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Foreign journalists invited to museum about Poles who saved Jews in WWII

PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki 01.02.2018 13:12
Poland’s prime minister has invited foreign media correspondents to a museum that honours Poles who helped rescue Jews during World War II, according to reports.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Photo: PAP/Radek PietruszkaPolish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka

The museum, which is based in the village of Markowa, in the southeast of Poland, is named after the Polish Ulma family, who were shot by the country’s Nazi German occupiers for sheltering Jews in the 1940s.

The visit is planned for Friday and will include a discussion about Polish-Jewish relations, both during World War II and at present, Poland’s wPolityce.pl online news service has reported.

During the meeting, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki will brief foreign media correspondents on the intentions of Poland’s authorities in connection with new controversial legislation passed by the parliament in Warsaw to penalise those who accuse Poland as a nation of being complicit in Nazi German crimes during World War II, according to wPolityce.pl.

Morawiecki will also address a rift in Polish-Israeli relations that developed after a strongly-worded statement by Israel’s ambassador to Poland, Anna Azari, at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum on Saturday, wPolityce.pl said.

The upper house of Poland's parliament, the Senate, approved the proposed law in the early hours of Thursday amid a warning by the United States that the move could damage relations with both America and Israel.

Late last year a Polish official told wPolityce.pl that the Markowa museum, which is dedicated to all Poles who risked their lives to help their fellow Jewish citizens facing the Holocaust, would open a branch in New York.

On March 24, 1944, Germans shot eight Jews who were being sheltered by Józef and Wiktoria Ulma. The couple and their six children were also killed.

In 1995, Israel's Yad Vashem institute posthumously named the Ulma family Righteous Among the Nations.

Over 6,600 ethnic Poles are commemorated in Israel's Garden of the Righteous in Jerusalem for aiding Jews during World War II.

Public broadcaster Polish Radio has launched a special educational website aimed at debunking misconceptions about Poland’s role in the Holocaust, at GermanDeathCamps.info.

The Polish and Israeli prime ministers have agreed their countries would hold dialogue despite tensions.

Poland’s government briefed Israeli officials on the proposed law on Holocaust responsibility long before the contested legislation reached parliament in Warsaw, according to a report.

(gs/pk)

Source: IAR, wiadomosci.onet.pl, wPolityce.pl

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