Claims of Polish Holocaust complicity are ‘blood libel’ against Poland, says US ambassador

Helen Wright

Edited by: Matthew Day, Rafał Liedke

 23.11.2025, 04:57 | Update 24.11.2025, 05:32

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America’s ambassador to Warsaw has called narratives about Poland’s complicity in the Holocaust a “grotesque falsehood” and the equivalent of a “blood libel” against the Polish people in a strongly worded speech.

Speaking at the International Jewish Lawyers conference in Warsaw this week, Ambassador Tom Rose said it is “slander” that Poland “somehow bears responsibility for the crimes committed by others.” 

Nazi Germany systematically killed millions of Jews and other minorities during World War II, with much of the slaughter taking place in occupied Poland, notably in death camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau.  

Due to their geographic location, the Nazi death camps have often been attributed as “Polish death camps” in the international media, which could imply Poland was also to blame for the genocide of Jews. 

Many Polish citizens have been lauded for helping Jews hide from the Nazis and Poland never had a collaborationist government. However, a small number of Poles are known to have colluded—a highly sensitive topic to this day. 

In August, a group of Israeli football fans provoked outrage by unfurling a banner calling Poles “Murderers since 1939.” It received widespread criticism, including from the U.S. ambassador, then a nominee to the role.  

‘Grave injustice’ 

On Thursday, Rose called such claims a “grave historical injustice” in an almost 9-minute-long speech.  

“It’s a grotesque falsehood and the equivalent of a blood libel against the Polish people and Polish nation,” Rose, who is Jewish, told the conference audience. 

The phrase “blood libel” refers to a long-held false and antisemitic accusation that Jews murder Christians to use their blood for religious rituals. It has been used to justify and incite violence against Jewish communities for centuries. 

“Poland was the only occupied country with no collaborationist government, and the only occupied country that never formally surrendered,” the ambassador continued. 

“It was the Polish government in exile and the Underground State that first tried to warn the world what was happening here,” Rose said. “They smuggled out intelligence from Auschwitz and issued the first appeal to an indifferent but admittedly preoccupied world.” 

Poland created the only government-sponsored underground institution in occupied Europe devoted solely to saving Jews, the ambassador added. 

A complex history 

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According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, around three million Jews in Poland—or about 90% of the country’s Jewish population—were murdered in the Holocaust during the German occupation of Poland from 1939 to 1945. 

Israeli institute Yad Vashem, which acts as the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, has recognized over 7,000 Poles as “Righteous Among the Nations” for helping save Jews during this period. 

While the ambassador highlighted Poland’s positive actions during the war in his speech, there is also evidence of collaboration with the Nazis, as well as Poles committing antisemitic acts.  

One of the most infamous incidents is the 1941 pogrom in the eastern town of Jedwabne, where 340 Jews were murdered by a group of nationalist Poles, incited by the occupying German forces. 

At the 84th anniversary of the massacre in July, Yad Vashem called for the removal of an installation by right-wing activist which denied Polish involvement. The U.S. ambassador, at that time a nominee to the post, called the disruption of the ceremony “shameful.”  

Some scholars have also accused Poland of whitewashing or manipulating history to portray itself more positively.  

Rose: Poles were ‘heroic’ 

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However, Ambassador Rose said that anyone in German-occupied Poland who offered a Jew “a crust of bread, a night in a barn, a forged paper” faced execution themselves. 

“These heroic Poles proved that even in their country’s bleakest night, multitudes of Poles chose conscience over fear and humanity over terror,” he said.  

Rose said it is “morally scandalous” to hold Poland responsible for the “genocide perpetrated by others on its soil against its people.” 

The ambassador also pointed out that Poland mandates Holocaust education at its own expense, restores cemeteries and synagogues, and has made Holocaust memory a permanent and national responsibility.

Source: https://tvpworld.com/90158811/us-ambassador-claims-of-polish-holocaust-involvement-slanderous