![[Magdziak-Miszewska Picture]](MagdziakMiszewskaA_02.JPG)
Magdziak-Miszewska, Agnieszka
New York Consul General objects to "Time" article
Agnieszka Magdziak-Miszewska, Consul General of Poland in New York, wrote to the Editor of the "New York Times" regarding article in the newspaper, which implied Polish complicity in the Holocaust.
Agnieszka Magdziak-Miszewska was one of many to take a stand against the editor of the New York Times article referencing Polish complicity in the Natzi death camps
Major portions other letter is, as follows: "I am writing to you with reference to an article by Craig S. Smith, "World Leaders Gather for Auschwitz Ceremony," that was published in yesterday's New York Times. I was first confused and then appalled by the following paragraph: 'The commemoration means different thing for each nation: for Russia it is a commemoration of its often-over-looked role as liberator, while for Poland and other Central European countries it is both part of gradual recognition of their complicity in the killing and an opportunity to draw closer to Europe'
"The phrase 'complicity in killing,' in the light of ongoing commemoration in Auschwitz, Poland, explicitly states that the Poles were perpetrators co-responsible for terrible genocide in the death camps during the Second World War. But not long ago, yesterday, the European Parliament, with the votes of German deputies, agreed on the resolution commemorating the Liberation of Auschwitz, the camp established by NAZI GERMANY. The paragraph, especially the assumption that Poland and other Central European countries it is both part of gradual recognition of their complicity in the killing and an opportunity to draw closer to Europe, brings up a question�which countries of Europe the author meant�Nazi Germany, Vichy's France. Quisling's Norway in the past, or perhaps present Western Europe where anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli attitudes are on the rise ... As you may realize collaborators were all over the Europe, and is not my intention to [claim] that Poland was free of anti-Semitism, collaborators or even perpetrators.
"The fact remains, however, that [the] Polish government-in-exile based in London did officially oppose those acts and anyone found guilty of collaboration faced [a] death sentence. More information on organizations, such as "Zegota" or brave individuals can be found in numerous resources ... During the war [many Americans] judged most reports of German atrocities as exaggeration at best. When the Polish government-in-exile published a long report on Nazi terror 'in German occupied Poland (1940, one American editorial warned its readers that twenty years earlier 'a great many of the atrocity stories which were so well attested and so strenuously told, so indignantly believed and so commonly repeated, were found to be absolute fakes.' 'Time Magazine' mockingly called news from Poland 'the atrocity story of the week.'
"I, as well as [the] Polish community in New York, would appreciate that after a thorough study of the history of [the] Holocaust the author of the article will publicly take a position and explain his aforementioned assumption ..."
The Consul General received a formal response after the issue was raised with the editor of the "New York Times." It stated"
"By saying that Poland and other Central European countries are gradually recognizing 'their complicity in the killing,' the article did not mean to suggest there was Polish complicity in the genocide of the Nazi death camps. It was referring broadly to Poland's recent acknowledgment of the anti-Semitic climate in parts of Poland at the time that led to the killing of Jews by Poles during the period, in particular the Jedwabne massacre of 1,600 Jews in 1941, for which Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski apologized in 2001. It was also referring to the continuing debate over those Poles who knew what has happening at Auschwitz but chose to remain silent. Our correspondent is aware of the suffering Poland endured at the hands of the Nazis, of the deaths of Polish inmates at Auschwitz and elsewhere, as well as the contribution individual Poles made in rescuing those Polish Jews who survived."
PMN
From: Bialy Orzel - White Eagle, Vol. 1, Issue 2, March 29, 2005