False charges

Toronto -- The exchanges about Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's visit to Auschwitz contained false charges about Poles and Poland.

The role of the Polish police during the German occupation has been exaggerated. Their function was essentially keeping order. Raul Hilberg, a prominent Holocaust historian, makes the point that they did not join the Germans in major operations against Jews or local resisters.

The claim that Jews did not betray Poles to the Nazis is not true. There were Jews in Poland who betrayed other Jews and members of the Polish resistance. Many a Polish rescuer was also betrayed by their Jewish charges.

Hanna Sokolski, Canadian Polish Congress, Toronto District

Our opinion

 IT IS astonishing that Canada's staid national newspaper should publish such an outspoken letter.