Even more ominous (for Barry) than the Polish Government's outrage, Polish-American Voters are plenty P.O.ed too:
suntimes.com 
Poles outraged by Obama’s reference to ‘Polish death camp’ BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Political Reporter apallasch@suntimes.com May 30, 2012 11:46AM
Updated: May 30, 2012 12:11PM
President Barack Obama’s accidental reference to a “Polish death camp” in a ceremony honoring a Polish resistance fighter during World War II is causing a diplomatic dust-up just a week after Obama’s warm greeting of Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski at the NATO Summit in Chicago.
Poles and Polish-Americans are having a tough time accepting Obama’s apology — the White House said he should have referred to “Nazi death camps in German-occupied Poland” — for the gaffe Tuesday. They say they have spent a lot of time correcting the historical record that Poles, like Jews, were victims of the Nazis — not architects or staffers of the death camps during the Holocaust.
“If a Harvard graduate can’t get that straight, shame on him. It’s unacceptable,” said Illinois Appellate Court Justice Aurelia Pucinski. “On the walk of honor at the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, there are more names of Polish citizens who, at the threat of death, helped Jews escape from the Nazis, than any other nationality.”
Anecdotes of some Poles collaborating with the Nazis to turn over Jews have some times over the years overshadowed the better-documented histories of Poles aiding and sheltering Jews, said Poles and Polish-Americans.
Chicago Attorney John Pikarski headed up Polish-Americans for Obama. But he thinks the president needs a White House Summit with Jews and Poles to straighten out this slight.
“I’m a former co-chair of the Polish-American, Jewish-American National Council dialogue and this is one of the things that we worked for 20 years to eradicate,” Pikarski said. “The president really needs to do something significant to heal the wounds ... maybe have a conference at the White House for some prominent Jewish and Polish Americans. No slur was intended. But we have worked so hard to eradicate that term.” |
