Politics

Why Is the Polish PM Demanding an Apology from President Obama?

To some, it may seem like a small, negligible slip of the tongue. But to a country that suffered firsthand the horrors of Nazi concentration camps, it’s kind of a big deal.

During a ceremony honoring World War II hero Jan Karski, President Obama said the following [emphasis added]:

Jan served as a courier for the Polish resistance during the darkest days of World War II. Before one trip across enemy lines, resistance fighters told him that Jews were being murdered on a massive scale and smuggled him into the Warsaw ghetto and a Polish death camp to see for himself. Jan took that information to President Franklin Roosevelt, giving one of the first accounts of the Holocaust and imploring the world to take action.

The phrase causing all the outrage is “Polish death camps.”

Watch the president’s remarks (via C-SPAN):

We assume the president is aware that Poland was occupied by invading Nazi forces and that the death camps were built and staffed by Nazis. And that he is also aware it was the Polish people who were being killed in these camps.

Needless to say, the Poles are not happy.

“The White House will apologize for this outrageous error. [Prime Minister Donald] Tusk will make a statement in the morning. It’s a pity that this important ceremony was upstaged by ignorance and incompetence,” Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski tweeted last night.

In fact, it’s safe to say the Polish people are furious with the president’s misstatement.

“The president misspoke,” said National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor. “He was referring to Nazi death camps in Poland.”

“We regret this misstatement, which should not detract from the clear intention to honor Mr. Karski and those brave citizens who stood on the side of human dignity in the face of tyranny,” he added.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk is unsatisfied with this meager explanation and is demanding a “stronger, more pointed” response from the White House.

“The words uttered yesterday by the President of the United States Barack Obama concerning ‘Polish death camps’ touched all Poles,” the Polish PM said in a statement.

“We always react in the same way when ignorance, lack of knowledge, bad intentions lead to such a distortion of history, so painful for us here in Poland, in a country which suffered like no other in Europe during World War II,” he added.

He continued:

This truth about World War II is important and must also have importance for every other nation. I am convinced that today, our American friends are capable of a stronger reaction – a clearer one, and one which perhaps eliminates, once and for all, these types of mistakes – than just the correction itself and the regret which we heard from the White House spokesperson. We take note of these words, but it seems that it would be even more important for the United States than for Poland to end this with class. That is how one acts with regard to tried-and-tested friends, but this is also how one acts in your own, well-defined interest.

“I believe our allies are capable of such behaviour,” Tusk concluded.

This story has been updated.

Comments (84)

1 2
  • bocajojo4
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 4:04pm

    Again an example of how Obama promise his hope and change. He promised to change through our words and the way we think…this is no mistake…he may say “we apologize” but he doesn’t correct the written copy….that copy is set in concrete and taught in the future to our children….scary man, Obams is!

    Report Post » bocajojo4  
  • Greenguys11
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 4:04pm

    And…CCN, MSNBC, nor CBS or NBC are reporting it! No wonder liberals are so ignorant, all the programs they watch don’t report the facts of whats going on! (Shocker)

    Report Post »  
    • Bluebonnet
      Posted on May 31, 2012 at 1:14pm

      Mr. Prime Minister, please forgive those of us who are loyal, true Americans. There is no excuse for the President of the United States to make so many blatant errors (if you truly believe it’s an error)

      More than 50% of our country believe this man is a sham and we’re getting so tired of him ruining our country to promote his own needs and desires. Thank God he will be gone soon.

      Report Post »  
  • essay
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 3:30pm

    upstaged by ignorance and incompetence… we feel your pain, that’s what we think of him, too.

    Report Post »  
    • johnpaulkuchtajr
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 4:02pm

      Did Obama mention that Poland was the 57th state? I think that Obama visited there with a Navy “corpse man.”

      Report Post »  
    • biohazard23
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 4:18pm

      @johnpaulkuchtajr, yes, he visited there on Cinco de Quatro and he was speaking the Austrian language when he made his remarks. :)

      Report Post » biohazard23  
  • cemerius
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 3:30pm

    Hurry up Barry find someone to blame for this error!!! Can’t blame the Teleprompter huh?? Patheitic man-child!!!

    Report Post » cemerius  
  • nobull14
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 3:13pm

    Well I guess O’bummer was doing some blow that day in school history class . what a moron !!!!

    Report Post »  
  • sparkspeaks
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 3:11pm

    Perhaps the Pres. needs to do some reading up on his history in this area also with his reading up on Judaism. LOL LOL Or is it his incompetent speech writers? Which ever…. He has bowed and scapped and apologized to every other country and leader of every other country in this world. Man up and set this straight.

    Report Post » sparkspeaks  
  • The_Jerk
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 3:10pm

    Notice how most politicians always make WWII all about the Jews, when, in fact, far more non-Jews were killed, tortured, murdered, imprisoned. It’s called the pro-Jewish propaganda. Finkelstein called it the Holocaust Industry.

    Report Post »  
    • DJEyeDub
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 3:28pm

      I’m not sure what you are saying here. Jews are using the unbelievable suffering of their people for what reason again? Please do explain more as I am ignorant to this idea. Also please back that up with some facts so us uneducated can understand.

      Report Post » DJEyeDub  
    • Lloyd Drako
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 4:42pm

      At the time, the Nazis were the only ones for whom it WAS all about the Jews.

      Report Post » Lloyd Drako  
    • tzion
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 7:31pm

      @Jerk
      Maybe you should double check your facts. For one, the death toll of the Holocaust was about eleven million with nearly six million of those being Jews. Second, while many non-Jews were targeted by the Holocaust none were targeted as severely as the Jews, with nearly 2/3 of the Jews in Europe perishing. In Poland specifically, which had the largest prewar Jewish population, close to 90% of the Jewish population was wiped out, accounting for half of the total Jewish victims.

      But most importantly, your comment contributed nothing to the issue. It was still insulting to refer to a Nazi death camp as being Polish, especially since 3 million Poles were murdered by the Nazis.

      Report Post »  
  • KickinBack
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:57pm

    Remember, our dear leader never makes mistakes. Teleprompters do. Therefore, the Polish people should be demanding an apology from the teleprompter…and then from Bush, cuz somehow it was his fault too.

    Report Post » KickinBack  
    • Ray2447
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 3:13pm

      “President Theodore Roosevelt”

      Franklin Roosevelt was president during most of WWII, not “Theodore Roosevelt.”

      Report Post »  
  • happ77
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:51pm

    The new democratic presidential campaign slogan;

    “Dumb and Dumber 2012”

    Report Post »  
  • The-Monk
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:49pm

    I‘m surprised BHO didn’t call the inmates at the Death Camp “Corpse men”.

    BHO will never apologize for his mistakes; in his mind, he never makes mistakes.

    Report Post » The-Monk  
  • RamonPreston
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:48pm

    This is the president that gave the Queen of England DVDs about himself that won’t play on their equipment. Nothing surprises me about him and it looks like the rest of the world is figuring him out.

    Report Post » RamonPreston  
    • CatB
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:53pm

      Don’t forget he sent back the Churchill bust … he has NO CLASS. You do not send back a gift especially from an ally.

      Report Post »  
  • artimusprim
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:43pm

    This shows this man is an empty vessel, Nazi death camps and FDR, our country is in a world of hurt!

    Report Post »  
  • strawberry411a
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:41pm

    It is because this man has no interest in white or European history at all. If it aint black..get back. he HATES the white race, the USA and Christian faith.

    Report Post »  
    • RamonPreston
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 3:03pm

      I remember that saying:
      If you’re white, you’re all right.
      If your brown you can hang around
      If your black, stand back.

      Things sure have changed since I went to school in the 60s. This is racist now.

      Report Post » RamonPreston  
  • blackyb
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:35pm

    Apologizing will not be a problem for him. He excels at bowing, apologizing, and smoozing. No thing. He can get ‘er done.

    Report Post » blackyb  
    • medcam
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 3:12pm

      He only apologizes to our non-allies. That’s how that works. If they were once an enemy, they want to kill us, or he agrees with their political ideology, then he is more than happy to apologize for how wrong America is…

      Report Post » medcam  
  • Master.Debater
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:35pm

    It fits a pattern of this president embracing aggressors while blaming the victims of their aggression, namely his treatment of Israel.

    Either that, or he has been reading too much Soviet propaganda.

    Report Post » Master.Debater  
  • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:34pm

    With anyone other than Obama I could see this being a mistake done by accident, however with the track record Obama has of insulting so many nations for the purpose of alienating the United States further from the world, it probably was deliberate. His narcissistic and god complex insanity will not let him to admit or apologize for anything he has done wrong; in the end it will be some low level staffer who will take the rap for it.

    This is one more proof the absolute trechary and hatered Obama has for the nation; he stops at nothing to backstab nations we should be allies with. Poland has fought for over a century to become free of foreign domination; and once again Obama slaps them on the face.

    Obama needs to be impeached at once for his growing insanity.

    Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
    • MarsBarsTru7
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:56pm

      Yeah. Your comment here is probably the best one, right at the heart of the matter. When it comes to rhetoric like this, at this point can we be sure that it was a mistake? Unless you’re extremely naive I think any knowledgeable person would have to suspect that it was intentional. Then again… there was the “57 states” comment. But that wasn’t part of a pre-written speech.

      Report Post »  
    • Micmac
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 3:09pm

      @ Snow
      Normally I’d agree with you that it was intentional b ut in this case I think it was just his ignorance.

      NoBama 2012

      Report Post »  
    • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 6:24pm

      @MicMac – normally I would give a benefit of a doubt; with Obama and his tricks, I can never give that doubt.

      Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
  • Anonymous T. Irrelevant
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:27pm

    Did Obombus also return the bust of Lech Walesa?

    Report Post » Anonymous T. Irrelevant  
  • ICEDRAGONNITE
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:26pm

    What do you expect from a man that hates the USA, is a communist radical, a mohommedist, and has been given a special knighting by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia as a Warrior of Islam, and the PURVEYOR of the Muslim Brotherhood throughout the world to achieve the New World Order, the Caliphate and to rule with the Anti-Christ.
    So a distortion of the role of the Poles in the death camps is not out of the question for this jerk.

    Report Post » ICEDRAGONNITE  
  • momrules
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:25pm

    Prime Minister Donald Tusk,

    As a real American citizen let me take this opportunity to apologize to all Polish people for the ignorance and disrespect that Obama showed to you, the heroic Jan Karski and to every other Polish citizen that fought and died during WWII.

    Report Post »  
    • Gonzo
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:27pm

      Don’t apologize for him Mom, let him do it…it’s the only thing he does well.

      Report Post » Gonzo  
    • momrules
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:35pm

      True Gonzo but he has embarressed the United States again and he only apologizes to Muslims.

      Report Post »  
    • CatB
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:51pm

      I sent an apology note to the British P.M. when Obama returned the Churchil bust .. and got a nice note back from his office. I think this is a great idea MOM ..

      Consular Section of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Washington DC

      Head of Consular Division Piotr Konowrocki
      2224 Wyoming Avenue N.W.
      Washington, D.C. 20008-3992

      I went to the Poland website .. needless to say .. I could not read most of it .. but I think you can contact the P.M. through the Embassy address above.

      Report Post »  
    • RamonPreston
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:58pm

      We should apologize for electing that jerk.

      Report Post » RamonPreston  
    • CatB
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 3:05pm

      @RAMON …

      I did not “elect the jerk” … those who did owe us ALL an apology!

      Report Post »  
    • DREDGE
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 3:08pm

      And let’s not forget how many Poles were also lost in succeeding wars aiding America!!!!!

      Report Post »  
    • RamonPreston
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 3:15pm

      I didn’t vote for him either but somebody must have. Did anybody watch the movie “Trojan Horse?” Obama exactly. Got into office just to tare the country down.

      Report Post » RamonPreston  
    • AxelPhantom
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 5:25pm

      Cat,

      Here is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website for Poland, in English

      http://www.msz.gov.pl/Main,page,2.html

      Report Post »  
  • AxelPhantom
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:22pm

    Most Americans do not understand why this gaffe by the President is so offensive to the Poles.

    In Europe after the war, a great deal of blame for the Nazi atrocities was red-directed by the Russians to detract from their own genocidal crimes, towards the Poles and the German citizens.

    It is said the victors get to write the history and the Russians wanted to make sure it was written in a way favorable to them, they also wanted to ensure to be awarded control of post-war Poland.

    Through the use of media propaganda the Axis powers presented the Poles as complicit in the crimes of the Nazi’s. This allowed them to negate the fact that both Great Brittan and America (as early as 1941) had not only been told of the atrocities, but through the works of Poles such as Jan Karski and Witold Pilecki, provided proof of the systematic genocide of BOTH the Russians and the Nazis.

    The propaganda blitz was so complete that the equally deadly Russian atrocities against Poles have only had a light upon them since the fall of the Berlin wall. To the Poles, it was all a slap in the face.

    Now this President has slapped them once again. His comment brings back the betrayal of the people of Poland for politics favoring an “ally” who was in fact as brutal for a longer period of time than Hitler; an act of complacency that condemned the Poles to an additional 50 years of Communist rule.

    Report Post »  
    • RamonPreston
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:52pm

      I wrote an article in our local newspaper about history and one of the citizens informed me that history is based on “facts”. Sorry. History=his story. Written by the victor.

      Report Post » RamonPreston  
  • LeadNotFollow
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:21pm

    …
    This was not a slip of the tongue. Every word that comes out of Obama’s mouth is written for him. He reads everything from a teleprompter and/or notes.
    Seems like his speechwriter is as big of a moron and traitor as Obama.

    Report Post »  
  • CatB
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:19pm

    He misspoke? Where was TOTUS? and as for misspoke .. don’t they write these speeches before he gives them ??? Doesn’t he read them? Doesn’t he know better? HANG TOUGH POLAND … he should have known better .. even if it was written wrong…. if he was not just a “reader” .. they were NAZI death camps … I have not been to Harvard .. but I know that!

    Report Post »  
    • momrules
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:39pm

      Catb……….I think everyone in the Obama White House including his speech writers, is as ignorant as he is about history and they really don’t care to learn.

      Isn’t he embarrassing?

      Report Post »  
    • CatB
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 3:04pm

      Embarrassing is an understatement .. for the “smartest President ever” (per Chrissy Matthews) he certain is STUPID.

      Report Post »  
  • Gonzo
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:16pm

    Nobody was upset that he thinks Theodore Roosevelt was President during WWII?

    Report Post » Gonzo  
    • Master.Debater
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:28pm

      Is that what he actually said, or is it a Blaze mistake? I can’t find that wording anywhere else on the Internet.

      Report Post » Master.Debater  
    • Gonzo
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:31pm

      I’m wondering the same thing! I hope it was Barry, what a doofus.

      Report Post » Gonzo  
    • Master.Debater
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:31pm

      Interesting that the buzzfeed clip has the first name of the president edited out….

      Report Post » Master.Debater  
    • Master.Debater
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:42pm

      Nope, he said Franklin. Watch it here at13:56: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOCz3KzorCw

      Report Post » Master.Debater  
    • Gonzo
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 3:00pm

      Dang it! That would have been as good if not better than the original foul up!

      Report Post » Gonzo  
    • Banter
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 3:04pm

      I found it in another article on Atlantic Wire, and it says Franklin.

      So, Becket, how do you explain Theodore in your story?

      Report Post » Banter  
    • RamonPreston
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 3:10pm

      Theodore Roosevelt October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919
      World war 2 1939 and ended in 1945 Makes sense to me. Of course I was in a bad car accident once. My IQ hasn’t been below 140 since.

      Really, it was FDR in case you didn’t know.

      Report Post » RamonPreston  
    • Gonzo
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 3:15pm

      That was never in question Ramon, but thanks for participating. Your participation award will be mailed to you.

      Report Post » Gonzo  
  • ILinch4U
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:16pm

    I wish the person who wrote on the teleprompter would at least do their homework. It is a shame that we are represented by such ignorance! We (the people of the United States) apologize Prime Minister Tusk!

    Report Post »  
    • AvengerK
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:32pm

      Obama also indicated he has two sons last week while reading off his teleprompter.
      It‘s pretty clear that Obama doesn’t think about what he’s saying..he just relies on his teleprompter to think for him.
      Obama is a construct..a manufactured fabrication of David Axelrod‘s and David Plouffe’s and the media bought the hype because they’d rather believe the stories about Obama than the truth about him.
      The truth is Obama is not very smart and proves that the laughable assertion of him being the “smartest president ever” is as hollow as the rest of his phony narrative…like saying he’s from Kenya to sell a few books. Like telling an audience in Selma, Alabama that his parents were inspired to “get together” after the rally in Selma in 1965..while he was born in 1961 and his parents had completely left each other by 1962.
      Obama is not a smart man at all.

      Report Post »  
    • RamonPreston
      Posted on May 30, 2012 at 3:12pm

      Obama would be a real wit except that he is half white and half black. That makes him a half-wit.

      Report Post » RamonPreston  
  • The_Almighty_Creestof
    Posted on May 30, 2012 at 2:14pm

    “Why Is the Polish PM Demanding an Apology from President Obama?”

    Because he offered a trade agreement between Poland and the USA for bowling shoes?

    Because he offered to send Naval Advisors to determine why Polands submarines keep sinking?

    Report Post »  
1 2

Sign In To Post Comments! Sign In

Sign Up For Our Newsletter!

Glenn Beck Radio

Listen to Glenn Beck 24/7 Listen Now
Restoring Love