Detroit Free Press publishes correction & sends apology for its words on concentration camps

The phrase appeared in an article titled "Michigan Holocaust survivors\' stories told in new interactive online exhibit" on January 7th, 2013.  

The Polish Consulate General protested against the use of this false phrase and demanded a suitable apology. The following day, January 10th, 2013, the author of the article Mark Stryker sent a letter of apology to the Polish Consulate General in Chicago and to the editor-in-chief of Detroit Free Press. In the letter, Mark Stryker expressed his deep regret over the use of this expression and admitted that the phrase should never have been printed. He also assured that a correction was published in the printed paper the following day. Mark Stryker also revealed that the top editors of the paper were alerted to the discussion their mistake engendered and that a review of Detroit Free Press stylebook relating to this issue is underway.  

W present below the letter of Consul General Paulina Kapuścińska alerting Detroit Free Press about the erroneous phrase used as well as the response by the article\'s author Mark Stryker sent the following day. 

The article\'s author Mark Stryker was requested to deliver a copy of the correction published to the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Chicago, which he did the following day. 

The Polish Consulate General in Chicago was first alerted about the phrase used by Director of the Polish Mission in Orchard Lake, MI, Marcin Chumięcki who spotted the phrase in the local newspaper Detroit Free Press. Director Marcin Chumięcki also sent a separate letter of complaint to the newspaper on behalf of the Polish Mission in Orchard Lake, MI.

Consul General Paulina Kapuścińska\'s intervention with Detroit Free Press:

Chicago, January 9th, 2013

Paul Anger
Editor-in-chief
Detroit Free Press

Dear Mr. Anger,

I wish to draw your attention to the fact that your story “Michigan Holocaust survivors\' stories told in new interactive online exhibit” of January 7, 2013 of the printed edition contains a grave distortion of historical facts.

In the caption under the photograph of Holocaust Survivor Manny Mittelman and his wife, the author of the article Mark Stryker uses the hugely erroneous phrase “Polish concentration camp”. This unfortunate choice of words is—perhaps inadvertently—an obvious implication that the Nazi German Concentration Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in German-occupied Poland (according to the official UNESCO terminology) was allegedly Polish.

Readers without a thorough historical knowledge of World War II might thus conclude that the concentration camp was run by the Poles. I would appreciate your prompt response to whether or not this was the message you meant to communicate to the readers of Detroit Free Press?

Also, please allow me to explain--lest this might not be obvious to you--that Auschwitz is the German name for Oświęcim, a Polish town forcibly incorporated into the German Third Reich after the German invasion in September 1939. The entire Auschwitz death camps compound was established and operated by German Nazis. Occupied Poland was never an ally of Nazi Germany and never had a collaborative regime. Poland never capitulated as a state to the German Third Reich. What is more, six million Polish citizens were killed during World War II, half of whom were Polish-Jews.

For your information, the Associated Press updated its widely-used media stylebook, urging journalists not to use the term your newspaper used. What is more, the American Jewish Committee also officially condemned the usage of this expression.

I am confident that not only Michigan’s large population of Americans of Polish descent would be appalled to see Detroit Free Press not try its best to remedy the use of this unfortunate expression. Even though the erroneous phrase has already been removed from the online version of the article, it is my firm belief that it would be advantageous for the maintenance of your reputation to publish a suitable apology and correction without further delay in the next issue of Detroit Free Press and in all the other electronic media in which the article appeared.

Please be advised that this request is shared with our readers on the website of the Polish Consulate General in Chicago: www.chicago.mfa.gov.pl

Sincerely,
Paulina Kapuścińska
Consul General of the Republic of Poland in Chicago

Mr. Mark Stryker\'s response to the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Chicago:

January 10, 2013

Your thoughtful letter responding to the Detroit Free Press article about holocaust survivors in Michigan was forwarded to me. I am the writer of the story. The use of the phrase “Polish concentration camp” should never have been printed. We deeply regret the error and corrected it immediately in our online editions on the morning of publication and issued a correction in the printed paper the following day. We understand the factual argument underlying your letter and we understand the sensitivity surrounding this particular issue.

Further, please know this was not my mistake. It was an inadvertent error made by an editor during the process of publication. The story itself refers correctly to “a Nazi concentration camp.”  The top editors of the paper have been alerted to the discussion our mistake has engendered and a review our stylebook as it relates to this issue is underway.

Sincerely,
Mark Stryker
http://www.chicago.msz.gov.pl/en