Obama Causes Outrage with Reference to 'Polish Death Camp'
Poles and Polish-Americans expressed outraged Tuesday at President Obama's reference earlier that day to "a Polish death camp" - as opposed to a Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland.
"The White House will apologize for this outrageous error," Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski tweeted.
Sikorski said that Polish Prime Minister Donald "Tusk will make a
statement in the morning. It's a pity that this important ceremony was
upstaged by ignorance and incompetence."
The president had been trying to honor a famous Pole, awarding a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jan Karski,
a resistance fighter who sneaked behind enemy lines to bear witness at
the atrocities being committed against Jews. President Obama referred to
him being smuggled "into the Warsaw ghetto and a Polish death camp to
see for himself."
"A Polish death camp" - Sikorski also tonight tweeted a link to an Economist story
noting that "few things annoy Poles more than being blamed for the
crimes committed by the Nazi occupiers of their homeland. For many
years, Polish media, diplomats and politicians have tried to persuade
outsiders to stop using the phrase 'Polish death camps' as a shorthand
description of Auschwitz and other exemplars of Nazi brutality and mass
murder. Unfortunately this seems to have escaped BaracK Obama's staff
seem not to have noticed this."
National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement, "The President was referring to Nazi death camps
operated in Poland. The President has demonstrated in word and deed his
rock-solid commitment to our close alliance with Poland."
The White House also noted that the president had noted the bravery of
Poles during World War II, perhaps in January 2010 in a video he sent to
the 65th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz, when he referred
to "those who tried to save" Jews, "Polish and Hungarian, French and
Dutch, Roma and Russian, straight and gay, and so many others….Auschwitz
also tells another story-of man's capacity for good. The small acts of
compassion-the sharing of some bread that kept a child alive. The great
acts of resistance that blew up the crematorium and tried to stop the
slaughter. The Polish Rescuers and those who earned their place forever
in the Righteous Among the Nations."
It seems likely that a more formal apology will need to be issued. Alex
Storozynski, the President of the Kosciuszko Foundation, lauded the
president earlier in the day for recognizing Karski, but now says
"Karski would have cringed if he heard this….So far, The New York Times,
The Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press and others have changed
their stylebooks to ban the use of this phrase. Now, the Obama White
House must do the same. President Obama's remarks are already being
called 'scandalous' by media outlets in Poland. Obama was seen reading
this phrase off a teleprompter. The President must acknowledge his
mistake and apologize for it. He must do it for Karski and the other
Poles that risked their lives trying to stop the Holocaust."
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