Ambassador replies

Re: Bad blood in the ‘ Bloodlands,’ Feb. 5

I would like to clearly state t hat Second World War death camps were not Polish. It is not just my position. Let me just mention the United Nations, Yad Vashem and the German government itself among many organizations, institutions, authorities and individuals worldwide who do not leave any place for other interpretations of who was responsible for creating death camps and the systematic murder of European Jewry.

In 2007, the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO changed the name of the Auschwitz concentration camp to “Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp ( 1940–1945)” to make sure that the historical truth is preserved.

German Foreign Affairs Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Feb. 3, 2018 in his statement: “There is not the slightest doubt as to who was responsible for the extermination camps, operated them and murdered millions of European Jews there: namely Germans. This organized mass murder was committed by our country and by no one else.”

Secondly, I would like to stress that the purpose of the amendment passed by the Polish parliament after two years of legislative work is to counter “public and contrary-to-fact conduct that attributes responsibility or coresponsibility for Nazi crimes committed by the Third German Reich to the Polish Nation or the Polish State.”

The purpose is to preserve the historical truth about the German Nazi concentration and extermination camps on the territory of then- occupied Poland and prevent defamation of Poland. An intentional defamation.

The provisions of t he amended act are not i ntended to limit freedom of speech, research and artistic activity, or prevent survivors and their families from sharing the experience of the Holocaust. Opinions delivered as part of scientific or artistic activity have been excluded by the legislators.

I also disagree with the statement that Poland hasn’t sought to restore its Jewish heritage. Synagogues are being restored, festivals of Jewish culture draw thousands, Jewish- style restaurants all over the country are serving up platters of kosher food, klezmer bands are playing oriental melodies. POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw has welcomed more than one million visitors in less than three years since its opening in 2014. Andrzej Kurnicki, Ambassador of the Republic of Poland