WWII history vs. USHMM representations – omissions and falsifications of events in occupied Poland

Coalition of Polish Americans supports the following letter to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:

Prof. Wendy Lowler, Clairmont College, Chair, Academic Committee, USHMM Mandel Center
Prof. David Engel, New York University, Committee Member
Prof. Dorota Glowacka, University of Kings College, CA, Committee Member

Greetings,

We are contacting several members of the Academic Committee regarding historical inaccuracies and ethnocentric lapses contained in the USHMM historiography of WWII history as “the Holocaust” without the war and crimes against the Polish nation as context.

All 3 relate to occupied Poland and war crimes against the Polish nation. As an American tax payer, and a Polish American scholar, I raised the issue with language and shared my concern with Dr. Adam Cyra at the Auschwitz Museum, who brought the Olkusz Massacre error to our attention.

1. Polish language option (https://www.ushmm.org click on “Language”) – USHMM main web page. We see a platitute of options, from Korean to Farsi, but no Polish. Since occupied Poland was the epicenter of German and Soviet war crimes – the lack is an “ideologically” based cold war manipulation. Whatever the motivation, the omission should be fixed immediately.

2. Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos (https://www.ushmm.org/research/publications/encyclopedia-camps-ghettos) – 14 June 1940 KL Auschwitz 1st day. This is an egregious omission, the opening day of KL Auschwitz as a camp for Polish “political” prisoners with the transport of 728 prisoners from Tarnów (see Danuta Czech, Auschwitz Chronicles).

3. Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos Olkusz – Bloody Wednesday 14 July 1940 via Dr. Adam Cyra correspondence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Wednesday_of_Olkusz – correct account per Dr. Cyra.