| Publikujemy tekst listu Leszka Wikarjusza do Agnes Whiten, prezeski Ethnic Communities Council w Qld. Dear Ms Whiten.I wish to bring to your attention an unfortunate event that happened in Brisbane recently.
In the weekly Time Off, Helen Stringer, the author of a regular column The Looking Glass published an article – presumably as a light-hearted look at Euro2012 organised by Poland and Ukraine. Regrettably, Helen Stringer launched into a tirade of defamatory generalisations regarding the Polish nation. Poles were accused of purposefully killing 3 million Jews during the Second World War, and profiting from this crime.
In the whole article, not a word can be found about Nazis, and/or Germans or Soviets, who were then occupying the Polish territories.
The article was quoted in the Polish national media in Australia, and abroad, and caused uproar among the Polish community Australia wide.
Most of the unfortunate Jewish victims of the war machine died in German concentration/death camps, established and administered by Hitler German Reich on the occupied territories of General Government.
We acknowledge that the editor of Time Off published post-mortem his opinion, correctly presenting the true nature of the Polish-Jewish relations during the Second World War, and that the author publicly apologised.
However, the Polish Association of Queensland suggests that the Ethnic Community Council of Queensland takes on board the broader issue of how sensitive and important matters for ethnic communities are presented in the Australian media. We believe that any difficult issue, even if unpleasant for some, should not be barred or censored. But we expect that authors do their homework before they enter a subject they are not familiar with.
Leszek Wikarjusz
Polish Association of Queensland
Brisbane, 16 July 2012
PS. Below are links to the article in question as well as recent publications in Wikipedia, ABC and News from Japan that explain this topic. I also attach relevant hardcopies.
http://themusic.com.au/meta/the-mags/time-off-(brisbane)/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Poland
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/poland27s-jews/3915714
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20120325rp.html
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