Photo by Yona Schnitzer/TPS on 18 February, 2018
Netanyahu to Polish PM: ‘No basis for comparison between Jewish and Polish actions in Holocaust’
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu held a phone conversation with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki Sunday, where he denounced the latter’s comments at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, in which he said “there were Polish perpetrators as there were Jewish perpetrators” in the Holocaust.
"A few minutes ago, I spoke with the Prime Minister of Poland," Netanyahu said. "I told him that such a comparison is false. The Holocaust was designed to destroy the entire Jewish people and not any other peoples."
Netanyahu said he shared with his Polish counterpart a story from his wife Sara’s side of the family. "Her grandfather and two relatives were hidden by the Poles, by Righteous Among the Nations. We appreciate it and give it all due respect, but here is the example: The Germans had left the town, and the Poles ran after the German forces and said 'here are three more Jews,' and they killed my wife's grandfather."
Netanyahu pointed out that the goal of the Holocaust was to destroy the Jewish people and that all Jews were under sentence of death.
“Poland is trying to say that there were cases in which Jews collaborated with the Nazis,” said Netanyahu, “but one cannot compare numerically, and the circumstances are entirely different as well," Netanyahu said.
Morawiecki’s were the latest incident in an ongoing crisis with the Polish government over a recently legislated law criminalizing statements of Polish complicity in the Holocaust and subsequent remarks by Polish officials.
"They must be sensing that they are being blamed for the Holocaust," Netanyahu commented, "They don't deny that there were Poles who helped the Nazis and turned in Jews etc., but say you can't extend that to the entire Polish people. I told him, you can't fix one distortion with another."
The two agreed that the countries would continue their dialogue on the matter and that to this end the teams would hopefully meet soon.
Meanwhile, on Sunday afternoon, the Polish Embassy in Tel Aviv was vandalized with swastikas drawn with a permanent marker on the entrance to the embassy.
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- Yona Schnitzer/TPS
- February 18, 2018
