The Polish foreign minister summoned the Israeli ambassador Monday over a social media post by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial saying Poland was the first country where Jews were forced to wear a distinctive symbol during World War II.
The post Sunday by the museum marked the anniversary of the 1939 antisemitic order — but did not mention that Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany at the time, drawing an angry reaction from Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski.
Despite strong protests from Polish leaders, “the misleading publication has not been amended”, Sikorski wrote on X.
“I have decided to summon the ambassador of Israel to the foreign ministry,” he wrote in English.
The text does not state that Poland imposed the Star of David symbol on Jews, but there were multiple criticisms of the memorial for being inaccurate.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk even suggested that it was “perhaps not an error but a deliberate act”.
Polish foreign ministry spokesman Maciej Wewior also expressed concern about a deliberate act, given that “Yad Vashem plans to open a branch in Germany soon”.
“We sincerely hope that this false and historically inaccurate information has nothing to do with it,” he added, implying that Yad Vashem was trying to downplay the responsibility of Nazi Germany.
Also on X, the account of the Auschwitz Memorial — the concentration camp established by the Nazis in occupied Poland, where a million European Jews perished between 1940 and 1945 — recalled that “it was Germany that introduced and enforced this antisemitic law”.
In response, the head of Yad Vashem, Dani Dayan, wrote on X: “Poland was indeed under German occupation.
“This is clearly reflected in our material. Any other interpretation misreads our commitment to accuracy.”
The text posted on the social network stated that on “23 November 1939 Hans Frank, the governor of the Generalgouvernement issued an order requiring all Jews aged 10 and above must wear a white cloth armband 10 cm wide marked with a blue Star of David on their right arm”.
The “Generalgouvernement” was the Nazi administration in occupied Poland.
Frank, nicknamed “the butcher of Poland”, was sentenced to death at the Nuremberg Trials and executed by hanging in 1946.
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