A speech by the Deputy President of the IPN, Dr Mateusz Szpytma at the Embassy of the RP in Washington - 19 March 2019.
Your Excellency, Mr. Ambassador – our Host this evening, Minister
Lang, Your Excellency Polish Ambassador to the Swiss Confederation, Ms. Sara
Bloomfield, Director of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Ms. Marion Ein Lewin,
and all Distinguished Guests,
In my speech I am not going to talk about the IPN’s
movie itself (the discussion panel being devoted to it), nor am I going to talk
about the activities of my institution. Please allow me to outline the most
important aspects of the situation in which Poland found itself during the
Second World War and the Holocaust, which was the most atrocious crime of this
conflict. I will also touch upon matters of a more general nature which were,
however, of particular importance at the time, and are also significant for
understanding the activities of Polish diplomats and their Jewish co-workers
portrayed in the movie.
At the same time, I would like to offer a few words of
explanation to those who may think that I am talking about very obvious matters.
It has been almost 80 years since the outbreak of the Second World War. With the
passage of time we are dealing more and more with the lack of public
understanding of the reality which prevailed at the time, leading to frequent
distortions of the subject, especially by the media.
1. The Holocaust was a state-organized endeavour. The
state authorities of the German Reich were the initiator and organizer of the
mass murder of the Jewish nation. The state used all its resources to
completely eradicate the Jewish population. These activities were carried out
under the protection of the laws adopted by the Reich, which were also imposed
on the citizens of conquered states.
2. The German military police and various auxiliary
formations created by the Reich were the primary tools of the entire criminal
system. In occupied territories, the German state tried to prevent aid for the
Jewish population by means of criminal laws. At the same time, it favoured the
members of conquered nations who were ready to support the Reich's criminal
activities against their fellow citizens for their own benefit.
3. The Republic of Poland was the first country to
defend itself against the German Reich. It was the first country in the world
to refuse to submit to the demands of Adolf Hitler. It was the first to mount
armed resistance in defence of the right of its citizens – including
those of Jewish nationality – to freedom
and independence.
4. Poland, under German occupation since September
1939, never surrendered to the Germans, unlike such countries as France;
during the whole war it was an Allied state participating in the fight against
Germany. The Republic of Poland did not take part in any form of collaboration
with the German Reich. In contrast to the countries that cooperated with the
Reich, Poland did not at any point take part in the implementation of German
crimes.
5. The Polish underground state and government-in-exile
made a great effort to support activities aimed at helping Jewish citizens
threatened by extermination. They provided logistical, personal and financial
support to the structures created in the underground that provided help to
persecuted Jews. Such help often put the lives of the conspirators at risk.
The Polish underground state and government-in-exile also undertook activities
in which they put their efforts to save Jews above the rules of diplomacy.
6. The Republic of Poland made a great effort to
convince the world about the scale of the crimes committed by Germany by
transferring information and witness accounts to the Allied camp. Poland
helped inspire the activities of the international community to stop German
crimes on the Jewish nation.
7. The tragedy of the Republic of Poland was its
inability to provide security for its citizens subjected to German cruelty and
Soviet occupation. Apart from Jews – who were Polish citizens – millions of
ethnic Poles became victims of German occupation.
8. Each individual decision to support the Germans in
their activities against the life and health of citizens of the Republic of
Poland, of Polish, Jewish and other nationalities, meant treason against the
Homeland. The authorities of the Republic of Poland (including the structures
of the Polish Underground State) denounced German collaborators. They issued
death sentences where possible, and unequivocally announced in public that any
form of complicity in the crimes of the German Reich would be punished.
9. Today, the Republic of Poland, as the legal heir of
a state struggling for independence during the war, considers it its duty to
preserve the memory of innocent Jewish and Polish citizens murdered during
those inhuman times.
Aware of all these facts, the Institute of National
Remembrance is trying to examine various aspects of German occupation and the
various attitudes of Polish citizens, the noble ones portrayed in the movie as
well as the vile ones which also existed. Only the truth is of interest. Thank
you for your attention.
