Holding a letter of ‘regret’ from President Obama, Poland President
Bronislaw Komorowski leaves the podium after declaring the incident
over the U.S. president's ‘Polish
death camp’ gaffe closed, June 1.
President Komorowski Thanks Obama for Helping Dispel ‘Vicious, Unjustified
Language’ (Dziennik, Poland)
“Obama expressed his support for measures aimed at eradicating painful phrases like this from the public dialogue. ... There is a lesson to be obtained here, not just for today
but for the future. ... This should be seen as an opportunity to draw strong,
new impetus, as well as a partner in our struggle to dispel this vicious,
painful, and unjustified language from the public discourse in the United
States.”
-- President Bronisław
Komorowski
Translated By Agnieszka Gosiewska
June 2, 2012
Poland
- Dziennik - Original Article (Polish)
“I welcome the very quick response to my letter from Mr.
Obama. I also welcome the U.S. president’s expression of grief and regret for
the mistake he inadvertently made, without - in my opinion – any bad intentions,”
President Bronisław Komorowski
said on June 1.
In a letter to Komorowski, Obama
wrote that in his speech he had inadvertently used the term “Polish death camp.”
The U.S. president used the phrase during a ceremony posthumously honoring Jan Karski with America’s highest civilian award: the
Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Posted by Worldmeets.US
[Editor’s Note: This is the comment that got President Obama
into hot water: “For years, Jan Karski’s students at
Georgetown University knew he was a great professor; what they didn't realize
was he was also a hero. Fluent in four languages, possessed of a photographic
memory, Jan served as a courier for the Polish resistance during the darkest
days of World War II. Before one trip across enemy lines, resistance fighters
told him that Jews were being murdered on a massive scale, and smuggled him
into the Warsaw Ghetto and a Polish death camp to see for himself. Jan
took that information to President Franklin Roosevelt, giving one of the first
accounts of the Holocaust and imploring to the world to take action. It was
decades before Jan was ready to tell his story. By then, he said, ‘I don’t need
courage anymore. So I teach compassion.’”]
In his letter to the Polish president, Obama wrote that he
regretted the error and agreed that “this moment is an
opportunity to ensure that this and future generations know the truth.”
Komorowski believes that Obama’s
letter is an important and “very necessary gesture by the president of the United
States. In my opinion, this is a letter from our important ally and good
friend,” he stated.
Komorowski said that the U.S. president's
letter is a tribute both to Mr. Karski, as well as to
the sacrificial devotion of Poles during the Second World War, who fought on every
front and in the face of tyranny, attempted to save Jews in the in the occupied
country.
“It is important that in his letter the president clearly asserted
that there were no Polish death camps, and he expressed his support for measures
aimed at eradicating painful phrases like this from the public dialogue,” said Komorowski.
From Obama’s letter, Komorowski
quoted, “There simply were no Polish death camps. The nerve centers of murder
at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec,
Treblinka and elsewhere in occupied Poland were built and operated by the Nazi
regime.”
SEE ALSO ON THIS:
Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland: With Luck, Obama’s Gaffe will Put End to the Issue
Dziennik, Poland: Every Pole Must Protest Until Obama Apologizes
Rzeczpospolita, Poland: Tusk Tells Obama: ‘Words Very Deeply Hurt All Poles’
Rzeczpospolita, Poland: Obama’s ‘Death Camp’ Gaffe Has Done Poland a Favor
Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland: ‘Polish’ Concentration Camps: ‘Major Blunder for Obama’
Telegraph, U.K.: Obama Insults 38 million Poles with Crass Remark
Daily Mail, U.K.: Aide Apologises Obama's Calling Death Camp 'Polish'
Mr. Komorowski said that the
events of recent days and the American president's letter may signify a turning
point in the struggle for historical truth. “With this letter, Poland has
gained an important ally in its struggle against the misleading, wrongful and for
us, painful term, ‘Polish death camps,’” Komorowski said.
President Komorowski declared himself
convinced that Polish authorities and institutions, “with a special emphasis on
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will be able to take good advantage of the
U.S. president's statement in furthering the struggle to eradicate confusing,
painful and false expressions used in public discourse outside Poland.”
Komorowski said that he would suggest
ways for the Foreign Ministry to make use of the “unprecedented” declaration
contained in the U.S. president’s letter.
“Of course I will have suggestions for the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, but these are more inherently operational issues,” the
president said at a news conference on Friday.
Komorowski said he
hoped that a cooperative effort within the Foreign Ministry would be able to
take sufficient advantage of this event. And he emphasized that it was
unprecedented not only in a negative sense, but that the U.S. president’s unequivocal
declaration” was positive for Poland.
The president was asked whether in his view, the form and
content of the letter resolved the issue, or as National Assembly Speaker Ewa Kopacz believes, that the U.S. president should
apologize personally. “I think that in any situation - even one that is unfortunate
- one can try to extract something which opens up new opportunities for better
solutions in the future,” Komorowski said.
He added that in regards to this “unfortunate incident"
which occurred on the occasion of an important and solemn event - ceremony posthumously
awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Dr. Jan Karski,
“There is a lesson to be obtained here, not just for today but for the future. ...
This should be seen as an opportunity to draw strong, new impetus, as well as a
partner in our struggle to dispel this vicious, painful, and unjustified language
from the public discourse in the United States,” Komorowski
said. He added that this also requires cooperation from the Polish side.
I wrote a letter to President Obama and received a response.
It may also be helpful if the National Assembly, both the Sejm [lower
house] and the Senate, took similar action in relation to the U.S. Congress and
Senate. And I will make this suggestion to the Senate
Marshal,” added the president.
Komorowski genuinely believes that
“Poland has gained an important ally in the struggle to limit the risk that
someone with good or ill intentions will use the term again, even if used simply
to determine the location of a camp, rather than who was responsible for
operating it.”
Questioned again about the Sejm speaker’s
statement to the effect that a public apology from President Obama would be
more appropriate, Komorowski said “every institution
should proceed in the way it deems most appropriate.”
“I wrote a letter to President Obama and received a reply. There
is nothing preventing the Polish Sejm from opening a
dialog and taking action in relation to its U.S. counterpart, and achieving positive
results,” Komorowski said.
President Komorowski also referred to Friday’s prematurely issued Twitter post by Foreign Ministry spokesman Marcin Bosacki in regard to Obama’s letter to the Polish president. Komorowski accepted Bosacki's statement of apology for Twittering premmaturely - and considered the matter over Mr. Obama's comment closed.
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