FBI Director writes to Polish Ambassador over Holocaust comments

Last week Comey ruffled feathers with a speech which was published in the Washington Post that said: “In their minds, the murderers and accomplices of Germany, and Poland and Hungary, and so many, many other places didn’t do something evil,” he said. ”They convinced themselves it was the right thing to do, the thing they had to do. That’s what people do. And that should truly frighten us.”

He has now written a letter to the Polish Ambassador to the US, Ryszard Schnepf, saying that he “values” the friendship with Poland.

Photo: Polish Foreign Ministry

Dear Mr. Ambassador;

Thank you for our meetig today. I value our friendship with Poland. As I told you, I regret linking Germany and Poland in my speech because Poland was invaded and occupied by Germany. The Polish State nears no responsibility for the horrors imposed by the Nazis. I wish I had not used any other country names, as my point was a universal one about human nature.

Yours, James B Comey

While visiting an FBI site in Knoxville, Tennessee on Wednesday, Comey said that he regretted certain comments. He was asked by WATE TV (a subsidiary of ABC), whether he was willing to apologise.

“I don’t. Except I didn’t say Poland was responsible for the Holocaust. In a way I wish very much that I hadn’t mentioned any countries because it’s distracted some folks from my point,” he said. (rg)