Gunny
02-01-2018, 09:01 AM
WARSAW (Reuters) – Polish lawmakers approved a bill on Thursday that would impose jail terms for suggesting Poland was complicit in the Holocaust drawing concern from the United States and outrage from Israel, which denounced “any attempt to challenge historical truth”.
Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) says the bill is needed to protect Poland’s reputation and ensure historians recognize that Poles as well as Jews perished under the Nazis. Israeli officials said it criminalizes basic historical facts.
The Senate voted on the bill in the early hours on Thursday and it will now be sent to President Andrzej Duda for signature.
“We, the Poles, were victims, as were the Jews,” Deputy Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, a senior PiS figure and supporter of the law, said on Wednesday before the vote. “It is a duty of every Pole to defend the good name of Poland. Just as the Jews, we were victims.”
Under the proposed legislation, violators would face three years in prison for mentioning the term “Polish death camps”, although the bill says scientific research into World War Two would not be constrained.
Israel “adamantly opposes” the bill’s approval, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
“Israel views with utmost gravity any attempt to challenge historical truth. No law will change the facts,” ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said on Twitter.
Israeli Housing Minister Yoav Galant, one of several cabinet ministers to denounce the bill, told Israel’s Army Radio that he considered it “de facto Holocaust denial”.
More than three million of Poland’s 3.2 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis, accounting for around half of the Jews killed in the Holocaust. Jews from across Europe were sent to be killed at death camps built and operated by the Germans on Polish soil, including Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor.
According to figures from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Germans also killed at least 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish civilians.
Many thousands of Poles risked their lives to protect their Jewish neighbors; Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust center recognizes 6,706 Poles as “righteous among nations” for bravery in resisting the Holocaust, more than any other nationality.
But Poland has also gone through a painful public debate in recent years about guilt and reconciliation over the Holocaust, after the publication of research showing some Poles participated in the Nazi German atrocities. Many Poles have refused to accept such findings, which have challenged a national narrative that the country was solely a victim.
more:http://www.oann.com/polish-lawmakers-back-holocaust-bill-drawing-israeli-outrage-u-s-concern/
An interesting debate. I don't agree with Israel's stance. I DO agree that the law prohibits free speech. What I DON'T see is exactly what is "free speech" in Poland. I don't see that the US State Department had any real need to comment. It's none of our business.
I believe we cater too much to the Jewish cry of antisemitism and Holocaust denial. That's not saying "Gunny hates Jews" for the gravyboats out there. It's saying while the Holocaust was indeed an important fact in history, it was a blip on the radar of history the Jews have us re-living every day as if it is still happening. Kind of like blacks do with the slavery issue.
If 3.1M of the Jews were POLISH Jews, I could see Poland taking issue with the Jewish blame-game wanting to state Poland took part in the Holocaust. Indeed, they did. As victims. 3.1 Polish Jews is roughly HALF the Jews murdered during the Holocaust, and it happened in THEIR country. I can see them having an opinion on the matter.
Typical left wing BS to me. The 3M don't count because "some" sided with the bad guys.
Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) says the bill is needed to protect Poland’s reputation and ensure historians recognize that Poles as well as Jews perished under the Nazis. Israeli officials said it criminalizes basic historical facts.
The Senate voted on the bill in the early hours on Thursday and it will now be sent to President Andrzej Duda for signature.
“We, the Poles, were victims, as were the Jews,” Deputy Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, a senior PiS figure and supporter of the law, said on Wednesday before the vote. “It is a duty of every Pole to defend the good name of Poland. Just as the Jews, we were victims.”
Under the proposed legislation, violators would face three years in prison for mentioning the term “Polish death camps”, although the bill says scientific research into World War Two would not be constrained.
Israel “adamantly opposes” the bill’s approval, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
“Israel views with utmost gravity any attempt to challenge historical truth. No law will change the facts,” ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said on Twitter.
Israeli Housing Minister Yoav Galant, one of several cabinet ministers to denounce the bill, told Israel’s Army Radio that he considered it “de facto Holocaust denial”.
More than three million of Poland’s 3.2 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis, accounting for around half of the Jews killed in the Holocaust. Jews from across Europe were sent to be killed at death camps built and operated by the Germans on Polish soil, including Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor.
According to figures from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Germans also killed at least 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish civilians.
Many thousands of Poles risked their lives to protect their Jewish neighbors; Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust center recognizes 6,706 Poles as “righteous among nations” for bravery in resisting the Holocaust, more than any other nationality.
But Poland has also gone through a painful public debate in recent years about guilt and reconciliation over the Holocaust, after the publication of research showing some Poles participated in the Nazi German atrocities. Many Poles have refused to accept such findings, which have challenged a national narrative that the country was solely a victim.
more:http://www.oann.com/polish-lawmakers-back-holocaust-bill-drawing-israeli-outrage-u-s-concern/
An interesting debate. I don't agree with Israel's stance. I DO agree that the law prohibits free speech. What I DON'T see is exactly what is "free speech" in Poland. I don't see that the US State Department had any real need to comment. It's none of our business.
I believe we cater too much to the Jewish cry of antisemitism and Holocaust denial. That's not saying "Gunny hates Jews" for the gravyboats out there. It's saying while the Holocaust was indeed an important fact in history, it was a blip on the radar of history the Jews have us re-living every day as if it is still happening. Kind of like blacks do with the slavery issue.
If 3.1M of the Jews were POLISH Jews, I could see Poland taking issue with the Jewish blame-game wanting to state Poland took part in the Holocaust. Indeed, they did. As victims. 3.1 Polish Jews is roughly HALF the Jews murdered during the Holocaust, and it happened in THEIR country. I can see them having an opinion on the matter.
Typical left wing BS to me. The 3M don't count because "some" sided with the bad guys.