Mosberg statement
Holocaust survivor, Edward Mosberg, called on Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, to apologize to the Polish nation. The issue concerns his statement from February 2019 in which he stated that Poles are genetically predisposed to anti-Semitism.
“This man uttered these shameful words either out of stupidity or out of hatred, I don’t know why. This is an insult not just towards Poland. It is an insult to all Christians around the world (…) I often go to Israel, but as long as this man apologizes or until he is removed from the government, I will not go there again. I always come back to Poland with great pleasure”- says Edward Mosberg.
General “Gray” archive
Today, documents, letters and other memorabilia of General Antoni Heda were given to the Modern Records Archives by his daughter. General Heda, codename „Szary”, was a legendary commander of the Polish Home Army during the Second World War and of the anti-Communist resistance after the war. He was famous for his extraordinary bravery. Apart from “Szary’s” personal documents, the Modern Records Archives also received precious sources for the research of the history of the Radomsko-Kieleckie regions in the context of the Home Army, including original orders and reports from the partisan actions. They also gathered photographs from conspiracy operations which have never been published before.
“The daughter of Antoni Heda gave us incredibly valuable documents in the form of original materials of her father’s troops, such as pictures and other complementary materials”- says Mariusz Olczak, historian – Modern records archives.
“It’s not my property, it belongs to society. It’s about time, our society took ownership of all of our history. After all, it’s not only ours, many generations will come after us. (FLASH) He was definitely a unique person. He was very just, but also loving. He loved people very, very much and was someone who dedicated his whole life to Poland”- says Teresa Heda – Snopkiewicz, gen.Antoni Heda’s daughter .
Antoni Heda codename “Szary” or “Grey”, was a commander of partisan units of the Union of Armed Struggle and the Home Army. After the war, he was engaged in honouring places of German war crimes and places of battle of the Home Army during the Second World War, as well as taking part in the post war anti-Communist armed resistance. On May 3rd 2006, Antoni Heda was promoted to the rank of brigade general in retirement by president Lech Kaczyński. The brave general died in Warsaw on February 15th 2009.
Tragedy in Slovakia
A tragic accident happened today in Slovakia. According to the local fire department, 13 people were killed when a bus collided with a truck near the city of Nitra. Another 20 were injured.
The accident occurred in a Slovakian village of Nitrianske Hrnciarovce, northeast of Bratislava. A truck drove onto the left lane for unknown reasons and struck the side of a bus. According to initial information, there were 13 confirmed dead and 20 injured as a result of the crash. A rescue helicopter as well as dozens of firefighters were present at the scene. According to local media, the passengers of the bus were high school students.
Farewell to professor Galicka
The funeral of Izabella Galicka: art historian, discoverer of the only El Greca painting found in Poland, named “Ecstasy of Saint Francis”. Professor Galicka was buried at the Powązki Military cemetery. The funeral had a state character
Netflix will think about it
Netflix published a documentary series titled “The Devil Next Door” about a German Nazi Concentration camp guard, Ivan Demianiuk, who served in occupied Poland. In the series there is shown a map of concentration camps drawn with the current borders of Poland. This could lead to an impression that the Polish authorities were cooperating with Nazi Germany. The Polish government demands a correction and an apology.
The main misconceptions that have to be corrected are the historically inacurate maps – during World War 2 Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Moreover, some camps are marked with swastikas while some are not. That might suggest that there were other concentration camps’ operators than Nazi Germany. Finally, in the voice over we can hear “Treblinka – Poland”, omitting Germans who created and operated this death camp.
Mateusz Morawiecki, prime minister of Poland, complained to Netflix about these fatal errors in the production. He criticized the filmmakers for not clarifying that Poland was under German control during the period. He asked Netflix to either modify the map or somehow inform the audience of the “terrible mistake.”
“At that time my country did not even exist as an independent state, and millions of Poles were murdered in these camps. For this reason, this element of the series is nothing but rewriting history”. Morawiecki points out that the documentary does not indicate that these were NAZI camps.
“I wrote a letter to the head of Netflix Mr. Reed Hastings regarding historical inaccuracies in film productions on this platform. Perhaps for their creators these are not significant mistakes, but they are very harmful to Poland and our task is to react decisively. I hope that my arguments will be met with understanding from Netflix managers”.
The Institute of National Remembrance also intervened in the case, and announced that it would file a lawsuit against Netflix. Initially, the institution will request the removal of the maps from the series.
Our Parliament, your Senate
The inaugural meetings of the Sejm and Senate of the new term are ongoing. Yesterday, both houses of parliament elected the marshals and presideas of both Houses. Law and Justice have an independent majority in the Sejm. In turn, the opposition has an advantage in the Senate. Many argue that this division could determine the nature of the current term.
„I don’t think I’m the only one who’s happy about how things turned out. If the Law and Justice has 48 mandates and the opposition has 51, then this outcome is the one the voters wanted” – says Jerzy Fedorowicz, Senator from the Civic Platform party.
“The chamber will finally cease to be a place where legal loopholes and violations of the law are taking place” – says Marek Sawicki, The Polish People party.
“When we say that there is total power, then there must be total opposition, and we will continue doing what we do best. Sometimes we may feel like we’re a total opposition, sometimes a bit less total, but we simply have to do our own thing with what we have. Maybe it will be a little easier thanks to the majority in the Senate” – says Zbigniew Konwiński, The Civic Platform party.
“Every democratic system is built on the checks and balances rule. This internal balance was disrupted for the last 4 years, since the Law and Justice had majority both in the Sejm and Senate, not to mention their candidate had won the presidency. Today, this balance is brought back just a little bit”- says Aleksander Kwasniewski, former President of Poland
“The new speaker of the senate made us a promise, that the higher chamber won’t be prolonging all legislative processes by blocking new bills for 30 days. The future will tell, if he was telling the truth”- says Małgorzata Gosiewska,deputy speaker of the parliament, the Law and Justice party.