WARSAW – World Jewish Congress CEO Robert Singer on Thursday evening addressed a gathering of Warsaw-based diplomats, members of the local Jewish community, Polish civil society officials, and a delegation of some 100 Jewish representatives from around the world in Poland to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, coinciding this year with Israel’s 70th Independence Day celebrations. Earlier Thursday, WJC President Ronald S. Lauder delivered remarks at the official state ceremony at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, following an address by Polish President Andrzej Duda. 
In his address, Singer reflected on the history shared by Poles and Jews over the centuries, and the dangers of the new Holocaust law criminalizing claims of the Polish nation’s responsibility for the horrors. “The history of the Warsaw Ghetto, the history of the Shoah, the history of the suffering endured by Poles under German domination, is complex and complicated,” Singer said.
The full address can be viewed here
While there were “fearless Poles” who “refused to close their eyes to the tragedy unfolding on their doorstep, Singer said, “much of Polish society, which itself had been brutalized by the Germans looked on with indifference to what was happening to their Jewish neighbors” and that there were also Poles who “blackmailed and betrayed Jews, and even murdered them.”
Among the many complex facts that need to be taken into account, Singer said, were the truths that it was Nazi Germany that “established and operated the death camps in occupied Poland” and that “alongside the three million Polish Jews murdered by the Germans and their helpers, vast numbers of Gentile Polish civilians lost their lives in World War II.”
This history, Singer said, “must never be politicized. We must insist, therefore, that history be recorded with absolute accuracy. The only solution is objective scholarship… we need extensive education, and sincere dialogue, not legislation. Only then will Jews and Poles understand one another.”
Speaking to the legacy of the uprising 75 years ago, Singer said: “Few battles in human history have so inspired mankind as did the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto… We are all aware of the chilling tragedy played out in Warsaw 75 years ago. But this is also the place in which generation of Jews live, loved, worked and worshipped. This is also the ground where today, a revived Jewish community flourishes, thanks in large part to the support and friendship of Polish people and the Polish government.”
“We also take this opportunity to recognize the tremendous efforts of our president, Ronald Lauder, over the past three decades to enable Polish Jews and Jews elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe to reclaim their Jewish heritage and identity,” Singer added. The WJC CEO also mentioned that Ambassador Lauder and other WJC officials held a “constructive meeting” with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki over the course of the mission “to discuss many important issues on our agenda.”
“The discussions were candid and we made clear our feelings on the law on Holocaust memory. We also raised our concern about the alarming uptick in anti-Semitism in Poland and what can be done to combat it,” Singer said.
