US reporter apologises for error on Polish WWII history
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
15.02.2019 11:10
A US reporter has apologised after erroneously referring to an uprising against a “Polish and Nazi regime” during World War II.
![A monument honouring the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising fighters in the Polish capital. Photo: Szczebrzeszynski [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons](http://external.polskieradio.pl/files/99892365-924c-4909-a194-adec0ebb7e41.file "A monument honouring the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising fighters in the Polish capital. Photo: Szczebrzeszynski [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons")
A monument honouring the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising fighters in the Polish capital. Photo: Szczebrzeszynski [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons
Andrea Mitchell, a foreign affairs correspondent for the MSNBC television network, wrote on Twitter: “I misspoke… when I discussed the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. To be clear, the Polish government was not involved in these horrific acts. I apologize for the unfortunate inaccuracy.”
While reporting from the Polish capital on Wednesday, Mitchell had suggested that the World War II-era uprising by Jews in the Warsaw ghetto was staged against “the Polish and Nazi regime.”
Her comments, while Warsaw was hosting an international conference on the Middle East, caused outrage in Poland and a triggered a flurry of criticism from Jewish advocacy groups.
David Harris, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, tweeted that Mitchell said the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising “was aimed at both Poles & Nazi Germans. No! Jewish fighters battled Germans. To be clear: Germany occupied Poland 1939-1945; built Auschwitz, Belzec, Treblinka & other death camps; & murdered 3m. Polish Jews.”
Meanwhile, the American Jewish Committee's Warsaw-based Central Europe office responded in a tweet that “it is beyond the pale to assert Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto fought against ‘Polish and Nazi regimes.’”
The organisation added: “This is basics of history: they rose up against the German oppressor. Journalists should do their homework before speaking to millions.”
The Forum of Polish Jews tweeted: “Andrea Mitchell of NBC/MSNBC, in a report from Warsaw, has said that the Warsaw ghetto uprising was fought against ‘the Polish and Nazi regime.’ What can one say about such a gigantic, shameless instance of ignorance?! This is an absolute scandal!”
The Polish embassy in Washington corrected Mitchell in a tweet to say that “the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was a heroic act against the German Nazis who established the ghetto and carried out the Holocaust.”
The Polish embassy also said that during World War II “Poland was attacked and occupied by the German Nazi regime.”
(pk)