I am writing to you representing proud Australians of equally proud Polish heritage to support previous letters emailed to you by the First Secretary of the Republic of Poland Mr Lukasz Graban on behalf of His Excellency Maciej Chmielinski, Ambassador of the Republic of Poland .

His correspondence was related to an erroneous phrases used in The Australian Newspaper describing “a Polish ghetto and a Jewish ghetto in Poland“ as well as “a concentration camp in Poland in 1942” in the issues of The Australian dated 9 November and 11 November 2023.

We found it incorrect, misleading to readers and offensive to the Australian Polish Community.

There are 46 000 people who were born in Poland and residing in Australia according to the 2021 census and more than 200 000 declaring their Polish heritage.

That is a great deal of Australians who might be distressed by wrong phrases used by Australian media.

During WWII and Germany’s occupation of Poland between 1939 to 1945 Polish nation suffered immense human losses and destruction of property where ruined Warsaw could be a small example. 5 000 000 people perished ( being murdered, imprisoned, sent to forced labour in Germany, sent to concentration camps; first mass transport of 728 Polish males, political prisoners arrived to Auschwitz on 14 June 1940 ).

Polish soldiers were fighting in all fronts of WWII always with Allies on the right side of this conflict for the freedom of ours and yours.

Due to the Teheran and Jalta conferences and consequences depriving Poles of having a free and democratic country, hundreds of thousands of them migrated all over the world including Australia.

That’s why we Australians of Polish Heritage are especially sensitive to those erroneous phrases my email is referring to.

Could those errors be corrected and not repeated again.

Please refer to the Australian Press Council guideline no. 289 published in 2010:

The leading principle of The Australian’s editorial code of conduct is “Accuracy and Reporting”. Presenting historical matters or facts, in particular those related to the tragic events during the Second World War, requires high level of accuracy and scrupulousness.The Australian Press Council has from time to time received complaints about the terminology used to describe World War Two Nazi death camps that were situated in occupied Poland.

In May 1999, in Adjudication No. 1025, the Council upheld a complaint about the use of the term "Polish concentration camp" to describe them. The Council noted in that finding that such usage "would have been harmfully misleading to younger readers and others whose knowledge of the Second World War is hazy or non-existent".

The Council has now received a joint request from the Ambassadors to Australia of the Republic of Poland and the State of Israel that the media generally cease using the misleading term "Polish concentration camp", which they say is harmful to both communities in Australia and adversely impacts on Polish-Jewish relations in general.

In response to their request, the Press Council reiterates its conclusion from 1999 and seeks the cooperation of the print media in avoiding the potentially offensive terminology. A more accurate and appropriate description for the camps would be "Nazi concentration camps", adding their location as being "in occupied Poland" where necessary.

Regards

Dr Richard Adams-Dzierzba, Sydney

cc. Maciej Chmielinski, His Excellency Ambassador of the Republic of Poland, Canberra
Mr Lukasz Graban, First Secretary Embassy od the Republic of Poland, Canberra
Mr Adam Gajkowski, President of Federation of Polish Associations in NSW
Mr Henryk Kurylewski, President of Polish Council of Australia inc.
Consulate of the Republic of Poland, Sydney
Mr Antoni Jasinski, Nasze Pismo, Polish newspaper, Tasmania
Gazeta Polska, Poland
Mr Jan Dziedziczak, Representative of Polish Government for Polish Community and Poles Abroad
Puls Polonii, Polish internet news, Sydney