Committee for the Defence and Propagation of the Good Name of Poland and the Poles
The Committee was established in June 1996 after a large demonstration in front of the Toronto Star building, organized by the Canadian Polish Congress, to protest articles blackening the good name of Poland and the Poles. Despite interventions by the Polish community, that newspaper continued to refer to “Polish concentration camps” knowing full well that these were Nazi concentration camps built and operated by the Germans in occupied Poland. The Committee endeavours to respond to such falsifications of Polish history.
A “defence fund” was opened at the St. Stanislaus – St. Casimir’s Polish Parishes Credit Union in Toronto (#75158) to raise funds to support the work of the Committee.
The Committee’s work includes the following:
- Inspiring, promoting and coordinating the CPC’s work with respect to the defence of the good name of Poland and the Poles;
- Tracking the appearance of articles in the mass media (newspapers, radio, TV) and other publications (books, etc.) which offend the Polish ethnic group and falsify Poland’s history;
- Responding to articles and other publications libelling the Polish community;
- Informing the Polish community about matters, which portray it in a negative light;
- Encouraging the Polish community to write to the English-language mass media to correct misinformation about Polish matters;
- Encouraging Poles to write about their experiences during World War II and the communist era, especially about the “Polish Holocaust”, in order to preserve a historical record for future generations;
- Supporting publications, especially those appearing in English, based on historical truth, which describe the Polish experience in World War II and under communist rule;
- Conducting research and preparing materials for publication on the Canadian Polish Congress website.
Komitet Obrony i Propagowania Dobrego Imienia Polaka i Polski
Komitet utworzono w czerwcu 1996r. po wielkiej polonijnej demonstracji przed budynkiem “Toronto Star” zorganizowanej przez Kongres Polonii Kanadyjskiej (KPK) w odpowiedzi na oszczercze i szkalujące Polskę i Polaków artykuły ukazujące się na łamach tego dziennika. Pomimo protestów Polonii, dziennik nadal wspominał o “polskich obozach koncentracyjnych” w pełni wiedząc że były to niemieckie nazistowskie obozy koncentracyjne zbudowane w okupowanej Polsce. Komitet walczy przeciwko takim oszczerstwom oraz innym zafałszowaniom historii polskiej.
Założono wówczas konto w Credit Union w Toronto (#75158) celem zbierania funduszy na utrzymanie działalności Komitetu który:
- inspiruje, propaguje i koordynuje działalność KPK w zakresie Obrony Dobrego Imienia Polski i Polaków;
- monitoruje anglojęzyczne “mass media” (prasa, radio, tv) oraz inne publikacje, książki, itp., wychwytując doniesienia krzywdzące i obrażające naszą grupę etniczną lub fałszujących naszą historię;
- pisze listy do prasy anglojęzycznej i do wydawnictw w odpowiedzi na krzywdzące naszą grupę artykuły;
- występuje w środkach masowego przekazu celem informowania środowiska polskiego o publikacjach, które stawiają nas w fałszywym świetle;
- zachęca Polaków i osoby pochodzenia polskiego do pisania listów protestacyjnych i artykułów do prasy polsko- i anglojęzycznej;
- zachęca Polaków do opisywania swoich przeżyć z okresu Drugiej Wojny Światowej oraz okresu stalinowskiego, aby utrwalić dla historii dzieje naszych przodków, a w szczególności “polskiego holocaustu”;
- popiera publikacje, zwłaszcza w języku angielskim, odkłamujące naszą, i nie tylko naszą historię, oraz przeżycia Polaków z okresu Drugiej Wojny Światowej i okresu walki z komunizmem;
- prowadzi badania, zbiera informacje i przygotowuje materiały publikowane następnie na stronie internetowej KPK.
Why it matters not to refer to Nazi German camps as “Polish”
A Tangled Web
Polish-Jewish Relations in Wartime Northeastern Poland and the Aftermath
by Mark Paul
The Internet edition is posted on-line in three parts:
Neighbours on the Eve of the Holocaust
Polish-Jewish Relations in Soviet-Occupied Eastern Poland, 1939-1941
by Mark Paul
Patterns of Cooperation, Collaboration and Betrayal
Jews, Germans and Poles in Occupied Poland during World War II
by Mark Paul
Polish-Jewish Relations in Dąbrowa Tarnowska County
A Much Needed Corrective to Jan Grabowski’s Hunt for the Jews
by Mark Paul
Another Look at Buczacz County
A Fact-Based Inquiry into Omer Bartov’s Anatomy of a Genocide
by Mark Paul
Spiegelman’s MAUS – Poles as Pigs
- Poles as Pigs in MAUS: The Problems with Spiegelman’s MAUS (PDF, 1600 KB)
- Study Guide: Poles as Pigs in Spiegelman’s MAUS (PDF, 359 KB)
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Poles
The Untold Story
Traditional Jewish Attitudes Toward Poles
by Mark Paul
Facts from Poland
by Piotr Witakowski
- UNESCO World Heritage Committee approves Auschwitz name change
- Press Release re MAUS
- Komunikat Prasowy w sprawie MAUS
- Our Class Study Guide
- "OUR CLASS" BROCHURE (CANADIAN STAGE / STUDIO 180) A Critique by the Canadian Polish Congress - Toronto District, April 2011 (MS Word)
- Jews at the Jagiellonian University(PDF, 234KB)
- Ontario Press Council Ruling on Use of "Polack" (2009, MS Word, 34 KB)
- The Mixed Record of the Bielski Partisans (2009, MS Word)
- Poland's War Record - Op-ed article, Toronto Star (1995, MS Word)
- Polish Christian Stake at Auschwitz - Op-ed article, The Globe and Mail (1999, MS Word)
- Don't Blame Poland for Nazi Crimes - Op-ed article, The Catholic Register (2008, MS Word)
- Ontario Press Council Rulings on "Polish concentration camps" (1988, 1992, MS Word)
- CBSC Decision on "Polish concentration camps" (2004, MS Word)
- Report on Anti-polonism (1995, MS Word)
- The Massacre at Koniuchy (PDF, 2700KB)
- The Bransk Story (about Marian Marzynski's Shtetl) (2000)
- The Story of Two Shtetls (1999)
- "Katolicy z pomocą Żydom - Niezwykła encyklopedia", recenzja w Naszym Dzienniku, 21 stycznia 2011 r.
- Jedwabne Update
2014
2013
- 8 Apr 2013 -Toronto Star, Response to article ’We’d see corpses in the streets’, April 8 (A1, A10)
- 9 Mar 2013 - Toronto Star, (Page IN7) - Response to Jews and Poles learning to talk, Opinion March 4
2011
- 9 Apr 2011 - Review of Our Class - Letters to the Editor, Toronto Star
- 7 Apr 2011 - (Jedwabne) victim count discredited - Toronto Star
2010
- 9 Nov 2010 - Toronto Star - Re: Story of Auschwitz strangely incomplete, Opinion Nov. 7
- 10 Sep 2010 - Globe and Mail - response to Lives Lived
- 12 Jun 2010 - The Toronto Star - Re: "Helen Thomas, political roadkill"
- 24 Mar 2010 - Washington Jewish Week - Response to article comment by Vlady Rozenbaum
2009
- 10 May 2009 - Toronto Star – Re: Dov Marmur, Eternal Message of liberation
- 16 Jan 2009 - National Post - response to article "Time Does Not Heal All Wounds"
2008
- 21 Jun 2008 - Polish-Jewish Relations - Letter to the Ottawa Citizen (2008)
- 20 Jun 2008 - Toronto Star - response to article "Last Polish Sonderkommando dies at 85 after heart surgery"
- 18 Jun 2008 - Ottawa Citizen - response to article by Andrew Cohen
- 13 Apr 2008 - THE CATHOLIC REGISTER (Toronto) - Re: “Resist the culture of death,” by John Bentley Mays
- 15 May 2008 - The Globe and Mail – response to obituary of Polish rescuer Irena Sendler
- 10 May 2009 - Toronto Star – Re: Dov Marmur, Eternal Message of liberation
2005
- 27 Jan 2005 - The Toronto Star - Re: “Search for meaning, 60 years later,” Daniel Jonah Goldhagen (Jan. 27)
- 25 Jan 2005 - The Globe and Mail - response to article: ‘Will the world ever learn?’
2004
- 18 Aug 2004 - Reproduction of instructions issued to CTV staff
- 27 Jul 2004 - Letter from private individual to CTV
- 9 Jun 2004 -Letter of thanks to CNN, Washington DC (“Warsaw Rising”)
- 30 Mar 2004 – The Toronto Sun – response to article “Reminder of old evil”
- 6 Feb 2004 -Nelson Thomson Learning - re correction to school book
2003
- 28 May 2003 - Hate Crimes Unit, Toronto Police services - "The Politics of Hate"
- 27 May 2003 - "Holocaust survivors welcome new Montreal museum"
2002
- 05 Nov 2002 - The Ottawa Citizen - "Clearing up historical events"
- 05 Nov 2002 - Calgary Herald - Jedwabne - response
- 05 Nov 2002 - Calgary Herald - "Clearing up historical events"
- 04 Jun 2002 - The Breaking of the Enigma Code - Letter to the National Post (2002)
- 23 May 2002 - SightLines - "Going home to Auschwitz" - thank you
- 03 Apr 2002 - SightLines - "Partisans, Koniuchy" - reply
- 27 Feb 2002 - SightLines - "Going home to Auschwitz"
2001
- 28 June 2001 - SightLines - "Going home to Auschwitz"
- 23 Jun 2001 - Review of Jan T. Gross's Neighbors - Letter to Books, The National Post (2001)
- 18 Jun 2001 - The National Post - "Neighbours: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland"
- 03 Apr 2001 - The Globe and Mail - "Poles and Jews"
- 24 Jan 2001 - The Globe and Mail - "Enigma"
2000
- 14 Dec 2000 - The Canadian Jewish News - "Survivor meets woman who saved his family"
- 24 Nov 2000 - The Toronto Star - "The terror that never goes away"
1999
- 29 Sep 1999 - The Globe and Mail - "Re: "Ottawa not after war criminals, B'nai Brith to tell rights panel,"
- 02 Sep 1999 - The Globe and Mail - Re: "Historian defeats death by focusing on town's life (Ejszyszki)"
- 04 Aug 1999 - Catholic Insight - "Auschwitz concentration camp"
- 31 May 1999 - New Statesman - "Yaffa Eliach's "history" of the town of Ejszyszki"
- 18-Jan 1999 - The Times - "Taliban's war on women vs Jews in pre-Holocaust Poland"
- 12 Jan 1999 - Sunday Times - "The possible extradition of Helena Brus"
1998
- 28 Dec 1998 - The Toronto Star - "Fugitives of the Forest"
- 22 Dec 1998 - The Economist - "Poland's unburied past"
- 21 Dec 1998 - The Rt. Honourable Jean Chretien Prime Minister of Canada - "Jesus snubbed"
- 18 Dec 1998 - Cardinal Newman - "The offensive material about Poland and its people"
- 08 Nov 1998 - National Post - "Long history of attacking and murdering gypsies"
- 16 Nov 1998 - The New York Times Book Review - "Yaffa Eliach's: There Once Was a World"
- 09 Nov 1998 - National Post - "Gypsy refugee claimants"
- 09 Nov 1998 - The Toronto Star - "Redeeming the Holocaust"
- 04 Nov 1998 - The Canadian Jewish News - "Rabbi Gunther Plaut implicates ..."
- 08 Oct 1998 - The Canadian Jewish News - "Sheldon Kirschner's review of the Luboml memorial book"
- 10 Sep 1998 - The Toronto Star - "The caption below a photograph of Steven Spielberg visiting Sachsenhausen"
- 13 Aug 1998 - TIME Magazine Letters - "The Worst Legacy of All"
- 22 Jul 1998 - The Globe and Mail - "Request for prominent correction"
- 06 Jul 1998 - Cineplex Odeon Corporation - "Polish Wedding"
- 06 Jul 1998 - The Catholic Register - "Polish Wedding"
- 01 Jul 1998 - The Globe and Mail - "Righteous Gentiles. Righteous Jews."
- 01 Jun 1998 - The Globe and Mail - "Owning the kingdom of death"
- 14 Apr 1998 - The Toronto Star - "Heaven and hell in this world"
1997
- 25 Nov 1997 - MacLean's Magazine Letters - "James Bacque's claim"
- 25 Nov 1997 - The Catholic Register - "The Catholic New Service report"