| It was with great disappointment and sadness that I noticed the expression: ”a Polish concentration camp survivor” used in the description of the Jan. 9th 2010 programme “Kingdom” (Seven, 7.30 pm) in The Weekend Australian Review’s TV Guide (page 22). Any reference to “Polish concentration camps” is entirely inaccurate, deeply unjust and heavily offensive to the Polish Nation and State, as well as to the members of the Polish community in Australia among whom there are many World War II veterans who fought for the cause of freedom and democracy alongside the Australian troops at Tobruk and in other places. This expression can also be dangerous when used for the purpose of muddling history.
It is a common knowledge that during World War II Poland ceased to exist, both as a state and as the subject of international law. As a result of the Nazi invasion of 1st September 1939, followed by the Soviet aggression of 17th September 1939, Poland was erased from the map of Europe. The Polish territories under the Nazi occupation were, in part, incorporated directly into the Third Reich (including the Polish town of Oświęcim – German Auschwitz), and, in part, became a special Germany-controlled zone called General Government.
Poland was the first victim of the Nazi aggression. Millions of Polish citizens: Poles, Jews and other nationalities of the pre-war Poland, among them the brave fighters of the Underground State, the best organised anti-Nazi resistance in Europe, paid the highest price and perished in places like Auschwitz and Birkenau. We owe them tribute and respect and we owe them the truth, so that no one mistakes the victim for the slaughterer.
Concentration camps in the occupied Polish territories were contrived, organised and governed entirely by the German Nazis. Polish citizens were the first forced labourers and prisoners of the camps and in no way took voluntary part in setting them up. The use of the adjective “Polish”, however, implies that the Polish people or the Polish state were inherently involved in the organisation and administration of the camps, which for reasons stated above is entirely false and misleading.
Let me quote the words taken from a Statement issued on 30th January 2005, on the occasion of 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, by the American Jewish Committee Executive Director David A. Harris:
We would also like to remind those who are either unaware of the facts or careless in their choice of words, as has been the case with some media outlets, that Auschwitz-Birkenau and the other death camps, including Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka, were conceived, built and operated by Nazi Germany and its allies. The camps were located in German-occupied Poland, the European country with by far the largest Jewish population, but they were most emphatically not ’Polish camps’ ”.
This is not a mere semantic matter. Historical integrity and accuracy hang in the balance.
I sincerely hope that the use of the phrase “a Polish concentration camp survivor” in the Weekend Australian Review’s TV Guide was unintentional and resulting from negligence or lack of in-depth reflection on the meaning of the used words. However, given the popularity of the Guide and the high number of readers it enjoys, I believe it will be most appropriate for the Review to publish, in one of the next editions of the Guide, at least a short note rectifying the error.
Sincerely yours,
Daniel Gromann
Consul General
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