Polish authorities were charged here last night with misrepresenting the facts about the destruction of Jews in Nazi extermination camps in Poland during World War II, downgrading the role of Jews in the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising and deliberately concealing documents relating to the looted property of Polish Jews which found its way into German hands and is presently held by East Germans.
The charges were made by Gideon Hausner, former prosecutor of Adolf Eichmann and a member of the Knesset (Parliament) and by Mrs. Golda Meir, former Foreign Minister of Israel, addressing a rally here in protest against the Polish Government’s distortions. Poland severed diplomatic relations with Israel after the Six Day War. Later, Polish Communist Party chief Wladislaw Gomulka warned Polish Jews that support for Israel would be considered tantamount to treason.
Mr. Hausner charged that Polish officialdom, by speeches and articles in the press, is trying to make it appear that the Nazi extermination campaign was directed against Poles, not necessarily Jews, and that the Jews played a minor role in the Warsaw ghetto revolt which is described as a “Polish uprising.” Mrs. Meir said “we are not so much bothered by attempts to distort and misrepresent history that was written with the blood of our brethren as we are sorry for the Poles who are forced to listen to such speeches and read such articles and who, because of their present regime, cannot even protest against them.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
