Poland: A Letter of Regret From Obama

The White House said Friday that President Obama had written a letter to the Polish president expressing “regret” for using the term “Polish death camp” this week while honoring a Polish World War II resistance hero rather than wording that would have made it clear that he meant a death camp operated by Nazi Germany on Polish soil. Poles had no role in running the camps, and many were killed in them. “In referring to ‘a Polish death camp’ rather than ‘a Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland,’ I inadvertently used a phrase that has caused many Poles anguish over the years and that Poland has rightly campaigned to eliminate from public discourse around the world,” Mr. Obama wrote in his letter to President Bronislaw Komorowski. “I regret the error and agree that this moment is an opportunity to ensure that this and future generations know the truth.”