President Obama awarded a posthumous Medal of Freedom to a Polish war hero, but nonetheless managed to upset much of Poland in the process. The incident in question occurred when the president was honoring Jan Karski, a resistance fighter in Poland against Nazi occupation during World War Two. "Before one trip across enemy lines," Obama recounted of Karski, who died in 2000, "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."Rico says okay, okay, they were German death camps in Poland... Is that better?
The problem? Poland doesn't take too kindly to anyone referring to World War Two concentration camps as "Poland death camps". (This has been an issue before.)
After Polish politicians quickly expressed their displeasure with the president's choice of words, the White House said that Obama meant no offense and merely misspoke.
Still, that wasn't enough to quell Polish anger. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusks responded to the White House correction on Wednesday, saying in a statement that Obama's remarks were "painful" and a "distortion of history", adding "I am convinced that today, our American friends are capable of a stronger reaction."
30 May 2012
Obama angers the Poles
Abby Ohlheiser has a Slate article about the Poles and the President:
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