The Washington Post published an article announcing the U.S. Vice President’s forthcoming visit to the “Auschwitz Memorial.” However, when The Buffalo News reprinted the story, it altered the headline, referring to the location as a “Polish death camp.”
“Let Auschwitz be a reminder to all people in all times that silence in theface of evil is its ally,” wrote then–U.S. Vice President Mike Pence during his February 2019 visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, established by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland. Pence was accompanied by his wife and the Polish presidential couple as they paid tribute to the victims of the Holocaust.
Andrzej Duda, Mike Pence, Agata Kornhauser-Duda, Karen Pence. Fot. prezydent.gov.pl
Together, the Vice President and the President of Poland, along with their spouses, visited the infamous railway ramp where deported Jews were selected for forced labor or execution. They also toured a permanent Holocaust exhibition curated by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and visited the martyrdom cell of St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish priest who gave hislife in place of fellow inmate Franciszek Gajowniczek. Kolbe was later canonized as the first Polish martyr of World War II.
(na zdjęciach: po lewej: Franciszek Gajowniczek, po prawej: św. Maksymilian Kolbe)
Full description of the visit in Polish and English:
https://www.prezydent.pl/aktualnosci/wizyty-krajowe/wizyta-w-muzeum-auschwitz,2578
The Washington Post originally reported the visit with the headline: “Pence to Visit Auschwitz Memorial and Meet Israeli Prime Minister During Europe Trip.” However, when The Buffalo News republished the story, it ran with a different and controversial headline: “Pence to Visit Site of Polish Death Camp.”
This wording prompted immediate backlash from the Polish American Congress (PAC), a U.S.-based organisation which represents Poles residing in the United States and Polish organisations active within the country. In a formal letter addressed to The Buffalo News, PAC representatives James L. Lawicki II and Raymond J. Dziedzic strongly condemned the headline:
“For BN [Buffalo News] to callously, wantonly, insensitively, purposefully and with suspected malice, substitute the extremely offensive “Polish death camp” phrase for the WaPo stylebook correct “Auschwitz memorial” reference is blatant and absolutely intolerable as the phrase “Polish death camp” is a thinly veiled attempt to indict Poland, the Polish people and, by
extension, Polish Americans as equal to the Germans who unleashed the Nazi Terror on September 1, 1939. Nothing could be farther from the truth.” (Quotation: https://ampoleagle.com/wny-polish-american-congress-releases-letter-to-buffalo-news-p13200-1.htm).
They further called for a full retraction and public apology: “It is incumbent upon BN to retract and publicly correct the blatantly erroneous “Polish death camp” headline, publicly apologize to Poland, the Polish people and Polish Americans for allowing this defamatory headline to be published, immediately and permanently change the BN stylebook.”
In response, The Buffalo News issued only a brief clarification: “The headline on a story about Vice President Pence’s visit to Auschwitz- Birkenau, published on February 12, may have been misleading. The camp was operated by Nazi Germany during World War II.” Interestingly, while the article accurately described the site as a “prison camp operated by Nazi Germany during World War II,” it also referred to Jews being murdered in a “Nazi extermination camp in Poland”—a phrase that still risks misinterpretation (by implying Polish responsibility).
In response, the Polish-American outlet Dziennik Polonijny – Polish Daily News published a strongly worded piece on the matter, concluding with the emphatic caption:
“The Buffalo News – THERE WERE NO POLISH DEATH CAMPS – THEY WERE GERMAN NAZI DEATH CAMPS!”
Complied by: ih
photograph: Jarosław Praszkiewicz/auschwitz.org, wikimedia.org/http://www.kolbe.pl/_swiadkowie/swiadkow.html, auschwitz.org
The Testimony of Franciszek Gajowniczek (1901–1995)
“During the harvest season in late July 1941, an opportunity arose and one of the inmates from my block escaped from Auschwitz. As a reprisal, the camp commander held an evening roll call and selected ten men from our block to die. Camp commander Fritzsch, accompanied by Rapportführer Palitzsch, made the selection. Tragically, I was among those chosen. With the words, “Oh, how I pity the wife and children whom I’m leaving behind,” I walked to the end of the block. I was to be taken to the starvation cell. These words were overheard by Father Maksymilian Kolbe, a Franciscan from Niepokalanów.
He stepped out of the ranks, approached Lagerführer Fritzsch, and attempted to kiss his hand. Fritzsch turned to the interpreter and asked: “Was wünscht dieses polnische Schwein?” (English: “What does this Polish pig want?”). Father Maksymilian Kolbe, pointing at me, expressed his wish to die in my place. Lagerführer Fritzsch, with a dismissive gesture and the command “Heraus!” (English: “Get out!”), ordered me to step out of the line of condemned prisoners, and Father Maksymilian Kolbe took my place.
Moments later, he and the others were led away to the death cell, while while the rest of us were dismissed back to our barracks. At that moment, it was hard to comprehend the magnitude of the situation; I, condemned to die, was to live, while someone else willingly and selflessly offered to sacrifice his life for me.
Was this a dream or reality? Among the shared suffering of Auschwitz inmates, one voice echoed clearly: profound
admiration for the heroic sacrifice of this priest who gave his life for another.”
Franciszek Gajowniczek
Source: https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maksymilian_Maria_Kolbe
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