “Polish concentration camps” is a sign of “manipulation, stupidity and ignorance.”

Reference: Link not working

Adam Rotfeld (Poland’s foreign minister): “use of the term ‘Polish death camps’. . . not only conceals the truth about the perpetrators of that crime, but slanders our nation, which was the first victim of the criminal practices of Nazi Germany.”

Reference: Sorry, Poland

Source: Macleans 20^th November 2009

Adam Rotfeld (Poland’s foreign minister) presentation to the Sejm (Polish equivalent to Common): Today, a few days before the ceremonies that will focus the attention of the whole world, I call on representatives of press organizations, the Association of Polish Journalists and other organizations representing the Polish media, to address – independently of the appeals, corrections and diplomatic representations of the Polish MFA – a letter to their colleagues, and partner organizations of journalists around the world , telling them that the thoughtless or intentional use of the term “Polish death camps” is insulting and shameful. It not only conceals the truth about the perpetrators of that crime, but slanders our nation, which was the first victim of the criminal practices of Nazi Germany.

Reference: Government information on the Polish foreign policy presented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Adam Daniel Rotfeld, at the session of the Sejm on 21st January 2005

Source: Minister of Foreign Affairs Website

Janusz Rygielski (President of Polish Community Council of Australia): The phrase, “Polish death camps” is very straightforward and is both factually and historically incorrect. Hundreds of thousands of Poles died in those camps, which were set up in Poland and run by the Germans after Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. This is a historical fact which can not be rewritten or changed

Reference: Letter

Source: Polish Community Council of Australia Website

Andrzej Sadoś (Ministry of Foreign Affairs): stressed that the origins of the concept of “Polish death camps” or “Polish concentration camps” lie in profound historical ignorance, especially among the young. He noted that the film contains interviews with students from elite schools who are completely unembarrassed by their lack of knowledge. They cannot explain who the Nazis were. When asked who built concentration camps in Poland, they reply: “They’re Polish camps—so, it was the Poles.”

Reference: Polish Death Camps? Against Falsehood

Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum – Polish Death Camps? Against Falsehood

Pawel Sawicki (Spokesman Auschwitz Memorial): nothing justifies calling Auschwitz (or Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, Kulmhof, Majdanek, Stutthof and others) a Polish camp. Auschwitz was founded and administered by Nazi Germany – this is a historical fact we must not deny.

Reference: A personal comment on the discussion about “Polish concentration camps”

Władysław Siła-Nowicki: attitudes towards the Jews during that period do not give us a particular reason to be proud, but neither are they any ground for shame, and even less ignominy. Simply, we could have done relatively little more than we actually did

Source: Polin Volume 13 Edited by Antony Polonsky ISBN 978-1-874774-47-1 Littman Library (2000) Page 6-7

Radek Sikorski (Polish foreign minister): The Holocaust that took place on our soil was conducted against our will by someone else.

Source: The Economist 28^th February 2011

Reference: Strong friends

Alex Storozynski (Author of “The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus Kościuszko and the Age of Revolution”): Newspaper editors justify the use of the term “Polish concentration camp” as geographical shorthand for “a German concentration camp in occupied Poland.” But this shorthand is Orwellian doublespeak that turns the victim into perpetrator and distorts history. It perpetuates ignorance about the Holocaust and gives impressionable readers the idea that Poles built the camps.

Reference: The media’s slander of Poland: Ignorance, lazy editing, or malicious libel?

Source: The Huffington Post 25^th October 2010

Henryk Świebocki (Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum curator): I do not dare to suspect you of making a suggestion that Poles are, to a certain degree, responsible for Auschwitz, and “The government in Warsaw wants […] make clear that Poland had no involvement in the death camp”

Reference: Who Built the Auschwitz German Concentration Camp?

Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum website 11^th April 2006

Robert Szaniawski (Press Counsellor London Embassy): I would like to point out that there were no Polish camps during the second world war. While the Nazi authorities of Germany, which occupied Poland at the time, established death camps on Polish territory, they were operated by the Nazi German government, with no co-operation on the part of Polish authorities or the local population.

Reference: There were never any Polish camps‏

Source: Financial Times 17^th May 2011

Mieczyslaw Szczecinski (Honorary President – Polish Combatants’ Association in Canada): At no time during World War II were there any Polish concentration camps; all concentration camps in Nazi-occupied Poland were established by the Germans. You not only do great injustice to the Polish people, but, unintentionally, you are changing historical facts.

Reference: Letters

Source: Time 20^th April 1998

Kazimierz Ujazdowski (Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage): This is a victory for truth… (otherwise) Poland might be blamed for taking part in organising and running the Auschwitz

Reference: Naming 1971 mass killing sites

Source: The Daily Star 11^th July 2007

Kazimierz Ujazdowski (Culture Minister): We hope this will help correct the misconception that Auschwitz is a Polish death camp

Reference: Auschwitz death camp gets new name

Source: Ynet 13^th July 2006

Stefan Wilkanowicz (vice-chairman of the International Auschwitz Council): This talk about Polish camps is propaganda, many journalists and other people don’t know history and think the Poles created these concentration camps

Reference: Poland fears world forgets Auschwitz was Nazi camp

Source: Ynet 26^th May 2006

Zygmunt Zielinski (professor University of Lublin): Today, one often hears in some Jewish circles the epithet of “Polish death camp.” That phrase is unjust. It is especially unjust in the case of Poland’s religious. There was no group in occupied Poland who, proportionately, did as much to help Jews as Polish priests and nuns.

Reference: Nuns Who Saved Polish Jews

Source: Catholic education resource center website

Ed Zietarski (Moderator Polish Media Issues Group): Do recipients of the media understand that perhaps the term Polish was intended in the geographical sense of the word? Even so, being Nazi-occupied land, even the geographical sense of the word may be regarded as incorrect. Would the recipient of the media, who is perhaps ignorant of historical details, assume that the Poles were responsible for deeds carried out at concentration camps?

Reference: Linguistic imprecision?

Source: Topaz website June 2005

Witold Żygulski (Editor Warsaw Voice): The formulation “Polish concentration camps,” which recurs in the international media to describe places such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, Sobibór or Stutthof is a slap in the face for the Polish people. Despite many years of efforts made by researchers and political commentators to present a reliable history of World War II, especially in Western Europe and the United States, there are still people who misconstrue the facts. Politicians are also to blame; this was clearly demonstrated by a recent debate on a European Parliament resolution referring to the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where words about “German” and “Nazi” death camps were used only thanks to the unusual persistence and solidarity of Polish EU parliamentarians. In Poland, the whole issue is viewed

Reference: Declaration of Politicians

Source: Warsaw Voice 16^th February 2005

General quotes

Józef Beck (Foreign Minister of Poland 1932 to 1939): Peace is a precious and a desirable thing. Our generation, bloodied in wars, certainly deserves peace. But peace, like almost all things of this world, has its price, a high but a measurable one. We in Poland do not know the concept of peace at any price. There is only one thing in the lives of men, nations and countries that is without a price. That thing is an honor.

Source: Poland – in the defence of freedom 1939-1945 by Wiktor Krzysztof Cyan and Jacek Skalski (Warsaw 2005) ISBN 83-8121-67-5 Page 5

Reference: BBC website The New Europe

Irving Berlin: It is a terrible and dangerous arrogance to believe that you alone are right: have a magical eye which sees the truth: & that others cannot be right if they disagree.

Source: “Notes on Prejudice” by Irving Berlin The New York Review of Books 18^th October 2000

Piotr Koperski (Businessman): People only talk about the bad side, but not about the good. This seems unfair to me, this lack of proportions.

Reference: Book on Polish anti-Semitism sparks fury

Source: USA Today 24^th January 2008

Joseph Lichten (Jewish Holocaust survivor): Heroes are a rare specimen in any nation

Source: He who saves one life by Kazimierz Iranek-Osmecki (Crown 1971) Page xi

Deborah Lipstadt: Though the historian’s role is to act as a neutral observer trying to follow the facts, there is increasing recognition that the historian brings to this enterprise his or her own values and biases. Consequently, there is no such thing as value-free history.

Source: Denying the holocaust by Deborah Lipstadt (Penguin 1994) Page 25

Richard C. Lukas: It is ironic that Poland, the nation that suffered the cruellest occupation policies of the German during World War II, has had so little written about its wartime experiences.

Source: Forgotten Holocaust by Richard Lukas (Hippocrene 1990) ISBN 0-87052-632-4 Page ix

Frank Milewski: At a time when voices from other nations in Europe were urging appeasement – even surrender – to satisfy Hitler’s ominous threats and demands, Poland had the courage and determination to stand firm and be the “First to Fight.”

Reference: Hitler told Germans to kill Poles “mercilessly and without compassion”

Source: Canada Free Press 25^th August 2010

Michael Novak: Such vast mountains of material remain to be sifted that no single human being could acquaint himself with all of it.

Source: The Other Holocaust by Bohdan Wytwycky (1982) Novak report on the Ethnicity ISBN 9789991651958 Page 10

Annamaria Orla-Bukowska: Judge only individuals never groups

Source: Rethinking POLES and Jews edited by Robert Cherry and Annamaria Orla-Bukowska ISBN 978-0-7425-4666-0

Pope Benedict XVI: First and foremost, they wanted to eliminate the cultural elite, thus erasing the Polish people as an autonomous historical subject and reducing it, to the extent that it continued to exist, to slavery.

Reference: Pope at Auschwitz death camp: How could God tolerate this horror?

Source: Ha’aretz 28^th May 2006

Adam Michnik: Do Poles, along with Germans, bear guilt for the Holocaust? It is hard to imagine a more absurd claim.

Reference: Poles and the Jews: How Deep the Guilt?

Source: Dialog 17th March 2001

Adam Michnik: Thus we have a singularly Polish paradox: on occupied Polish soil, a person could be an anti-Semite, a hero of the resistance and a savior of Jews.

Reference: Poles and the Jews: How Deep the Guilt?

Source: Dialog 17th March 2001

Michael Preisler (Auschwitz Survivor and co-chair of the Holocaust Documentation Committee of the Polish American Congress): attributes some of the problem to “careless or unprofessional reporting.” But a lot of it suggests “an intentional anti-Polish or anti-Catholic prejudice.”

Reference: Hitler told Germans to kill Poles “mercilessly and without compassion”

Source: Canada Free Press 25^th August 2010

Diane Ravitch: if you are willing to accept unquestioningly what “everyone” says, then the story is over before the investigation begins

Source: The massacre in Jedwabne by Marek Chodakiewicz (2005) ISBN 0-88033-554-8 page 1

Mark Smith (author of Treblinka Survivor: the Life and Death of Hershl Sperling): Warsaw Poles had been reduced to poverty. Records reveal that Warsaw residents received the lowest food rations anywhere in German-occupied Europe

Source: Treblinka Survivor: the Life and Death of Hershl Sperling (2010) ISBN 978 0 7524 5618 8 Page 146.

Poland and the Holocaust

Wladyslaw Bartoszewski (ad of the International Auschwitz Council and a former camp prisoner): none of the local residents worked at Auschwitz.

Reference: Poland Wants Name Change for Auschwitz

Source: DW World 13^th April 2006

Szymon Datner (Former director of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw): the Holocaust was such a specific, though unimaginable, crime. But it cannot be charged against the Poles.

Reference: The Warsaw Ghetto uprising and the Poles

Source: Canadian Polish Congress – Toronto District website

Marek Edelman (Leader of the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising): Murdering Jews was pure banditry, and I wouldn’t explain it as anti-Semitism

Reference: Book on Polish anti-Semitism sparks fury

Source: USA Today 24^th January 2008

Daniel Jonah Goldhagen: No Germans, no Holocaust

Source: Bieganski by Danusha Goska Boston (2010) ISBN 978-1-936235-15-5 Page 98

Daniel Jonah Goldhagen: While members of other national groups aided the Germans in their slaughter of Jews, the commission of the Holocaust was primarily a German undertaking.

Source: Hitler’s willing executioners by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen (Abacus 2006) ISBN 0-349-10786-6 Page 6

Daniel Jonah Goldhagen: Little is known of who the perpetrators were, the details of their actions, the circumstances of many of their deeds, let alone their motivations. A decent estimate of how many people contributed to the genocide, of how many perpetrators there were, has never been made. Certain institutions of killing and the people who manned them have been hardly treated or not at all. As a consequence of this general lack of knowledge, all kinds of misunderstandings and myths about the perpetrators abound.

Source: Hitler’s willing executioners by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen (Abacus 2006) ISBN 0-349-10786-6 Page 5

Peter Stachura (Professor Stirling University): For some critics, the fact the Holocaust took place in Poland, albeit in death camps set up and administered by the Nazis has been cited as evidence of Polish guilt, even partial culpability for appalling fate suffered by the Jews.

Source: Poland 1918-9145 by Peter D. Stachura (2004) ISBN 0-415-34358-5 page 144

Peter Stachura (Professor Stirling University): Consequently, the charge that the Holocaust was the logical or inevitable result of pre-war Polish anti-Semitism is untenable.

Source: Poland 1918-9145 by Peter D. Stachura (2004) ISBN 0-415-34358-5 page 147

Peter Stachura (Professor Stirling University): To attribute blame to the Poles for the Holocaust, the ghastly culmination of Nazi racism, is surely to diminish somehow the unique horror of Nazism.

Source: Poland 1918-9145 by Peter D. Stachura (2004) ISBN 0-415-34358-5 page 148

Responsibility for World War Two

Cornelia Pieper (official in charge of German-Polish relations): I think comments that relativise the responsibility of Nazi Germany for the outbreak of World War II are very dangerous, they turn history on its head.

Reference: Poland hails Berlin dismissal of joint WWII blame

Source: Expatica 10^th September 2010

Guido Westerwelle (German Foreign Minister): Ambiguous statements that place Germany’s grave responsibility in the outbreak of World War II in question are unacceptable

Reference: Merkel ally resigns after war slur against Poland

Source: Morning Star 10^th September 2010

Scottish-based charity Erskine, Survey “What do people know now?”: One in six youngsters said they thought Auschwitz was a Second World War theme park while one in 20 said the Holocaust was a celebration at the end of the war.

Reference: http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/children-thought-hitler-was-german-football-coach-survey-reveals-1.930426

Armourer: In recent years Polish veterans were proudly to find young people in the UK asking whether Poland fought with Germany in WWII.

Source: The Armourer Issue 96 Page 17

Czesław Miłosz (Nobel Prize Laureate): When the meaning of the word Holocaust undergoes gradual modification, so that the word begins to belong to the history of the Jews exclusively, as if among the victims there were not also millions of Poles, Russians, Ukrainians of other nationalities”

Source: Forgotten Holocaust by Richard C. Lukas (Hippocrene Books 1990) ISBN 0-87052-632-4 Page ix

Polish communities abroad, compiled by the Polish Foreign Ministry: Many foreign school textbooks used the phrase `Polish concentration camps’ in reference to Nazi German concentration camps on Polish territory.

Reference: Poland in foreign eyes

Source: Polskie Radio 27^th December 2009

Claude Lanzmann (director of the film Shoah): When Jan Karski, the courier of the Polish government-in-exile, was in Washington in 1943 to report on the things he had seen in Warsaw ghetto and the Izbica camp, the American Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, himself a Jew, said to him: “Young man, I don’t believe you. I’m not saying that you’re a liar, but I don’t believe you.” The justice thought that he knew what people were like.

Reference: ‘Death Has Always Been a Scandal’

Source: Spiegel 9^th October 2010

Edward Raczyński (Polish foreign minister) to the world on 17^th December 1942 on the Holocaust: If these keep silent the stomes will cry out.

Source: He who saves one life by Kazimierz Iranek-Osmecki (Crown 1971)

About Poles, Poland and Jews

Polish-Jewish relations

Johannes von Blaskowitz (Wehrmacht General): The acts of violence carried out in public against Jews are arousing in religious Poles not only the deepest disgust but also a great sense of pity for the Jewish population.

Reference: The Warsaw ghetto uprising (untold story) and the Poles

Source: International Research Center website

David Cesarani (English historian who specialises in Jewish history): Many Jewish historians, meanwhile, have shown the closeness between the two communities and challenged the stereotype that Jews and Christians on Polish soil lived in separate worlds. Relations between them, especially in small towns and villages, were more cordial and intimate than was once thought to be the case. The knowledge of the slaughter of the Jews in Poland and the bitter aftermath, including the attacks on survivors by rightwing Poles in 1945-7, created a distorting lens through which the past was viewed for decades.

Reference: Stephen Fry’s Auschwitz blunder

Source: The Guardian 12^th October 2009

Marek Edelman (one of the leaders of the Warsaw ghetto Uprising): Without the help of the Poles we couldn’t have started the uprising

Reference: CONTROVERSY ABOUT NBC MINI-SERIES “UPRISING”

Source: citinet.net website

Reference: The Warsaw ghetto uprising (untold story) and the Poles

Source: International Research Center website

Zvi Gitelman: the stereotype of Polish anti-Semitism – which like all stereotypes has truth in it except that it becomes overgeneralized and attributed to each Polish person

Source: Contested memories Rutgers (2003) ISBN 0-8135-3158-6 Page 285

Jabotinsky (Zionist leader and Author): We formed the ghettos ((in pre-WWII Poland)) ourselves, voluntarily, for the same reason for which Europeans in Shanghai establish their separate quarter, to be able to live together in their own way

Source: The Jews and the Poles in World War II by Stefan Korbonski (1989) ISBN 0-87052-591-3 Page 8

Moshe Kantor (president of the European Jewish Congress) said that Poland has long been “an important ally and partner of Israel and of Jewish communities in Europe.”

Reference: Polish president recognizes importance of restitution of Jewish property issue in his country

Source: European Jewish Press 7^th July 2009

Chaim Kaplan (Jewish educator from Warsaw): Common suffering has drawn all hearts closer, and the barbaric persecutions of the Jews have even aroused feelings of sympathy toward them. Tacitly, wordlessly, the two former rivals sense that they are brothers in misfortune; that they have a common enemy who wishes to bring destruction upon both at the same time.

Reference: The Warsaw ghetto uprising (untold story) and the Poles

Source: International Research Center website

Chaim Kaplan (Jewish educator from Warsaw): At last the Poles have begun to understand that the hatred of the Jew which the conqueror spreads among them is an opiate, an intoxicating drink to blind them and turn their attention away from the real enemy. We thought that the “Jewish badge” would provide the local population with a source of mockery and ridicule—but we were wrong. There is no attitude of disrespect nor of making much of another’s dishonour. Just the opposite. They show that they commiserate with us in our humiliation. They sit silent in the street cars, and in private conversation, they even express words of condolence and encouragement. “Better times will come!”

Reference: The Warsaw ghetto uprising (untold story) and the Poles

Source: International Research Center website

Zofia Kossak-Szczucka: Our feelings toward the Jews haven’t changed. We still consider them the political, economic and ideological enemies of Poland. Furthermore, we are aware that they hate us even more than they hate the Germans, that they hold us responsible for their misfortune

Reference: Poles and the Jews: How Deep the Guilt?

Source: New York Times 17^th March 2001

Manny Lerman (daughter of a Jewish Holocaust survivor): My mother painted all Poles with the same brush, using only black paint. My experience was somewhat different: I would at least use different colors to paint my portrait.

Reference: Connecticut Jews explore Jewish Eastern Europe

Source: Jewish Ledger 15^th September 2010

Richard C. Lukas: Jewish historians tend to make sweeping claims that label most Poles anti-Semites

Source: Forgotten Holocaust by Richard C. Lukas (Hippocrene Books 1990) ISBN 0-87052-632-4 Page 121

David Peleg (The Ambassador of Israel to Poland): Poland isn’t an anti-Semitic country. There’s much less physical anti-Semitism than in West European countries.

Reference: Poland silent over anti-Semitic priest

Source: The Jerusalem Post 8^th June 2007

Benjamin Netanyahu (Prime minister of Israel): As Prime Minister, I have the great privilege of counting you ((Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland)) as a personal friend, and Poland, too, is a real friend to Israel.

Reference: Israel – PM Netanyahu’s Statement at the Press Conference Following the Israeli-Polish Intergovernmental Consultations

Source: Isria 2011

Wojciech Roszkowski: It is really amazing to see how much of the recent charges of Polish anti-Semitism and collaboration with the Nazis reflect the communist propaganda of the years 1944-47

Source: After the Holocaust by Marek Jan Chodakiewicz (2003) ISBN 0-880-33511-4 Page vii

Rabbi Schudrich (Chief Rabbi of Poland): There is no greater friend to Israel in Europe today than Poland

Reference: The new life

Source: Jewish Journal 20^th October 2010

Radek Sikorski (Polish foreign minister): Before coming to Israel, I reviewed statistics about anti-Semitism worldwide, and was proud to discover that the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Poland was minuscule in comparison to most western European nations and the United States. And furthermore, it has been more than half a century since a murder with an anti-Semitic context has taken place in Poland.

Reference: Strong friends

Source: The Economist 28^th February 2011

Feliks Tych (director of the Warsaw Jewish Historical Institute): Pre-war Poland wasn’t heading towards a Holocaust

Source: European Jewish Press 3^rd October 2006

Reference: New evidence points to pre-war Polish “Holocaust”

Laurence Weinbaum (World Jewish Congress Research Director): No post-communist country in Europe has come close to matching Poland’s courage or candour in confronting the darkest chapters in its own wartime history, including transgressions of commission and omission

Source: World Jewish Congress Website 8^th April 2011

Reference: Warsaw can do better