Polish officials have welcomed remarks by US Ambassador Thomas Rose, who condemned accusations that Poland shared responsibility for the Holocaust as “grotesque falsification of history.”
Speaking at the IJL International Conference in Warsaw on 20 November, Rose stressed that Poland and its citizens were victims, not perpetrators, of Nazi crimes during the Second World War.
The ambassador highlighted that for too long, Poland had been burdened with a “moral stain” that was never its own, wrongly accused of crimes committed by others.
The diploat added that Poland experienced a deep historical injustice, and the notion that the country shared guilt for barbaric acts committed on its territory was a distortion of history.
Rose also noted that Poland remains one of the safest countries for the Jewish community in Europe.
Sharing a recording of his speech on social media, Rose expressed hope that the discussion he initiated would “help correct a very unfair historical narrative about Poland.”
A week later, Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Chief Radosław Sikorski endorsed the ambassador’s stance on social media, writing:
“Thank you, Ambassador Thomas Rose, for your moral clarity. It’s important to remember that the Holocaust was a state action, conceived and executed by Nazi Germany on occupied Polish soil. The Polish government was in exile in London at the time and begged allies for help in stopping it.”
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Source: Polish Radio English Service/IAR
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