The last surviving Christian Poles who helped Jews during the Holocaust appealed Monday to Polish and Israeli authorities to return to a path of "dialogue and reconciliation" amid a diplomatic crisis and a surge of anti-Semitism sparked by a new Polish law that criminalizes some forms of Holocaust speech.
The rescuers made their appeal in an open letter read by 89-year-old Anna Stupnicka-Bando to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki at a ceremony in Warsaw attended by five other surviving rescuers.
Addressed to the Polish and Israeli governments and parliaments, the letter was signed by 50 Poles who describe themselves as the last survivors of the more than 6,700 Poles recognized by Israel's Yad Vashem as "Righteous Among the Nations," gentiles who risked their own and their families' lives to hide Jews from the occupying German forces.
The remaining survivors were young during the war. Most of them were teenagers who assisted their parents in sheltering Jews.
In their letter, they wrote that they oppose divisions between Poles and Jews and seek a "future based on friendship, solidarity and truth."
Morawiecki paid tribute to them, saying they had "served humanity and Poland ... saving our common brothers during the times of the second apocalypse."
He also thanked them for seeking reconciliation "at this difficult time, when Poland is fighting for truth after many decades of negligence."
The law that raised tensions between Poland and Israel criminalizes falsely attributing the Holocaust crimes of Nazi Germany to Poland. The measure has angered Holocaust survivors and officials in Israel, where it is seen as an attempt to whitewash the actions of Poles who killed Jews during World War II.
Polish officials insist the law will not be used against anyone who speaks the truth, only those who try to defame Poland with lies.
Also Monday, Ronald Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, published an open letter in The New York Times in which he said the legislation "has created a firestorm of ill will," and urged Polish officials to resume dialogue with Jewish representatives.
"This entire controversy must now be dialed back, and I would like to see Polish and Jewish leaders sit down now and get back to the business of reconciliation and progress," Lauder wrote.
Meanwhile, Poland's ambassador to Israel, Jacek Chodorowicz, promised Monday that the law would not be implemented until representatives of Poland and Israel hold in-depth talks about the controversial measure.
Chodorowicz said in a meeting of the Knesset Absorption Committee that "the Justice Ministry in Poland has committed to not enforcing the new law until all aspects of it have been examined, including a discussion with representatives of Israel."
However, Chodorowicz refused to say whether the law had officially been frozen, as some officials claimed earlier this week.
The Knesset members present at the meeting blasted the Polish law, saying that neither the Knesset nor the State of Israel would ever agree to allow history to be rewritten.
