In this blog I’m responding to Stephen Fry’s previous comments on Channel 4 with regards hinting that Poland the country bore some responsibility for wartime mass murder of Jews. I’ve been looking at the litany of corrections printed by newspapers, wire services and magazines who also have referred to WWII Nazi concentration/death camps as “Polish concentration/death camps.” There over 30 corrections from recent years….
Stephen Fry
Oct 6th, 2009
Stephen Fry Actor made the comments on Channel 4 News while talking about the Conservative party’s links with Poland’s Law and Justice party. Fry appeared to hint that Poland could hold some responsibility for the mass murder of European Jews. ‘Let’s face it and remember which side of the border Auschwitz was on,” Auschwitz was a Nazi German Concentration Camp built on Polish Soil – when the German Nazis invaded Poland during WW2. Writing on Twitter, Fry said he feared he might have to wait a while before the people of Poland forgave him for “inadvertently offending them”
Boston Globe
July 8, 2006
A story in the June 26 City & Region section on parishes closing in Brighton and Lynn referred to a “Polish concentration camp.” The concentration camps in Poland, which was occupied by Germany during the war, were created and controlled by Nazis. Writing on Twitter, Fry said he feared he might have to wait a while before the people of Poland forgave him for “inadvertently offending them”
The Hamilton Spectator (Ontario, Canada)
July 7, 2006
A June 29 story in The Spectator referred incorrectly to Polish death camps during the Second World War. The story should have said Nazi death camps in occupied Poland.
We apologize for the error and any upset it has caused.
San Francisco Chronicle
May 17, 2006
Clarification: A story in some editions Sunday referred to events at “Polish death camps” during World War II. The concentration camps in Poland, which was occupied by Germany during World War II, were created and controlled by the Germans.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
April 27, 2006
The Snapshots column Tuesday about a Holocaust survivor referred to “a Polish death camp.” It was a Nazi death camp that was in occupied Poland.
Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette
April 21, 2006
A story on Page 1C of Wednesday’s editions about Holocaust survivor Philip Bialowitz stated that he was sent to Sobibor, a Polish prison camp. While the concentration camp was in Poland, it was run by Nazi soldiers from Germany.
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
December 15, 2005
A story on Page 3B Wednesday about a Holocaust survivor visiting students at Churchville-Chili High School incorrectly located the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. It was in Poland, not Germany.
Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
May 5, 2005
An article about a Holocaust survivor on Page 1B of Tuesday’s Local section incorrectly described Treblinka, which was a Nazi death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
Saint Paul Pioneer Press
January 26, 2005
Local News: A story Monday that appeared on Page 1B gave the incorrect location of Auschwitz. The Nazi death camp operated in Poland.
Tucson Citizen
January 25, 2005
Concentration camps referred to in a story on Page 2A Saturday were run by Nazi Germany. Tucsonan Sol Rosner shared his story of surviving World War II-era Nazi camps in Poland and Austria.
The Washington Post
December 14, 2004
A Dec. 11 Religion Page article referred to Jews who were killed in “Polish death camps” during World War II. The camps were in Poland but were run by Nazi Germany.
The Washington Post
May 12, 2004
In a May 1 article about a federal court upholding the decision to strip former Nazi death-camp guard John Demjanjuk of his U.S. citizenship, the Associated Press referred to Poland’s Treblinka death camp. The story should have specified that Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany in World War II, and that death camps in Polish territory were operated by the Germans.
The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
May 7, 2004
An Associated Press article in Saturday’s edition of The Record about a former Nazi referred incorrectly to Poland’s Treblinka death camp. The story should have specified that Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II, and that death camps in Polish territory were operated by the Germans.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
May 5, 2004
An Associated Press article Sunday about a federal court upholding the decision to strip former Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk of his U.S. citizenship referred to Poland’s Treblinka death camp. The article should have specified that Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany in World War II and that death camps in Polish territory were operated by the Germans.
The Associated Press
May 3, 2004
In one version of the April 30 story about a federal court upholding the decision to strip former Nazi death-camp guard John Demjanjuk of his U.S. citizenship, The Associated Press referred to Poland’s Treblinka death camp. The story should have specified that Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany in World War II, and that death camps in Polish territory were operated by the Germans.
Orlando Sentinel
February 27, 2002
An article on Page A5 Sunday about Germany paying reparations to a former prisoner of the Nazis mistakenly described a concentration camp in which he was held. It was a German concentration camp in Poland.
Baltimore Sun
March 25, 2000
An article in yesterday’s editions of The Sun inaccurately described Pope John Paul II, as a young priest in Poland, caring for a woman who had been liberated from “a Polish concentration camp.” This implied that the camp was run by Poland. In fact, the camp was a Nazi German concentration camp in Poland, which was invaded by Germany at the outset of World War II.
New York Times
January 14, 2000
A television review on Dec. 29 about “Investigative Reports: The Survivor,” an A&E program about Binjamin Wilkomirski, whose claim to being a Holocaust survivor has been challenged, referred incorrectly to Majdanek, where Mr. Wilkomirski said he had been confined. It was set up and run by the German occupiers of Poland; it was not a “Polish death camp.”
The Guardian (London)
October 21, 1999
In an article headed Auschwitz bestseller a fraud, page 9, October 15, we referred to ‘the terror of the Polish concentration camps”. We should have referred to the terror of the German or Nazi concentration camps in Poland. Our apparent failure to recognise the difference offended a number of people to whom we apologise.
Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Florida)
April 22, 1998
The concentration camp at Auschwitz was established and operated in Poland by Nazi Germany after the German occupation of Poland in World War II. A phrase in a story published Monday on Page 1A may have implied otherwise.
The Denver Post
March 1, 1997
Friday’s editorial on ‘Schindler’s List’ should have referred to a German concentration camp in occupied Poland. The camp was not operated by Poland.
Charlotte Observer
August 2, 1996
An editing error was made in “German, Polish, or Jewish death camps?” (July 30 Forum). Krzysztof Mielczak’s letter should have read, ” . . . why not use a more practical description of those places and call them Jewish death camps,’ as most of the victims were Jews?”
Buffalo News
April 16, 1996
The concentration camp Wolf Tombak was imprisoned in during World War II was run by Hitler’s Third Reich in Nazi-occupied Poland.
A story in Friday’s Buffalo News referred to it as a Polish concentration camp.
Palm Beach Post
February 21, 1995
The Palm Beach Post Sunday incorrectly referred to ”Polish concentration camps” in a story about Holocaust survivors. The Nazis operated the camps during World War II.
The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario)
November 24, 1994
An Oct. 15 Second Opinion column erroneously referred to the “notorious Polish concentration camps.” The camps were operated by SS troops in Nazi-occupied Poland during the Second World War.
The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario)
April 30, 1994
A story in Thursday’s Record about a Holocaust survivor referred to a Polish concentration camp. The camp should have been described as a German concentration camp in occupied Poland.
The Houston Chronicle
March 29, 1994
A Sunday Newsmakers item on the movie Schindler’s List referred to the German Nazi concentration camps in Poland as “Polish death camps.” The item should have referred to the “death camps in Poland.”
Orange County Register
February 18, 1993
Auschwitz, the infamous World War II concentration camp, was operated by the German forces occupying Poland. Because of a wire-service error, the forces operating the camp could have been misunderstood in an article in the Show section of Feb. 7 edition of the Register.
The Washington Post
June 16, 1992
The death camp at Treblinka was misidentified in a June 6 story. It was located in Nazi-occupied Poland and operated by the Nazis.
The Toronto Star
February 5, 1992
A wire service report on Monday about Argentina’s secret files on Nazis who hid there after World War II failed to specify that wartime death camps were set up in Poland when it was occupied by Germany.
Time Magazine
January 13, 1992
In our 50th anniversary special on Pearl Harbor [Dec. 2], an article describing World War II in Europe incorrectly used the phrase “Polish death camps” to refer to the Nazi death camps in Poland. We regret the error.
Wall Street Journal
May 2, 1991
Buchenwald was referred to incorrectly as Polish concentration camp in April 16 article; Buchenwald was in Germany.
I dedicate this blog to Mr. Kazimierz Piechowski who was transported to Auschwitz in June 1942 because he was a Polish Boy Scout. He was classed as a Polish Political Prisoner by the German Nazis and imprisoned in Auschwitz for 2 years to the day till his escape on 20th June 1942.
a good Polish friend of mine had a personal twitter reply from Stephen apologising for what he said – and Stephen has written a very long mea culpa.
http://www.stephenfry.com/2009/10/19/poles-politeness-and-politics-in-the-age-of-twitter/
Al thanks for the above link will read it – It is just really sad when celebrities of Stephen Fry’s status, intelligence and caliber make uniformed, personal and potentially very damaging remarks about a country like Poland’s history. Everybody knows the Nazi Germans planned and constructed the WW2 concentration death camps especially that of Auschwitz. I have followed Stephen for years and I am really upset that a hero of mine has presented himself as a blithering fool….
from Stephen Fry’s Mea culpa : http://www.stephenfry.com/2009/10/19/poles-politeness-and-politics-in-the-age-of-twitter/
Poland
Only a week and a half ago I was asked to appear on Channel 4 news to comment on the Conservative Party and their decision to ally themselves in the European Parliament with the Polish Law and Justice Party, a nationalist grouping whose members have made statements of the most unpleasantly homophobic and antisemitic nature. I usually decline such invitations, and how I wish I had done so on this occasion. I think I accepted for the achingly dumb reason that I happened to be in the Holborn area all that day and the ITN news studios were just round the corner, so it seemed like an easy gig. The more probable explanation is that, as my father and squadrons of school teachers correctly reminded me throughout my childhood and youth, “Stephen just doesn’t think.” Anyway. Words tumbled from my lips during that interview that were as idiotic, ignorant and offensive as you could imagine. It had all been proceeding along perfectly acceptable lines until I said something like “let’s not forget which side of the border Auschwitz was on.”
I mean, what was I thinking? Well, as I say, I wasn’t. The words just formed themselves in a line in my head, as words will, and marched out of the mouth. I offer no excuse. I seemed to imply that the Polish people had been responsible for the most infamous of all the death factories of the Third Reich. I didn’t even really at the time notice the import of what I had said, so gave myself no opportunity instantly to retract the statement. It was a rubbishy, cheap and offensive remark that I have been regretting ever since.
But it gets worse. Once the interview had been transmitted I started to receive the odd invitation to talk on Polish radio, explain myself to Polish journalists and make apologies to the Polish people in general. Perfect, you might think. An opportunity to make amends. But some mad pixie of pride in my head had got me rather riled by this time. It wasn’t helped by the fact that some of the letters I received were of such a bombastic and dictatorial nature that any spark of apology was extinguished before it was born. So I just ignored the whole incident and pretended to myself that I had been misunderstood, mischievously misunderstood, you might even say; that it was obvious to the meanest intelligence that I had never meant to suggest that Poland was complicit in the Holocaust and therefore it would make so sense for me to apologise — it would only perpetuate the culture of offence and apology that is so tedious a feature of our world. Or so I muttered. Really I was so guilty and angry with myself that I directed the anger outwards, as people will.
I take this opportunity to apologise now. I said a stupid, thoughtless and fatuous thing. It detracted from and devalued my argument, such as it was, and it outraged and offended a large group of people for no very good reason. I am sorry in all directions, and all the more sorry because it is no one’s fault but my own, which always makes it so much worse. And sorry because I didn’t have the wit, style, grace or guts to apologise at the first opportunity. I don’t know if Jan Moir feels the same, but I am pretty sure that in her heart of hearts she will have at the very least yearned for a rewind button. How many times in her mind since must she have rephrased, reworded and rejigged that sorry and squalid little article? Some of you will think I am a simpleton to imagine any such thing and that she is much more canny, crafty and conniving than that. Conspiracy theorists can be the faithful guardians of our democracy, but like many fierce dogs they can often mistrust and savage the postman, the doctor or the innocent bystander as well as the real malefactor. But this a blog and therefore about meeeee.
I think of Poland, I think of kindness and pickles and storks living on sticks. I like those thoughts. 🙂
Your correspondent Alastair McAskill says that Stephen Fry made a ” very long mea culpa”. Actually the length of the ‘mea culpa’ was bulked by comments about Jan Moir and her sins which makes it something other than a mea culpa since a reuqirement of a mea culpa (a part of the confession made at the Catholic mass where it is said: through my fault, through my fault, through my most grevious fault) is that we must confess and ask forgiveness for our sins alone.
I find Fry’s apology mealy-mouthed in the sense that he is not speaking directly. His attack on Poland was inadvertent. He really meant to attack anything Catholic with his usual venom (I saw his rant on Channel 4 News at the time and he was almost spitting). His apology does not mention directly what he said about the Catholic Polish for the perfectly good reason that he does not wish to apologise for that. I get the impression he is not apologising for what he said but because it upset a country for “no very good reason”. He blames the letters of others for his failure to respond correctly initially. He also says that he “seemed to imply” when he ought to know very well that he didn’t “seem to imply” anything, he said it blatantly.
If I tried to make a confession like Stephen’s the priest would quite rightly chuck me out of the confessional and suggest I go back and make another examination of conscience.