Obama angers Poles with 'death camp' remark

[Gerald]

President Barack Obama has caused an outcry in Poland after referring to a Nazi death camp as "Polish".

He made the remark at a ceremony in which he posthumously awarded Polish resistance fighter Jan Karski with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The White House says Mr Obama "misspoke" and regrets the comment but prominent Poles want an apology.

Poles suffered a brutal Nazi wartime occupation and reject any suggestion of responsibility for Nazi crimes.

Poles are particularly sensitive to comments linking their country to the Holocaust.

For years, they have objected to any description of Nazi German death camps as "Polish" because it can indicate involvement in the mass murder of millions of European Jews in camps built on their land.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18264036

Note: 30 May 2012 Last updated at 15:43 GMT

[kranz]

ok, let's continue it here: (a separate thread=more attention=more fun)

Four years ago Obama was boasting that his uncle took part in liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Obviously it was not Auschwitz (liberated by the soviets) but Buchenwald.
So, Obama's uncle liberated the prisoners from Polish hands, right?

[BossMark]

Went to Auschwitz a few years ago it was the most harrowing, moving and upsetting place that I have been to , but to be honest I was glad that I went.
6 of us walked in and for nearly 3 hours not one us spoke a word

[Betonov]

Originally Posted by kranz

Four years ago Obama was boasting that his uncle took part in liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Obviously it was not Auschwitz (liberated by the soviets) but Buchenwald.
So, Obama's uncle liberated the prisoners from Polish hands, right?

There's so much Obama not american conspiracies, that his uncle had to be a soviet

[vienna]

There's so much Obama not american conspiracies, that his uncle had to be a soviet

Do you mean Obama has a Ruskie birth certificate? Dang, the birthers have been looking at the wrong country...

...

[nikimcbee]

Everybody knows the warmongering Poles attack the peace loving Germans in 1939. Fortunately, the World was saved by the bamster and his uncle with the aide of the peace-loving soviets. They blessed Poland with a superior economic system.

Now Poland can participate in democracy and human rights for all peoples (living and dead) by joining Obama's 57 States of amerika.

Vote for Poland as the 58th state!

ok, let's continue it here: (a separate thread=more attention=more fun)

OK then.....

Yes, I would. Simply bcoz there is no such a nation as "Yugoslavians". It was an abuse done by Tito.

That makes no sense.

Wiki clearly states who is responsible for the atrocities which took place there- Croatian Ustashe. There is no need to generalize about it.

However, does wiki clearly state who was reponsible for the camps in Poland just like it does with the camps in Yugoslavia, Russia or Germany?

[kranz]

Originally Posted by Tribesman

That makes no sense.

for you it definitely does not, since you look at a communist map and say: hey, come he says there are no "Yugoslavians" and "Yugoslavia" while the map says otherwise?
The German government has forced some regulation that the labour and concentration camps of the war period should not be called "German concentration camps" but "Nazi concentration camps" (as if all Germans left Germany after 1933, and came back in 1945...) but if you aim at this argument you are not even close.
If you want to call Jasenovac a "Yugoslavian camp" I guess you can do it from a purely geographical point of view, as it was placed in former Yugoslavia. But historically it is wrong since it has been documented who was responsible for establishing the camp and being in charge of it.
If Serbs are considered to be Yugoslavians, then by saying "Yugoslavian camp" you imply what? That Serbs were killing Serbs?

Originally Posted by Tribesman

However, does wiki clearly state who was reponsible for the camps in Poland just like it does with the camps in Yugoslavia, Russia or Germany?

I don't get it.
I would leave Yugoslavia aside, it's a slippery "area".
But the rest: Poland, Russia and Germany are pretty clear to me.
If Obama meant to say "death camp in Poland" he could have said that.
"Polish death camp" has already been used several times and is known for making trouble to the speaker/writer. It implies something which is historically incorrect.
Maybe you have heard of some mysterious "Polish camps"?