When I asked him two years ago, President Obama’s Ambassador to Poland, Lee Feinstein, said that as a government official he could not sign it. President Bush’s outgoing Ambassador to Poland, Victor Ashe signed it without any problem.
Since then, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press and other media outlets have changed their stylebooks to ban the use of this phrase. Yesterday, President Obama marred the ceremony presenting the President Medal of Freedom to World War II hero Jan Karski by saying that Karski went to a “Polish death camp.”
So far, the National Security Administration spokesman has issued a lukewarm statement saying that the President “misspoke.”
President Obama should truly acknowledge his mistake and sign the petition. Ambassador Feinstein should sign it as well.
Kosciuszko Foundation Petition on Death Camps
Alex Storozynski
President & Executive Director
The Kosciuszko Foundation
