Polish state bank funds publication of Holocaust statement
By Associated Press
Published: 13:03 BST, 6 July 2018 | Updated: 13:03 BST, 6 July 2018
WARSAW, Poland (AP) – A Polish state-run bank says it has funded the publication in international newspapers of a Polish-Israeli government statement that criticizes those who blame Poland for the Holocaust crimes of Nazi Germany.
The statement, published last week, was signed by the Israeli and Polish prime ministers and came just as Poland scrapped potential prison terms for anyone claiming it shares responsibility for the Holocaust.
It stresses Polish wartime heroism and denounces “anti-Polonism” alongside anti-Semitism, which was seen as a diplomatic coup for Poland. But it’s proving a headache for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Wednesday, the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem said it contains “grave errors and deceptions.”
Members of a far-right group wear masks of Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as they stage a demo criticizing Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki for having backtracked on parts of a Holocaust speech law, in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, July 2, 2018. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
PKO BP bank refused Friday to reveal how much it paid to disseminate the statement in U.S, German and Israeli newspapers.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki presents the Joint Declaration of Prime Ministers of the State of Israel and the Republic of Poland, in his chancellery in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, June 27, 2018. Poland’s President Andrzej Duda has signed into law amendments which abolish the threat of prison for anyone who blames Poland for Nazi Germany’s Holocaust crimes. The amendments were introduced Wednesday morning by the prime minister and quickly approved by lawmakers. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)
Israeli ambassador to Poland Anna Azari holds a copy of the Joint Declaration of Prime Ministers of the State of Israel and the Republic of Poland, just signed by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, as she leaves his chancellery in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, June 27, 2018. Poland’s President Andrzej Duda has signed into law amendments which abolish the threat of prison for anyone who blames Poland for Nazi Germany’s Holocaust crimes. The amendments were introduced Wednesday morning by the prime minister and quickly approved by lawmakers. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)
FILE _ In this file photo dated Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013, Israeli youths with their national flags march by the monument to some 900,000 European Jews killed by the Nazis between 1941 and 1944 at the Treblinka death and labor camp, at Treblinka memorial, Poland. Polish authorities have long argued they needed to fight back against foreign media sometimes calling German death camps “Polish death camps” because they were operated on occupied Polish territory. Poland’s nationalist-conservative ruling party backed away Wednesday June 27, 2018, from a controversial Holocaust speech law, with prime minister Morawiecki introducing a new version of the law that would remove criminal provisions for statements deemed harmful to Poland’s good name. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, FILE)
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