WHEREAS the media uses the historically erroneous terms “Polish concentration camp” and “Polish death camp” to describe Auschwitz and other Nazi extermination camps built by the Germans during World War II, which confuses impressionable and undereducated readers, leading them to believe that the Holocaust was executed by Poland, rather than Nazi Germany,
WHEREAS these phrases are Holocaust revisionism that desecrate the memories of six million Jews from 27 countries who were murdered by Nazi Germany,
WHEREAS Poland was the first country invaded by Germany, and the only country whose citizens suffered the death penalty for rescuing Jews, yet never surrendered during six years of German occupation, even though one-sixth of its population was killed in the war, approximately half of which was Christian,
WHEREAS educated journalists must know these facts and not cross the libel threshold of malice by using phrases such as “Polish concentration camps,”
BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the undersigned request that all news outlets include entries in their stylebooks requiring news stories to be historically accurate, using the official name of all “German concentration camps in Nazi-occupied Poland,” as UNESCO did in 2007 when it named the camp in Auschwitz, “The Auschwitz-Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945).”
Dear Mr. Storozynski:
After further discussions of the concerns raised by you and others, Times editors have decided to add an entry to the newsroom’s stylebook specifically cautioning journalists to avoid misleading phrases like “Polish concentration camp.”
As we have already pointed out, editors immediately took steps to correct the erroneous references to Dachau in an online caption over the weekend. We also published a correction about the phrase “Polish concentration camp” in an obituary last fall. We understand the great sensitivity of this topic and regret that any such lapses have occurred. But we would like to reiterate that such instances, however unfortunate, are simply mistakes, and it is wrong to suggest that they reflect any malice or deliberate distortion.
Still, to demonstrate our shared concern over this issue, we will add a note on this point to the stylebook and take extra care to try to avoid any further errors.
Eileen M. Murphy
Alex Storozynski, Chairman of the Board, Kosciuszko Foundation
USA
Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka, Consul General of Poland in New York
President Lech Walesa, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Piotr Cywinski, Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum Site
Bronislaw Komorowski, President of Poland
Robert Kupiecki, Ambassador of Poland to The United States
Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland
Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Former U.S. National Security Advisor
Rabbi Moshe Birnbaum, Flushing, NY
Rev. Msgr. Peter Walter Zendzian, Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church
Lt. General Edward Rowny, U.S. Army (Retired)
Joseph E. Gore, Chairman of the Board, Kosciuszko Foundation
Prof. Norman Davies, Historian, Oxford, England
Ryszard Horowitz, Photographer, Auschwitz survivor
Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, Oscar-winning composer
Radoslaw Sikorski, Foreign Minister of Poland
Dr. Laurence Weinbaum, Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs
Frank Spula, President, Polish American Congress
David Harris, Executive Director, American Jewish Committee
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, (Ohio-9)
Congressman Mike Quigley, (Chicago, Ill.-5)
Congressman Daniel Lipinski, (Chicago, Ill.-3)
Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, (N.Y.-12)
Sigmund Rolat, Holocaust survivor, Chairman, North American Council, Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Tomasz Bortnik, Chairman of the Board, Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union, on behalf of 72,000 members
Rev. John Pawlikowski, Professor of Catholic Theology
Rabbi Herschel Gluck, London
Kevin Ruane, Former BBC Correspondent Warsaw
Gen. Roman Polko, Veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom
Leon Kopelman, Veteran Warsaw Ghetto & 1944 Uprising
Justice Lawrence Cullen, New York State Supreme Court
Stanislaw Aronson, Veteran of 1944 Warsaw Uprising, Israeli War of Independence, Yom Kippur War & 1982 Lebanon War
Victor Ashe, Former U.S. Ambassador to Poland
Debbie Majka, President, American Council for Polish Culture
Andrzej Wajda, Film Director
Prof. Daniel Rotfeld, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Poland
Rafal Olbinski, Painter, Illustrator & Designer
Maestro Krzysztof Penderecki, Composer & Conductor
Elzbieta Penderecka, Ludwig Van Beethoven Festival In Poland
Stanislaw Sojka, Musician, singer, composer, Warsaw
Stefan Komar, NYPD Pulaski Association
Dr. Leo Weintraub, PhD, Auschwitz survivor
Stockholm, Sweden
Prof. Gunnar Heinsohn, University of Bremen, Germany
Raphael-Lemkin Institute for Comparative Genocide Research
Daniel Olbrychski, Actor
Agnieszka Magdziak-Miszewska, Ambassador of Poland to Israel
Mieczyslaw Madejski, Veteran, Zoska Battalion & 1944 Warsaw Uprising
Avi Mizrachi, Foundation for Holocaust Education Projects
Prof. Wlodzimierz Bolecki, Polish Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Mariusz Max Kolonko, Journalist/Producer
Pastor Marek Suchocki, St. Stanislaw Kostka Church, Staten Island
Bishop Mark Novak, Evangelical Covenant Church
Rev. David Poedel, Mt Calvary Lutheran Church, Phoenix
Prof. Werner Roecke, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
Father Adam Boniecki, Editor in Chief, Tygodnik Powszechny
Rita Cosby, Television correspondent & author
Irving Engelson, Ph.D., Holocaust survivor, saved by Polish family
New Jersey
Barbara J. Christensen, Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education, Cincinnati, OH