President Obama Causes Outrage with Reference to ‘Polish Death Camp’

Stephanie

Diamond Member
Jul 11, 2004
70,230
10,864
2,040
man oh man

SNIP:

Poles and Polish-Americans expressed outrage today at President Obama’s reference earlier to “a Polish death camp” — as opposed to a Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland.

“The White House will apologize for this outrageous error,” Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski tweeted. Sikorski said that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk “will make a statement in the morning. It’s a pity that this important ceremony was upstaged by ignorance and incompetence.”

The president had been trying to honor a famous Pole, awarding a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jan Karski, a resistance fighter who sneaked behind enemy lines to bear witness to the atrocities being committed against Jews. President Obama referred to him being smuggled “into the Warsaw ghetto and a Polish death camp to see for himself.”

Sikorski also tonight tweeted a link to an Economist story noting that “few things annoy Poles more than being blamed for the crimes committed by the Nazi occupiers of their homeland. For many years, Polish media, diplomats and politicians have tried to persuade outsiders to stop using the phrase ‘Polish death camps’ as a shorthand description of Auschwitz and other exemplars of Nazi brutality and mass murder. Unfortunately this seems to have escaped BaracK Obama’s staff seem not to have noticed this.”

National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement, “The President was referring to Nazi death camps operated in Poland. The President has demonstrated in word and deed his rock-solid commitment to our close alliance with Poland.”

read it all here
President Obama Causes Outrage with Reference to ‘Polish Death Camp’ - ABC News
 
man oh man

SNIP:

Poles and Polish-Americans expressed outrage today at President Obama’s reference earlier to “a Polish death camp” — as opposed to a Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland.

“The White House will apologize for this outrageous error,” Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski tweeted. Sikorski said that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk “will make a statement in the morning. It’s a pity that this important ceremony was upstaged by ignorance and incompetence.”

The president had been trying to honor a famous Pole, awarding a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jan Karski, a resistance fighter who sneaked behind enemy lines to bear witness to the atrocities being committed against Jews. President Obama referred to him being smuggled “into the Warsaw ghetto and a Polish death camp to see for himself.”

Sikorski also tonight tweeted a link to an Economist story noting that “few things annoy Poles more than being blamed for the crimes committed by the Nazi occupiers of their homeland. For many years, Polish media, diplomats and politicians have tried to persuade outsiders to stop using the phrase ‘Polish death camps’ as a shorthand description of Auschwitz and other exemplars of Nazi brutality and mass murder. Unfortunately this seems to have escaped BaracK Obama’s staff seem not to have noticed this.”

National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement, “The President was referring to Nazi death camps operated in Poland. The President has demonstrated in word and deed his rock-solid commitment to our close alliance with Poland.”

read it all here
President Obama Causes Outrage with Reference to ‘Polish Death Camp’ - ABC News

Yikes!
 
The death camps were not just for jewish people. Polish people also filled death camps. How is identifying a death camp where there were Polish people as a "polish death camp" insulting to anyone, or factually incorrect?
 
The death camps were not just for jewish people. Polish people also filled death camps. How is identifying a death camp where there were Polish people as a "polish death camp" insulting to anyone, or factually incorrect?

Factually incorrect.
 
What outrage? This is the first I've heard of it...

Here's a link for you. Just because we haven't heard about this till now, doesn't mean the Poles aren't freaking.

Bad diplomatic faux pas calling them Polish death camps. Big big whoopsies.

https://www.google.ca/#hl=en&output...f.,cf.osb&fp=afee8b0baff9ca33&biw=964&bih=522

Faux pas? Sure.

Big deal? Not at all.

Any lasting consequences? Nope.

Hey no big deal to you or to other American liberals. To the Poles, well it's a different matter isn't it now?

But why would Democrats care? Polish Americans aren't a large enough voting block to worry about this year.:lol: That's how Democrats think. This will be no big smurf to liberals if it has no impact on an election.

Come on it was a huge diplomatic insult. A mistake for certain. But a big big insult.
 
Last edited:
Only propagandizing Pubs and silly dupes really care....dumbazz- the only people who hate Obama. Honest mistake, OBVIOUSLY.

Didn't you read the OP?

“The White House will apologize for this outrageous error,” Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski tweeted. Sikorski said that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk “will make a statement in the morning. It’s a pity that this important ceremony was upstaged by ignorance and incompetence.”
 
Here's a link for you. Just because we haven't heard about this till now, doesn't mean the Poles aren't freaking.

Bad diplomatic faux pas calling them Polish death camps. Big big whoopsies.

https://www.google.ca/#hl=en&output...f.,cf.osb&fp=afee8b0baff9ca33&biw=964&bih=522

Faux pas? Sure.

Big deal? Not at all.

Any lasting consequences? Nope.

Hey no big deal to you or to other Americans. To the Poles, well it's a different matter isn't it now?

But why would Democrats care? Polish Americans aren't a large enough voting block to worry about this year.

:lol:

Um.

I'm Polish-Jewish. About a third of my extended family died in Auschwitz and Treblinka - the ones that didn't emigrate here in the 20s.

No one in my family is "outraged" about this. Who exactly do you think you're speaking for?
 
man oh man

SNIP:

Poles and Polish-Americans expressed outrage today at President Obama’s reference earlier to “a Polish death camp” — as opposed to a Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland.

“The White House will apologize for this outrageous error,” Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski tweeted. Sikorski said that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk “will make a statement in the morning. It’s a pity that this important ceremony was upstaged by ignorance and incompetence.”

The president had been trying to honor a famous Pole, awarding a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jan Karski, a resistance fighter who sneaked behind enemy lines to bear witness to the atrocities being committed against Jews. President Obama referred to him being smuggled “into the Warsaw ghetto and a Polish death camp to see for himself.”

Sikorski also tonight tweeted a link to an Economist story noting that “few things annoy Poles more than being blamed for the crimes committed by the Nazi occupiers of their homeland. For many years, Polish media, diplomats and politicians have tried to persuade outsiders to stop using the phrase ‘Polish death camps’ as a shorthand description of Auschwitz and other exemplars of Nazi brutality and mass murder. Unfortunately this seems to have escaped BaracK Obama’s staff seem not to have noticed this.”

National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement, “The President was referring to Nazi death camps operated in Poland. The President has demonstrated in word and deed his rock-solid commitment to our close alliance with Poland.”

read it all here
President Obama Causes Outrage with Reference to ‘Polish Death Camp’ - ABC News

Well, he's prone to some pretty stupid gaffes... perhaps when studying with his Comrades they taught that the Poles sent themselves to the ovens.
 
Faux pas? Sure.

Big deal? Not at all.

Any lasting consequences? Nope.

Hey no big deal to you or to other Americans. To the Poles, well it's a different matter isn't it now?

But why would Democrats care? Polish Americans aren't a large enough voting block to worry about this year.

:lol:

Um.

I'm Polish-Jewish. About a third of my extended family died in Auschwitz and Treblinka - the ones that didn't emigrate here in the 20s.

No one in my family is "outraged" about this. Who exactly do you think you're speaking for?

Try this gentleman and the Prime Minister of Poland for starters:

“The White House will apologize for this outrageous error,” Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski tweeted. Sikorski said that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk “will make a statement in the morning. It’s a pity that this important ceremony was upstaged by ignorance and incompetence.”

It's right in the OP.
 
Hey no big deal to you or to other Americans. To the Poles, well it's a different matter isn't it now?

But why would Democrats care? Polish Americans aren't a large enough voting block to worry about this year.

:lol:

Um.

I'm Polish-Jewish. About a third of my extended family died in Auschwitz and Treblinka - the ones that didn't emigrate here in the 20s.

No one in my family is "outraged" about this. Who exactly do you think you're speaking for?

Try this gentleman and the Prime Minister of Poland for starters:

“The White House will apologize for this outrageous error,” Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski tweeted. Sikorski said that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk “will make a statement in the morning. It’s a pity that this important ceremony was upstaged by ignorance and incompetence.”

It's right in the OP.

So, Obama has lost the votes of the Prime Minister of Poland, and the Foreign Minister. Good to know.

My point wasn't that no one was outraged about it - I'm sure that some are - my point was that it was a meaningless gaffe. A faux pas.

No one will remember this a week from now, let alone on election day.

The fact that you guys so gleefully latch on to anything the slightest bit bad about Obama, and then claim that it's the biggest deal in the world is hilarious to me.
 
man oh man

SNIP:

Poles and Polish-Americans expressed outrage today at President Obama’s reference earlier to “a Polish death camp” — as opposed to a Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland.

“The White House will apologize for this outrageous error,” Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski tweeted. Sikorski said that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk “will make a statement in the morning. It’s a pity that this important ceremony was upstaged by ignorance and incompetence.”

The president had been trying to honor a famous Pole, awarding a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jan Karski, a resistance fighter who sneaked behind enemy lines to bear witness to the atrocities being committed against Jews. President Obama referred to him being smuggled “into the Warsaw ghetto and a Polish death camp to see for himself.”

Sikorski also tonight tweeted a link to an Economist story noting that “few things annoy Poles more than being blamed for the crimes committed by the Nazi occupiers of their homeland. For many years, Polish media, diplomats and politicians have tried to persuade outsiders to stop using the phrase ‘Polish death camps’ as a shorthand description of Auschwitz and other exemplars of Nazi brutality and mass murder. Unfortunately this seems to have escaped BaracK Obama’s staff seem not to have noticed this.”

National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement, “The President was referring to Nazi death camps operated in Poland. The President has demonstrated in word and deed his rock-solid commitment to our close alliance with Poland.”

read it all here
President Obama Causes Outrage with Reference to ‘Polish Death Camp’ - ABC News

Well, he's prone to some pretty stupid gaffes... perhaps when studying with his Comrades they taught that the Poles sent themselves to the ovens.

Diplomacy is a delicate and bizarre ballet for true. One is constantly walking a tightrope. This gaffe is really a "yowzah he said whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?" moment.
 
Um.

I'm Polish-Jewish. About a third of my extended family died in Auschwitz and Treblinka - the ones that didn't emigrate here in the 20s.

No one in my family is "outraged" about this. Who exactly do you think you're speaking for?

Try this gentleman and the Prime Minister of Poland for starters:

“The White House will apologize for this outrageous error,” Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski tweeted. Sikorski said that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk “will make a statement in the morning. It’s a pity that this important ceremony was upstaged by ignorance and incompetence.”

It's right in the OP.

So, Obama has lost the votes of the Prime Minister of Poland, and the Foreign Minister. Good to know.

My point wasn't that no one was outraged about it - I'm sure that some are - my point was that it was a meaningless gaffe. A faux pas.

No one will remember this a week from now, let alone on election day.

The fact that you guys so gleefully latch on to anything the slightest bit bad about Obama, and then claim that it's the biggest deal in the world is hilarious to me.

I could care less how this affects Obama or doesn't affect Obama. It's just another "cringe" moment when something like this happens on the world stage.

On a scale of one to ten in diplomatic fuck ups from the White House, I'd put this at a 1 versus the 10 of sending back the bust of Churchill. That was a purposeful insult to Britain.
Obama meant that insult.
 
Last edited:
He misspoke. and it may cause problems with Poland-US relations. Ultimately, I think it can be rectified without much difficulties.

And for those who dont see the problem, I think those who are upset over it are concerned that the ignorant among us may interpret his statements to mean that the Polish people were the ones setting up the death camps rather than the victims. I know most of us think that it's obvious that it would be Nazi's but there are alot of ignorant people out there who have no freakin idea what Nazi's, death camps, or Hitler were. Totally messed up.
 
Last edited:

Forum List

Back
Top