Polish leaders outraged over FBI head Holocaust remarks

[Martinus]

Polish leaders outraged over FBI head's column referring to Poles as Nazi 'accomplices'
BY RICH SCHAPIRO  NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Saturday, April 18, 2015, 8:31 PM

Poland's ambassador to the U.S., Ryszard Schnepf, was not happy after the director of the FBI suggested that Poland shared responsibility for the Holocaust.
Polish officials were up in arms Saturday after FBI Director James Comey suggested that their country shared responsibility for the Holocaust.

Comey, in a Friday column in the Washington Post, compared Poles and Hungarians to the Nazis during World War II.

"In their minds, the murderers and accomplices of Germany, and Poland, and Hungary, and so many, many other places didn't do something evil," Comey wrote.

"They convinced themselves it was the right thing to do, the thing they had to do. That's what people do. And that should truly frighten us."

FBI Director James Comey, in a Friday column in the Washington Post, compared Poles and Hungarians to the Nazis during World War II.
The column, adapted from a speech Comey delivered Wednesday at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's 2015 National Tribute Dinner, incensed Polish Ambassador Ryszard Schnepf.

Schnepf fired off a letter to Comey, "protesting against the falsification of history, especially for accusing Poles of perpetrating crimes which not only did they not commit, but which they themselves were victims of," the Polish embassy said.

In his letter, Schnepf also emphasized the role of Poles like Jan Karski, an underground fighter who was the first to alert the world that the Holocaust was underway.

The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A similar uproar broke out in 2012 after President Obama mistakenly uttered the term "Polish death camp" while honoring Karski with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/polish-leaders-upset-fbi-head-nazi-comparison-article-1.2190340

What do you think, guys? Is this a fair description of Holocaust?

[jimmy olsen]

There were quite a few collaborators in Eastern Europe.

[Ideologue]

Antisemitism in Poland?  Sounds unlikely.

[Monoriu]

Poland was under Nazi occupation at the time.  The Poles were under Nazi gunpoint.  Can't blame the Poles. 

[Razgovory]

Fair enough.

[alfred russel]

There were quite a few collaborators in Eastern Europe.

Unlike in Western Europe?

WTF? Poland had a very significant resistance movement. Warsaw was the only major european capital annihilated through resistance action. That isn't to say there weren't collaborators, but to compare them to the Hungarians who allied with the Germans and invaded the USSR with them?

[Martinus]

There were quite a few collaborators in Eastern Europe.

Unlike in Western Europe?

WTF? Poland had a very significant resistance movement. Warsaw was the only major european capital annihilated through resistance action. That isn't to say there weren't collaborators, but to compare them to the Hungarians who allied with the Germans and invaded the USSR with them?

He is not just comparing Poles to Hungarians. If you parse the sentence I highlighted, he is essentially comparing Poles to Germans. He makes it sound as if Holocaust was some sort of joint undertaking by Germans, Poles and Hungarians.

[Martinus]

Incidentally, while this is not actually an example of this, have you noticed how in many modern references to the World War II, the bad guys aren't Germans any more, but "the Nazis"?

I normally do not support hysterical reactions of "Polish anti-defamation league", but you can see how this - and references to "Polish death camps" (like the one by Obama last year) can eventually lead to the public having a completely distorted view of who set up and run death camps like Auschwitz (where, by the way, 160 thousands non-Jews, mainly ethnic Poles, were also killed).

[Barrister]

There were quite a few collaborators in Eastern Europe.

Unlike in Western Europe?

WTF? Poland had a very significant resistance movement. Warsaw was the only major european capital annihilated through resistance action. That isn't to say there weren't collaborators, but to compare them to the Hungarians who allied with the Germans and invaded the USSR with them?

He is not just comparing Poles to Hungarians. If you parse the sentence I highlighted, he is essentially comparing Poles to Germans. He makes it sound as if Holocaust was some sort of joint undertaking by Germans, Poles and Hungarians.

I think that parses things too strongly - he does mention "many, many other places" as well.

Poland is correct to point out the error, but is wrong to take offence.

[Martinus]

He does, but he singles out three nations - Germany (the perpetrator), Hungary (their closest ally in Eastern Europe) and Poland. I don't think Poland is wrong to take offence.

Poland is, in fact, the only occupied country that did not form its own national Waffen SS unit. French, Belgians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Swedes etc. all did.

I am not saying Poland does not need to come to terms with Poles' complicity in Holocaust but I do think this is offensive.

[jimmy olsen]

He does, but he singles out three nations - Germany (the perpetrator), Hungary (their closest ally in Eastern Europe) and Poland. I don't think Poland is wrong to take offence.

Poland is, in fact, the only occupied country that did not form its own national Waffen SS unit. French, Belgians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Swedes etc. all did.

I am not saying Poland does not need to come to terms with Poles' complicity in Holocaust but I do think this is offensive.

Swedes weren't occupied.

[Tonitrus]

He does, but he singles out three nations - Germany (the perpetrator), Hungary (their closest ally in Eastern Europe) and Poland. I don't think Poland is wrong to take offence.

Poland is, in fact, the only occupied country that did not form its own national Waffen SS unit. French, Belgians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Swedes etc. all did.

I am not saying Poland does not need to come to terms with Poles' complicity in Holocaust but I do think this is offensive.

Swedes weren't occupied.

The Swedes were occupied...with selling iron ore to the Nazis.

[Eddie Teach]

That's why their unit was rather small.

A lot of Poles were drafted into the Wehrmacht.

[Admiral Yi]

He is not just comparing Poles to Hungarians. If you parse the sentence I highlighted, he is essentially comparing Poles to Germans. He makes it sound as if Holocaust was some sort of joint undertaking by Germans, Poles and Hungarians.

He's not comparing Poles to anything.  He's making a statement about Germans, Poles, Hungarians, and others who murdered and collaborated.  Those that didn't murder and collaborate are not included in his comment.

[Martinus]

So including Jews in a statement like this (after all there were a few Jews actually collaborating and serving as guards etc.) would not cause a furore either?