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The 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was commemorated last week (January 27, 2005) in many locations throughout the world. The European Parliament has adopted a resolution to commemorate the Holocaust with the statement that the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp was established by Nazi Germany.
617 European Union deputies voted to endorse the resolution, 10 deputies abstained, and no one voted against it.
A proposal to correct and replace the original resolution statement that Auschwitz has been established by "Hitler Nazis" with the historically accurate statement, "Nazi Germany", had been made on Thursday (Jan.27.05) by Martin Schultz of Germany, the leader of the European socialists.
The second correction to modify the order in which the camp victims were listed was brought forth by Boguslaw Sonik on behalf of the largest group in European Parliament, the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats.
In consequence, the resolution states that the Nazi Germany was solely responsible for the establishment and operation of Auschwitz concentration camp and refers to "1.5 million of Jews, Gypsies, Poles, Russians and representatives of different nations, as well as homosexuals” as the victims (PAP).
The U.S. Senate has also commemorated the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by proclaiming a special resolution last Thursday. This resolution, adopted by acclamation, was sponsored by the Polish-American Senator, Barbara Mikulski, from the State of Maryland. “Perhaps more than any other word, Auschwitz is a synonym of evil. The horrors of this camp are impossible to comprehend and describe,” said the Senator in her speech on this occasion. Mikulski emphasized that many Poles were exterminated in this camp, a fact that the American general public is not aware of, and she evoked the memories of the oppression of the Polish nation during the occupation by Germany. She also commemorated the many Poles who risked their lives to save the Jews from extermination, such as Jan Karski, the Polish Underground Home Army courier, who despite his best efforts was unable to convince the leaders of the Western alliance of the imminent holocaust, Irena Sendlerowa, who saved over 2000 Jewish children from Ghetto in Warsaw, and Irena Adamowicz, who aided in establishing contacts between the underground Jewish fighters with the Polish Home Army. (Tomasz Zalewski PAP)
Even though these current events bring an abundance of true historical information about Auschwitz, some main-stream media outlets, instead of using the correct historical statement as: "the concentration camp Auschwitz established by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland", continue to omit Poles as victims of the Holocaust and use such historically false statements as: "Polish concentration camp in Auschwitz", and "participation of Poles in extermination of Jews” (NY Times, January 27, 2005, “World Leaders Gather for Auschwitz Ceremony”, Craig S. Smith).
We demand that the NY Times issue and distribute a special statement that all the untrue media reports about the concentration camp Auschwitz established by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland and direct or indirect accusations of Poles as participants in the Holocaust, are damaging to the reputation of Poland and the Polish Nation, insulting the memory of many Polish people who lost their lives saving Jews.
We appreciate that some organizations like American Jewish Committee present historical facts in true and objective manner. (AJC, January 30, 2005, “Statement on Poland and the Auschwitz Commemoration”, David A. Harris)
Polish Community in Los Angeles originated this letter. It was also co signed by
people from various Polish American & Polish Canadian communities, and Polish individuals around the world
Monika Zdunkiewicz
Updates:
In January 2006 NY Times public editor’s office advised Michael Preisler of the Polish American Congress Holocaust Documentation Committee, that Bill Borders, a senior editor at the paper “plans
to distribute a note to the staff explaining that the phrase “Polish concentration camps” is
historically inaccurate, and that it is also offensive to many readers.
In addition, he said he is going to suggest ways to express the idea
that the death camps were part of the Nazi regime.” ***end of updates***
Statement on Poland and the Auschwitz Commemoration:
January 30, 2005 - New York - American Jewish Committee Executive Director David A. Harris issued the following statement today:
The American Jewish Committee wishes to express appreciation to Poland for hosting the commemorative event to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and gratitude to Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski for his eloquent and stirring words at the ceremony.
We would also like to remind those who are either unaware of the facts or careless in their choice of words, as has been the case with some media outlets, that Auschwitz-Birkenau and the other death camps, including Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka, 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".
This is not a mere semantic matter. Historical integrity and accuracy hang in the balance.
Poland was the first nation attacked by the Third Reich, which ignited the Second World War on September 1, 1939. Polish forces fought valiantly, but were overwhelmed by the larger and better equipped Nazi army that invaded from the west, and then by the Soviet army, an ally of Hitler at the time, which attacked from the east. Nonetheless, Polish forces in exile continued the struggle against Hitler, together, of course, with other Allied troops, until the war's end. And it should also never be forgotten that, in addition to Polish Jews, who were targeted for total annihilation by the Nazi Final Solution, other Poles, including political prisoners such as Professor Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, who spoke so movingly at Auschwitz on January 27, and who was a key figure in the Polish underground, were also seized by the Nazis and incarcerated in concentration camps.
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.
New York, January 30, 2005
Contact: Kenneth Bandler (212) 891-6771 PR@ajc.org
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“ Polish concentration camp in Auschwitz“.
Full addresses, emails, phone numbers -as sent-
of those
who signed are in our possession.]
or: P. Sobanski,PO BOX 21128 Long Beach, CA 90801, USA
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The New York Times
229 West 43rd Street
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Executive Editor Bill Keller:
Lisa Fingeret Roth (212) 891-1385 rothl@ajc.org
—The New York Times
—Reuters
—Le Monde (France)
—Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's leading daily newspaper
—Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom
—Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
—French President Jacques Chirac
—UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
—President John F. Kennedy
—Tom Brokaw, NBC Nightly News