The Israeli ambassador on the carpet at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is about the scandalous entry of the Yad Vashem institute
Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said on Monday that he had summoned the Israeli ambassador to Poland to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs because Sunday's “misleading entry” published by Yad Vashem had not been corrected.
Yad Vashem wrote on Sunday on the X platform that “Poland was the first country where Jews were forced to wear a distinguishing badge in order to isolate them from the surrounding population.” “On November 23, 1939, Hans Frank, the governor of the General Government, issued an order according to which all Jews aged 10 and older had to wear a 10 cm wide white cloth armband on their right arm, marked with a blue Star of David,” the institute added, encouraging people to read the full text analyzing this anti-Semitic law.
On Monday afternoon, Radosław Sikorski reported on the X platform that “because the misleading entry has not been corrected”, he decided to summon the Israeli ambassador in Poland to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Earlier on Sunday, the head of Polish diplomacy asked Yad Vashem to clarify the entry and point out that when Jews were forced to wear armbands with the Star of David, Poland was under German occupation.
On the evening of Sunday, Yad Vashem pointed out on the X platform that the article linked to his entry contained information that the order to wear armbands with the Star of David was issued by the German authorities.
Yad Vashem responds
Poland was indeed under German occupation, which is clearly reflected in our materials, Dani Dayan, the president of the Jerusalem-based Yad Vashem Institute (Yad Vashem), wrote on Monday in an entry on the X platform. Dayan was referring to the entry published by the Institute on Sunday.
He noted that “Yad Vashem presents the historical realities of Nazism and World War II, including countries under German occupation, control or influence.” In the post, he confirmed that “Poland was indeed under German occupation,” while emphasizing that this was “clearly reflected in Yad Vashem materials.”
The head of the institute added: “Any other interpretation is a misreading of our commitment to accuracy.”
Deputy Prime Minister Gawkowski: Scandal
Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski – referring to the Sunday entry of the Yad Vashem institute – said that it was “scandalous” and “results from a misunderstanding of the history of Europe and the world.” It would be worth it for Yad Vashem historians to improve their education, he added.
The Israeli institution Yad Vashem (Yad Vashem) wrote on Sunday on the X platform that “Poland was the first country where Jews were forced to wear a distinguishing badge in order to isolate them from the surrounding population.” “On November 23, 1939, Hans Frank, the governor of the General Government, issued an order according to which all Jews aged 10 and older had to wear a 10 cm wide white cloth armband on their right arm, marked with a blue Star of David,” the institute added, encouraging people to read the full text analyzing this anti-Semitic law.
The head of the Ministry of Digitization, Krzysztof Gawkowski – asked on Monday about this entry at a press conference during the Internet Governance Forum – said that it was “scandalous” and that it resulted from “a misunderstanding of the history of Europe and the world.”
– It would be worth it for historians from Yad Vashem to learn more about European history and realize that (…) decisions regarding the Jewish community were made not by the Polish authorities, but by the Nazi authorities, because at that time the Germans ruled in Europe under the flag of the Nazi Party – he added.
On Monday, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski summoned the Israeli ambassador in Poland to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in connection with Sunday's Yad Vashem entry.
On Sunday, the head of Polish diplomacy asked Yad Vashem to clarify the entry and point out that when Jews were forced to wear armbands with the Star of David, Poland was under German occupation. Kosiniak-Kamysz, the deputy prime minister and head of the Ministry of National Defence, also recalled in his post on X that Polish territory at that time was occupied by Nazi Germany and it was the occupiers who introduced these “shameful rules”.
Tusk: Bad will
Prime Minister Donald Tusk, asked about the Yad Vashem entry during his visit to Angola, said that it looked “not even a mistake, but a bad will of someone who edited this text.” – He is so contrary to history, so obviously deceitful, that sometimes he actually loses his temper – he added.
– I am convinced that in Israel everyone knows that the Germans, the Nazis, Hitler, Governor Frank, are responsible for what happened in Poland in 1939-1945 and are responsible for crimes against Polish citizens and Jews living in Poland – said the Prime Minister. He added, speaking about the Israeli institute, that he hoped that “they would avoid such mistakes in the future, but also hope for a clear position.”
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in Oświęcim also reacted to Yad Vashem's entry on Sunday, which on the X platform assessed it as a “false and history-distorting message” provided by the institute. The museum emphasized that Yad Vashem should be an institution that knows historical facts, which means that it should be “fully aware that Poland was under German occupation at that time and it was the Germans who introduced and enforced this anti-Semitic law.”
The Institute of National Remembrance also stated that the lack of knowledge about German orders imposed on the Polish society enslaved by the German Reich, including Jews, or ignoring them, is inappropriate for institutions such as the Yad Vashem Institute.
Head of the Ministry of National Defense: Shameful and false entry
Disgraceful, unacceptable and false – this is how the Yad Vashem Institute's Sunday entry was assessed on Monday by the Deputy Prime Minister and head of the Ministry of National Defense, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. He emphasized that Poles constitute the largest national group among the Righteous Among the Nations.
Asked at a press conference in Kielce to comment on the case, Kosiniak-Kamysz said that it was a “shameful, unacceptable and false” entry. He pointed out that Poles constitute the largest national group among the Righteous Among the Nations. He recalled, among others: the activities of Władysław Bartoszewski in Żegota and the sacrifice of the Ulma family, who gave their lives saving Jews.
The minister stated that the Institute's entry is a distortion of history. – The Germans created the camps, the Germans invented them, the Germans deployed them on the territory of Poland and other countries that were occupied. Poles fought against Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Poles defended and gave their lives for Jews. Most Poles have their trees at the Yad Vashem institute, he said.
wdz/ mok/ lm/ sza/ sdd/ sza/ sdd/ amac/
