Amid the controversy over Jan Pietrzak’s remarks on Telewizja Republika, a critical fact remains eclipsed – the statement wasn’t anti-immigrant but rather directed at Germany. It highlighted the factual reality that Germans indeed housed migrants in buildings adjacent to concentration camps, specifically at Dachau and Buchenwald.
Pietrzak referred back to this occurrence in the autumn of 2015. Let’s revisit a segment from the article published in Niezależna at that time.
“Germans have resorted to the most straightforward solution to address the issue of accommodating illegal immigrants. With nowhere else to go, former concentration camp buildings are always within reach. Previously, refugees were directed to Buchenwald, and now to Dachau. A part of the former German concentration camp in the latter town was converted into a shelter for the homeless, where, among others, foreigners found residence,” as reported by Niezależna.pl.
This report wasn’t exclusive to Niezależna; Polish media outlets like TVP Info, TVN, and “Wprost” also echoed this information through the AFP agency. Therefore, irrespective of the rest of Pietrzak’s statement, the act of Germans accommodating migrants in former camps stands as an undisputed fact.
Recall that Adam Bodnar, Minister of Justice and Attorney General, ordered an inquiry into Jan Pietrzak’s statement on Telewizja Republika.
“I have a grim jest about these immigrants, that they [Germans] expect Poles to be prepared because we have barracks. We have barracks for immigrants: in Auschwitz, in Majdanek, in Treblinka, in Stutthof. We have numerous barracks built here by Germans. And it is there that we will see… these immigrants, forced upon us illegally by Germans, because the illegal ones are not the people fleeing to a better world. The illegal ones are the authorities letting them in, meaning the Germans are illegal. Their welcoming slogan was illegal, post-treaty, contrary to any laws. This is illegal German conduct. We should be vigilant about this in the coming year, as it appears they are beginning to take undue liberties with us,” Pietrzak stated in his anti-German declaration.