WH: Obama sent letter to Poland over "death camp" gaffe

President Obama.

/ Getty Images/Olivier Douliery

(CBS News) After inadvertently offending Poland in remarks during the Medal of Freedom ceremony this week, President Obama sent a letter to Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski regarding the incident - although according to the White House, that letter did not contain an apology.

White House spokesperson Josh Earnest confirmed to reporters Friday that the president sent the letter to his Polish counterpart, and said the language was "in line with" the White House's prior public statements on the matter. The president did not explicitly apologize, however, Earnest said.

"In referring to 'a Polish death camp' rather than 'a Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland,' I inadvertently used a phrase that has caused many Poles anguish over the years and that Poland has rightly campaigned to eliminate from public discourse around the world," Obama wrote, according to the Associated Press. "I regret the error and agree that this moment is an opportunity to ensure that this and future generations know the truth."

The back-and-forth began on Tuesday, when President Obama awarded a posthumous Medal of Freedom to Jan Karski, a Polish resistance fighter during World War II. In his remarks honoring Karski, who died in 2000, Mr. Obama described an incident in which Karski was smuggled "into the Warsaw Ghetto and a Polish death camp" to witness atrocities taking place there. Karski subsequently reported what he saw to Franklin Roosevelt, in what Mr. Obama called "one of the first accounts of the Holocaust."

Mr. Obama's characterization of the incident drew immediate criticism from Polish officials, who argued that he should have referred to the camp as a "German death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland," rather than a "Polish death camp."

The White House subsequently said the president had misspoken and expressed its regrets, but Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he remained unsatisfied with the response, and suggested the administration offer a more "explicit reaction."

So far, the White House has declined to issue a formal apology.

"As we've made clear, we regret the misstatement," White House spokesperson Jay Carney told reporters Wednesday, highlighting that the error was made during the president's explicit efforts to honor Polish losses during World War II.

[fiddlestickawshucks]

nolalu:


Please refer to my previous comment.

[truthorfreedom]

After the US helped to defeat Hitler's German army they had an agreement with England and Russia to give back the previously occupied countries Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland back to Russia
It could be compared to going from the frying pan to the fire for those 4 countries, and the US could have done something about it.
For example...
Syria is an issue now because the media is providing information; think of what would it be like now without the media's interaction and insight to the civil rights violations and add 50 years on top of it.
President Obama and any of the world's leaders should not just focus on the holocaust that Germany provided but all invading countries atrocities during conflicts and occupations.

[Monalisastyle]

Why is it that you are writing all this mean spirited negative commentary? Why can't it have been a simple mistake? I understand it, yet, I am neither an American born citizen or a Polish person. Come on people, please, don't make this bigger just because the Ego wants to get involved with the need to spread hate & anger & pride. We are all one in the same! It takes effort on all our parts to come together to keep the peace but JUST 1 person to shine the spotlight and focus on the ORDER in which a sentence was said, to create problems where there needn't be any.
Why not just allow him to clarify himself and let it go? An apology is only necessary when it was done intentionally to create the mess, and because it wasn't, he clarified his intent and rephrased it in writing by acknowledging the misunderstanding/miscommunication. How many people are we supposed to answer to, just because the glass was seen as 'half empty' by some, 'half full' by others, when-in actuality, it's just a glass in which we see a reflection of our own mindset?
Don't we already have so many innocent people suffering because of politics and egotistical self righteous individuals that, in the numurious perspectives available, chose this act of kindness in acknowledging the man for the role he played, certain individuals (including and especially: the media), decide that this is the very spin needed in this situation. Nothing good or productive comes from this. Hasn't humanity suffered enough? What about all those poor soldiers out there fighting wars between countries for sad, sad, reasons? And then, win or lose, each one of those individuals live with the acts of war that had to be performed, the memeries that consume their lives, and the consequences of which is PTSD, Financial Hardships/recessions world wide, violent households, ....etc.
Why? Why can't we focus on how far we have come in creating a better society by NOT differentiating and focusing on differences, and instead, look at all that is so much better because we saw the potential in man kind by being civilized societies and treating others the way we would like to see the world be?
...-because GOD, Which ever name you call HIM/HER, would want us to live peacefully by each one of us, individually, taking it upon ourselves, to be God-like in our words and gestures.
Too many people are hurting, too many wars, murders, rapes, child abuse/neglect, hunger, homelessness, mental anguish, personality disorders, phobias, drugs..., and the list goes on and on.
Please, think: What would God do (whom ever you chose your God to be)?

[SoCal_Gridlock]

Next Obama should write a letter of apology to all of the corpse men.

[DOGGYPANTS]

The Nazis considered Slavs to be a severely contaminated race, including: Bosniaks, Croats, Czechs, Poles, and Russians, Serbs, Ukrainians who were classified as "subhumans".[

[talkin2u924]

I am still stunned at this whole thing. I know what Obama meant. He was referring to location and anyone who can't see what was meant is being silly. I can't believe there are those who are so thinned skinned as they can't understand what he meant. I am sure it was a minor minor glitch. This is being blown way way out of proportion.

[democracy8]

I agree wholeheartedly. Tempest in a teapot.

[DOGGYPANTS]

If a white person had made an analogous statement like, Blacks were at fault for being Slaves on Southern Plantations, then, every leftist network would be advertising the story, and activists would roam the country with bullhorns screaming their outrage.

But Poles don't count as being humans. Obama's statement "Nazi Death Camps" is meant to absolve the German People of blame. Obama's statements continue to be racist, and are of the type that Nazi's used in WW2.

No one of Slavic ancestory should support a man who makes racist anti-Slavic statements.

There are few Poles in the Obama Administration. Obama would rather hire flunkies than qualified people.

Obama has no understanding of World History. Obama is a leftist zealot, so narrow in his education, that he can not think out of his little pea-brained Critical Theory box.

Obama needs to release his SAT/ACT scores, and his college grades.

The Obama Administration is anti-Polish, and

[cbunite]

Dude if Obama were anti-Polish, then would he award a Polish man the Medal of Freedom?

[Jaylah54100]

Truth is, Tusk isn't going to be satisfied by anything President Obama may or may not do regarding this event. He was just splitting hairs to begin with.

It's kind of like the birthers who keep yammering on about the birth certificate, even when it's been publicly shown (both "long form" and "short form") and the head of Public Records in Hawaii has attested to its accuracy, etc., etc., etc.

With some folks, you just can't win, so why continue to play their game?

Besides, we all know that the Obama haters here posting their "he should apologize, he's such a loser" garbage here would immediately take the other tack and complain about how he's always apologizing if he did.

[relecuyer]

I had the very good fortune of having Jan Karski as my faculty advisor and thesis mentor when I was enrolled in Georgetown University Graduate School. He was a mild, unassuming man, although fiercely anti-Communist. He never spoke about his experiences in the Polish Underground that I recall. He was well liked by Georgetown students during his several decades as a Georgetown professor.

He would probably be embarrassed by the honor he received, particularly so with the international political furor the presentation has aroused. relecuyer, Fairbanks, Alaska

[slownewsday_6000]

by jimmyc1955 June 1, 2012 3:27 PM EDT
nolalou2 - Wow - when all else fails and you can't think of a way to explain the latest demonstration of Obama's ignorance and arrogance - you bring out the GWB straw man to take a few whacks at. It might make you feel better - but it is totally unimportant.

---

HAHAHAHA!!! What makes Obama awful is the fact that he continues GWB's failed policies:

What differences do you see between GWB and Obama?

Continuation of Gitmo
Continuation of the unConstitutional "Patriot Act"
Continuation of the first-ever borrowing for war funding from FOREIGN sources
Continuation of the first-ever tax breaks introduced during a time of war

The list just keeps going on and on. They might as well be twins.