New US ambassador condemns “grotesque falsehood” that Poles responsible for Holocaust

Notes from Poland ^ | 21st November 2025

[Cronos]

The new US ambassador to Poland, Thomas Rose, has criticised those who blame Poles for the Holocaust, calling it a “blood libel” against a nation that was a victim of the war. He said that such “historically false and morally scandalous” claims have long “poisoned relations between Jews and Poles”.

Rose, who is himself Jewish, also said that Poland is today “the safest country in Europe for a Jew to walk the streets”

"For too long, this nation has been burdened with the moral stain that was never its own, the persistent belief that Poland shares guilt for the barbaric crimes committed against it,” said Rose, who took up his post as ambassador this month.

“It’s a grotesque falsehood and the equivalent of a blood libel against the Polish people and Polish nation,” added the ambassador, who was speaking at a conference on antisemitism in Warsaw organised by the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists.

Most of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust died in German-occupied Poland, where the Nazis established Jewish ghettos and death camps. Around half of Holocaust victims were Polish Jews.

Non-Jewish Poles also suffered enormously under the German occupation, with around 3 million killed during the war. Many ethnic Poles were also sent to the Nazi camps. At Auschwitz, for example, they made up the second largest number of victims after Jews.

During the war, some Poles were involved in crimes against Jews, in some cases directly, such as during the Jedwabne massacre, or indirectly, by handing Jews over to the Germans. But many Poles also risked their lives to hide Jews, and the Polish underground resistance also sought to help Jews.

“Poland created the only government-sponsored underground institution in all of occupied Europe devoted solely to saving Jews,” said Rose, referring to Żegota, a body set up in 1942 to help Jews. It is believed to have saved thousands, perhaps tens of thousands.

The ambassador also noted that Poland was the only place in German-occupied Europe where any kind of aid to Jews was punishable with the execution of the person and their entire family.

“Thousands of Poles died saving Jews,” said Rose. “Of course it wasn’t enough, didn’t stop the slaughter, but they proved, these heroic Poles proved, that even in their country’s bleakest night, multitudes of Poles chose conscience over fear and humanity over terror.”

The ambassador noted, however, that Poles have often been blamed “for a genocide perpetrated by others on its soil”, which has “poisoned relations between Jews and Poles, between Israel and Poland, and between the United States and Poland for decades”.

Such accusations are “historically false and morally scandalous”, declared Rose, who also noted that “no country outside Israel has done more to commemorate and sacralize the Shoah than Poland – certainly not Germany, which committed the crimes, nor Russia, which suppressed them”.

He also noted that the relationship between Poles and Jews stretches far beyond the Second World War. “This was our home for 600 years. It was the centre of the Jewish world,” said Rose. Poland once had the world’s largest Jewish population.

The ambassador, a practising Jew who wears a skullcap, said that Poland today “is the safest country in Europe for a Jew to walk the streets”.

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TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Germany
KEYWORDS:

[nwrep]

Let’s solve the bigger problems.

[Cronos]

Hmmm.. so you think the US ambassador to Poland should not have said this at a seminar on anti semitism thate as held in Warsaw, Poland?

[Dr. Sivana]

Poland and Hungary are two of the few European countries willing to push back against EU insanity.

[Bernard]

People who blame Poland for the Holocaust usually also think highly of the Soviet Union. Quick question - no fair using Google to look for the answer;

Who is associated with the most deaths under his leadership; Stalin, Hitler, or Mao?

[clee1]

FFS.... NEVER again!!!! The NAZIs caused the holocaust, not the Poles! Gawddamn!

Now, if there were some Polish nazis, ok.... but Germany bears the stain.

[FroggyTheGremlim]

I couldn’t see where the author says who made the “grotesque claim” about Poland.

[hanamizu]

Who is associated with the most deaths under his leadership; Stalin, Hitler, or Mao?

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I believe it is Mao, Stalin, & Hitler in that order. But just to piss off the right people I like to include Rachel Carlson on the list, although not intentional, her death toll is higher and ongoing.