- (EN) https://www.premier.gov.pl/wydarzenia/aktualnosci/joint-declaration-of-prime-ministers-of-the-state-of-israel-and-the-republic.html
- (PL) https://www.premier.gov.pl/wydarzenia/aktualnosci/premier-mateusz-morawiecki-podpisal-wspolna-deklaracje-rzadow-polskiego-i.html
- https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/polish-national-foundation-applauds-the-joint-declaration-between-the-prime-ministers-of-the-state-of-israel-and-the-republic-of-poland-300673620.html
Prime ministers Benjamin Netanyahu and Mateusz Morawiecki signed and recited the statement in their respective capitals last week after Poland scrapped potential prison terms for anyone claiming the country bore some responsibility for the Holocaust.
The declaration, which denounced "anti-Polonism" alongside anti-Semitism, was seen as a diplomatic coup for Poland, which has long sought international recognition of the massive suffering its people experienced under German occupation and for the heroism its wartime resistance fighters showed against the Nazis.
This week, a Polish state-run bank, PKO Bank Polski, paid for ads in major international newspapers to publish the full statement — an example of how Polish state authorities harness the profits of state enterprises to support their ideological positions.
The bank told The Associated Press Friday that it will not publicize how much it paid for the ads, which ran in The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and major papers in Germany, France, Spain, Britain and Israel.
In an emailed statement, PKO Bank Polski Foundation President Malgorzata Glebicka said the campaign was part of a broader "mission of disseminating historical truth and building an accurate image of Poland in the world."
Publication of a triumphant Polish message in Israel sparked an outcry against Netanyahu, who was accused of accepting a narrative that betrays the Jewish people. Polish-born Holocaust survivors and their offspring in Israel remember anti-Semitism in Poland from before, during and after World War II.
On Wednesday, the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem, in a rare rebuke of the Israeli government, said the prime ministers' statement contains "grave errors and deceptions." The Jerusalem-based institution said the document exaggerates in particular the work of Poland's wartime resistance to help the country's sizeable Jewish population.
"Much of the Polish resistance in its various movements not only failed to help Jews, but was also not infrequently actively involved in persecuting them," Yad Vashem said.
The prime ministers' statement acknowledged the cruelty perpetuated against Jews by individual Poles in some cases, but largely stressed Polish resistance efforts to protect Jews.
"We acknowledge and condemn every single case of cruelty against Jews perpetrated by Poles during the World War II" and honor the "heroic acts of numerous Poles" who saved Jews, the statement read. It also rejected "blaming Poland or the Polish nation as a whole for the atrocities committed by the Nazis and their collaborators of different nations."
In Poland, the bank has also faced some questions for paying what was likely a large sum to get the statement a wide audience.
"It is sad, all things considered, that a bank in which millions of Poles hold their savings wasted its funds to troll the Israeli public," said Michal Bilewicz, a social psychologist at Warsaw University who specializes in the Holocaust. "On the one hand, they lower interest rates on accounts, and on the other hand they spend millions on government propaganda."
While Netanyahu faces calls to disavow the statement, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Bartosz Cichocki said Poland considers it "binding."
The reaction in Israel "confirms our belief that we need to further enhance the cooperation of Polish, Israeli, and Jewish historians, teachers and museum guides to protect the truth about World War II and the Holocaust," he said.
Yad Vashem also said Poland's amended Holocaust speech law, while no longer allowing prison as a criminal penalty, still provides for possible civil penalties that could impede Holocaust research.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum backed Yad Vashem's position Friday, saying the revision lawmakers made last week "does not address our primary concern, which is the potential for intimidation, self-censorship and politicization."
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1. Over the last thirty years, the contacts between our countries and societies have been based on a well-grounded trust and understanding. Israel and Poland are devoted, long-term friends and partners, cooperating closely with each other in the international arena, but also as regards the memory and education of the Holocaust. This cooperation has been permeated by a spirit of mutual respect for the identity and historical sensitivity, including the most tragic periods of our history.
2. Following the conversation between Prime Ministers Netanyahu and Morawiecki, Israel welcomes the decision taken by the Polish government to establish the official Polish group dedicated to the dialogue with its Israeli partners on historical issues relating to the Holocaust. It is obvious that the Holocaust was an unprecedented crime, committed by Nazi Germany against the Jewish nation, including all Poles of Jewish origin. Poland has always expressed the highest understanding of the significance of the Holocaust as the most tragic part of the Jewish national experience.
3. We believe that there is a common responsibility to conduct free research, to promote understanding and to preserve the memory of the history of the Holocaust. We have always agreed that the term “Polish concentration/death camps” is blatantly erroneous and diminishes the responsibility of Germans for establishing those camps.
The wartime Polish Government-in-Exile attempted to stop this Nazi activity by trying to raise awareness among the Western allies to the systematic murder of the Polish Jews.
We acknowledge and condemn every single case of cruelty against Jews perpetrated by Poles during the World War II.
We are honored to remember heroic acts of numerous Poles, especially the Righteous Among the Nations, who risked their lives to save Jewish people.
4. We reject the actions aimed at blaming Poland or the Polish nation as a whole for the atrocities committed by the Nazis and their collaborators of different nations. Unfortunately, the sad fact is that some people – regardless of their origin, religion or worldview – revealed their darkest side at that time. We acknowledge the fact that structures of the Polish underground State supervised by the Polish Government-in-Exile created a mechanism of systematic help and support to Jewish people, and its courts sentenced Poles for collaborating with the German occupation authorities, including for denouncing Jews.
5. We support free and open historical expression and research on all aspects of the Holocaust so that it can be conducted without any fear of legal obstacles, including but not limited to students, teachers, researchers, journalists and – with all certainty the survivors and their families – who will not be subject to any legal charges for using the right to free speech and academic freedom with reference to the Holocaust. No law can and will change that.
6. Both governments vehemently condemn all forms of anti-Semitism, and express their commitment to oppose any of its manifestations. Both governments also express their rejection of anti-Polonism and other negative national stereotypes. The governments of Poland and Israel call for a return to civil and respectful dialogue in the public discourse.
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