The controversial Polish bill that would outlaw the use of the term "Polish death camps" and other terms that imply the Polish authorities took part in genocide has outraged Holocaust survivors in Israel.
Three survivors agreed to write open letters in Israel Hayom to Polish President Andrzej Duda, telling him he must not allow the legislation to pass because the truth must not be suppressed.
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From Shoshana Breyer of Jerusalem:
The murders would not have occurred in a country that likes Jews
Mr. President,
The bill that absolves Poland of any responsibility for the Holocaust is a historical injustice. Thousands of Poles carried out atrocities against the Jews during the Holocaust. This was because of anti-Semitism and pure evil.
My family and I had to hide in basements, and the situation was dire: We lived in subhuman conditions and were severely deprived of food. My brother was ill and had to stay at an orphanage, and even though the Nazis promised not to hurt orphans, he was sent to Auschwitz.
At some point, someone snitched on us and we were sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. We were supposed to be sent to Auschwitz but that night the Russians liberated it, so we were miraculously saved.
I am appealing to you, as a Holocaust survivor, asking that you prevent the passage of the bill. The bill is a travesty, and must not be passed. It represents the Poles' efforts to absolve themselves of any responsibility.
Hitler knew that the Poles would collaborate with him, and that is why the killing of Jews took place mostly on Polish land. This would not have happened in a place where Jews are liked. This truth should not be suppressed, for the sake of the next generations and historical justice.
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From Yaffa Pe'er of Rishon Lezion:
You should be ashamed
Mr. President,
The new legislation you are trying to pass aims to obscure the fact that the Poles were very cruel to the Jews. The Poles were directly and inextricably linked to the killing of Jews in the Holocaust. They handed their land to the Nazis so they could build the death camps, carried out pogroms against the Jews and massacred them even before they could be taken to the camps.
They willingly and gladly handed over Jews and helped take them out of their homes forcibly. The Poles were just like the Nazis, and were no less evil. It just boggles my mind that you can let such legislation take shape: The bill is tantamount to denying the Holocaust.
I was 16 when I was taken to the cursed Auschwitz concentration camp. I can still recall that day in vivid detail. I will never forget it. I remember how we were put into cattle trucks that had scarce water and food, along with buckets so that we could relieve ourselves.
I remember the frigid temperatures, the evil, the soil on which I lost my parents, two of my brothers and other relatives. I remember, and I have a number tattooed on my arm that reminds me of what I went through.
So Mr. President, you need to be ashamed of yourself. Your people were cruel and now you want to expunge the evil you carried out.
Even when the war ended and the Jews wanted to return home, you warned them that they would be killed if they did so. There is a history that should not be rewritten. We know this full well and we can attest to what you have done to us.
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From Yitzhak Belfer of Tel Aviv:
You are adding insult to injury
Mr. President,
Words cannot describe my outrage over the bill that absolves Poland of its responsibility for the atrocities of the Holocaust. Poland is most definitely implicated in the horrors that happened on its soil.
I am the only living survivor from Janusz Korczak's famous orphanage. I am the only one who can still cry with pain over the evil that the Polish government perpetrated against us even in the decades after the war, long after the Nazis left.
The orphanage was bought with the help of Jewish donors. It sheltered Jewish orphans for 30 years. A mezuzah was installed on its main entrance. It welcomed children ranging from the ages of 7 to 15; I spent all eight years there. For me, the place was paradise. It was my home. My only home in Poland.
In the 1930s, anti-Semitism in Poland grew by the day. Poland was becoming increasingly fascist and the pogroms intensified.
In 1939, after the Nazis stormed into Poland, I started fleeing to the Russian border with a friend from the orphanage.
We shed tears when we said goodbye to Korczak, the life-long educator who taught us to make our own choices and think for ourselves. He offered us advice and gave us some money to help us in our journey.
Poland's government did not make its voice heard, despite the atrocities being carried out on its soil. I believe it should be blamed more for what it failed to do than for what it did.
Korczak, the staff, and my 107 friends at the orphanage were all family to me. They perished. When I returned to Poland after the war to find out what had happened to them and locate their final resting places, people looked at us as if we were strangers. We were citizens of Poland, but the Polish government refused to help us.
My family is just a small drop among the 6 million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust, mostly in Poland. This pain never goes away. As if that pain and suffering were not enough, after the orphans were taken to the Warsaw Ghetto in 1940, the Poles took over the orphanage and put Polish-Christian orphans there.
In the 1980s, after we asked the Polish government to return the orphanage to Jewish ownership, it refused. Without any qualms, the government continues to use it as an orphanage for Polish children. Now it wants to add insult to injury by saying that Poland was not complicit in the Holocaust?
