New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) says it’s time for Jews to cease visiting Poland. Hikind says that the recent “Holocaust Denial Law” that Poland passed was bad enough, but now that Poland’s Prime Minister has decided to blame the Jews for the unspeakable tragedy of the Holocaust, it’s clear that Poland is once again becoming unsafe for Jews to even visit.
“Poland’s Prime Minister continues to add insult to injury,” said Hikind, whose grandparents were murdered in Auschwitz. “It’s bad enough that their grandparents murdered innocent men, women and children. Bad enough that three-quarters of a century later they have passed a shameful law meant to deny their complicity in these crimes. Now the Prime Minister of Poland wants to blame the victims. This is shameful, unconscionable behavior that can only lead to more tragedies. I think that everyone—and especially Jews—should avoid visiting Poland until an apology has been issued and it is made clear that both Jews and the truth are welcome in Poland.”
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki recently defended his country’s new law, which makes referring to “Polish concentration camps” punishable by fines and imprisonment. Morawiecki’s comments included references to “Jewish perpetrators” of the Holocaust, which Hikind says is an outrageous distortion of the facts.
“I was personally planning to go to Poland to visit the camps where my family was held, but I can no longer visit Poland in good conscience, as I have before,” said Hikind. “I don’t think any of us should. Unlike Germany, which has taken responsibility for what it did during the Holocaust, Poland is in a state of dangerous denial.
“We all know the saying, ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’ This is more than a slippery slope for Poland—it is an official proclamation from the government and its Prime Minister that Jewish lives are cheap. Until an apology has been issued, I don’t consider Poland a fit place for Jews.”
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4 Responses
I never considered these European countries worthy of Jews or Jewish money. Not Germany, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine or any of those countries. They don’t deserve the Jews, and Jews should never have gone back there in my opinion. No Jew should ever visit Poland or Auschwitz. They just want us for our money. They should all drop dead!
Hikind was elected to represent a small part of Brooklyn, in the NYS assembly. What gives him the right to lecture the rest of us on issues of this nature. We each have our own people that we look to for guidance. On a similar note, in the 30 years that he’s been in Albany, he mouths off about everything under the sun; except for the problems in Albany. Dov, do your job!
Who cares. Let people talk. Are we going to control the entire universe?
Heimishe,
He’s still right