The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the charge d'affaires for Poland's embassy in Israel, Piotr Kozlowski,
in response to a bill that seeks to outlaw the phrase “Polish death camps.” Polish lawmakers in the lower house of parliament backed the bill on Friday, a day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
"Israel's opposition to the wording of the bill was expressed to him," the ministry statement, issued on Sunday, said. "The timing of the bill—the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day—was particularly surprising and unfortunate."
Netanyahu told the Jerusalem Post that Israel's ambassador to Poland, Anna Azaria, has informed Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of Israel’s position on the matter but that he planned to do the same himself as well.
The argument behind the legislation making its way through Polish parliament is that, although concentration camps were set up on Polish soil after Germany occupied its eastern neighbor in 1939, they were the fault of the Nazi regime in Berlin. The draft to halt the use of the phrase “Polish death camps” in reference to Auschwitz and other camps like it could introduce fines and jail terms, if it becomes law. The Israeli government has warned that this risks airbrushing involvement of Poles in the Holocaust.
"It is a historic fact that many Poles aided in the murder of Jews, handed them in, abused them, and even killed Jews during and after the Holocaust," Bennett said, urging that the facts of the war "must be taught to the next generation."
Morawiecki addressed the backlash on social media, writing in English that Auschwitz was symbolic of how “evil ideologies can lead to hell on earth.” However, he noted that indicative of who instigated the concentration camp’s existence were the facts that “Auschwitz-Birkenau is not a Polish name, and Arbeit Macht Frei is not a Polish phrase,” referring to the sinister sign above the camp’s entrance.
No comments:
Post a Comment