Rau wrote on Twitter: “Looking forward to working together in the future. I'm convinced that we will further develop strategic alliance both bilaterally, as well as within NATO.”
While accepting President-elect Joe Biden’s nomination to be Secretary of State on Tuesday, Blinken spoke of his stepfather Samuel Pisar, who was “one of 900 children in his school in Białystok, Poland, but the only one to survive the Holocaust after four years in concentration camps.”
Blinken recalled his late stepfather’s escape from a death march in Nazi-controlled Germany, after which the young boy was rescued by a US soldier.
Samuel Pisar developed a fine career as a lawyer, adviser to President Kennedy and the department of state, as well as an author.
He visited his native town of Białystok in north-eastern Poland several times, from 1961 – his first visit, to 2009 – his last. He died in 2015, at the age of 86.
The mayor of Białystok, Tadeusz Truskolaski, in a tweet invited Blinken to visit the town.
The house in which the family of Blinken’s stepfather lived was renovated several years ago.
(mk/pk)