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NEWS from THE POLISH AMERICAN CONGRESS
DOWNSTATE NEW YORK DIVISION
177 Kent St., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11222 – (718) 349-9689
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 9, 2012
New York, N.Y. (4/09) .. The New York Times today
reported on the poem Germany’s Gunter Grass wrote
critical of Israel’s foreign policy in the Middle East.
In attempting to describe the theme of Grass’ 1959
Novel, “The Tin Drum,” a misrepresentation of
Poland’s history was offered. The Downstate N.Y.
Division of the Polish American Congress issued the
following statement to the New York Times:
Dear Editor:
Writing about the outrage Gunter Grass’ poem
ignited in Israel, reporters Bronner and Kulish
described the novel, “The Tin Drum” Grass
wrote in 1959 as an “exploration of the rise of
Nazism in Germany and Poland.”
Polish Americans are justified in expressing their
outrage that Poland, the first victim of Nazism,
should now be portrayed as co-responsible
with Germany for Nazism.
Shortly after Hitler came to power in 1933,
Poland’s Marshal Pilsudski proposed that the
French join him in a preventive war against
Germany and eliminate Nazism at its inception.
Paris turned down the idea.
Germany later tried to persuade the Poles to join
the Axis and side with the Nazis against the Soviet
Union. The Poles would not.
At the time other European nations were appeasing
Hitler, the Poles stood firm and became the “First
To Fight” the Nazis in World War II.
Rise of Nazism in Poland? Hardly.
Frank Milewski, Pres.
Polish American Congress
Downstate N.Y. Division
(516) 352-7125
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