The Russian war crime in Bucha came to light at the end of March 2022, revealing the murder of hundreds of civilians by Russian soldiers in the Ukrainian town. It was in response to this atrocity that Marek Magierowski, then Poland’s Ambassador to the United States, issued a heartfelt statement regarding CNN’s use of the phrase “Polish concentration camps".
In April 2022, shortly after the discovery of the Bucha massacre, CNN broadcast a video segment featuring a journalist interviewing Polish Jews who had opened their homes to refugees from Ukraine, displaced by the Russian invasion, which began in February 2022. The interviewees spoke about, among other topics, the Holocaust and the Nazi German camps of the Second World War. Regrettably, the journalist referred to these as “Polish concentration camps.”
Ambassador Marek Magierowski immediately responded on Twitter (now X), stating:
„Words matter, dear CNN. There was no such thing as »Poland’s concentration camps«. Those were German Nazi camps in German-occupied Poland. You would not refer to Bucha as »Ukraine’s carnage« or to Srebrenica as »Bosnia’s massacre«, would you?”
The so-called defective codes of memory, or references to alleged “Polish concentration camps” during the Second World War, continue to surface in the media around the world. Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs remains vigilant in monitoring such statements and addressing them through diplomatic channels.
For further information on the Bucha massacre, please visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucha_massacre
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