Recently I had the opportunity to read The Jewish Link (“Polish TV Exec: Auschwitz Should Be Called ‘Jewish Death Camp,’” January 31, 2018), shortly after the Ultra-Nationalist Polish Government enacted the so-called “Bandera Law.” As you know, Israel protested and considered to cut diplomatic relations with Poland; this “law” is an attempt to erase the Polish role in anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, which is to dismiss the anti-Semitic events made by Polish officials like the Education Minister Ana Zalewska. She never heard about Jedwabne, in which 300 Jews in July 1941 were locked up in a barn by Polish neighbors (not Germans) and burned to death. She never heard about the pogrom in Kielze in 1946 (one year after the war) in which 42 Jews were killed by Polish anti-Semites. I was there at that time, and only after protest by Jewish organizations, the Polish Foreign Minister W. Wszcykowski said that her words (Zalewska) have been “misunderstood.” There are many more dates to mention; Poland has a rich anti-Semitic tradition. I would expect Jewish organizations and the Jewish press, including The Jewish Link, to take a more active role by denouncing the falsification of history. This Polish “law” should be condemned by the United Nations and by the European Union.

Steve Tirer

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