Remarks by Ambassador Piotr Wilczek during the 2018 Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations at the United States Department of State
Dear Honorable Guests, Mr. Zygmunt Rolat, Special Envoy Thomas Yazdgerdi, representatives of the State Department and Israeli Embassy, members of the diplomatic corps, ladies and gentlemen,
It is my great honor to be here this morning as we gather to celebrate Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day. Thank you very much for inviting our Embassy to be a part of this event, and I would like to personally thank Ambassador Dermer and his staff for their cooperation in the months preceding today’s commemoration.
I would also like to especially welcome our honored guest this morning, Mr. Zygmunt Rolat, a survivor of the Holocaust and a close personal friend of Irena Sendler, whom we will have an opportunity to hear from this afternoon. Mr. Rolat is a force for so much good and we are so fortunate that he has joined us today.
On this important day we pause and pay tribute to the victims of the Holocaust. They were members of our families, of our communities. Whether they be nameless or well known, they are all remembered, and their absence is felt to this day. No words can fully express the tragedy of the Holocaust, but two words can encapsulate our mission: Never Forget.
Since the time when the Second World War was still raging until today: Poland has been a leader in informing the world about Nazi Germany’s systematic extermination of European Jewry, preserving this history and ensuring that it is never misinterpreted or forgotten.
Poland is a custodian of many sites dedicated to the tragic history of the Holocaust, including former German Nazi Camps which today serve as museums and memorials to victims of German atrocities. Poland, together with the international community, has a solemn obligation to care for these sites as lasting tributes to the evils of the Holocaust. This we owe to the victims and to future generations.
Ladies and gentlemen, today’s gathering also presents an opportunity to recognize a unique group of individuals: Diplomats and Righteous Among the Nations who risked their lives to save Jews.
As Poland’s Ambassador I would like to say just a few more words on the Polish part of this exhibit. Although Poland was occupied from the early days of the war, the Polish Underground State and Government in Exile continued not only resisting the enemy on every front, but also informing our allies about what was unfolding on occupied Polish territory.
The Polish government in exile maintained its embassies and diplomatic missions throughout the free world including in Bern, Switzerland where the Polish diplomatic and consular staff were involved in a counterfeit operation that delivered hundreds of South American passports to Jews in occupied Poland.
Poland also maintained its Embassy here, on 16th Street in Washington, DC, which was the site of a historic meeting between Jan Karski and Chief Justice Felix Frankfurter. Jan Karski, whom we consider Humanity’s Hero and was a citizen of Poland, Israel and the United States, would go on to become professor at Georgetown University where he would teach generations of American diplomats, including I’m sure some of you in attendance today. I’m so thrilled that in a few short days the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum will open a new exhibit dedicated to Jan Karski and his mission to inform the world about the Holocaust. One of the unique objects they will display is this: Karski’s Polish Diplomatic Passport. I thought it was fitting to bring a copy of it to today’s exhibit dedicated to diplomats.
In closing I would like to quote Zvi Zimmerman, an Israeli Ambassador and Member of the Knesset who stated, ”Let us teach our children and everyone on this earth that there are good people such as Henryk Sławik, that there is a more beautiful world and a better future awaits us.”
Henryk Sławik, Jan Karski, the Polish diplomats in Bern and all those whose stories are on display here this morning should be much better known around the world. These stories display that the opposite of good is not evil, but indifference and inaction. Through their action these heroes, and they are heroes, helped save lives, and as Ambassador Zimmerman stated, made the world more beautiful.
I would just like to say a word about the yellow daffodils which we have here. These were the favorite flowers of Marek Edelman, a famous Polish cardiologist and veteran of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Nowadays hundreds of thousands of daffodils, both real and paper ones, are distributed each year in Warsaw and across Poland to commemorate the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. They are a reminder of those tragic events and a symbol of Polish-Jewish remembrance.
Thank you once again for the opportunity to take part in this event. I am so humbled that this year in particular, as we mark the centennial of Poland’s rebirth and the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel, we can come together as friends to pay tribute to the victims of the Shoah and recommit our efforts in saying Never Again.
Our Embassy was invited to co-organize together with the Embassy of Israel and the State Department the annual Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day Commemorations which take place on April 11 at the State Department.
The event was dedicated to Irena Sendler, Polish Righteous Among the Nations who saved hundreds of Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto. The key note speaker was Mr. Zygmunt Rolat, a survivor of the Holocaust and personal friend of Irena Sendler. The commemorations included the screening of the documentary film “The Irena Sendler Story” as well as the opening of two exhibits, “Never Let Down the Trust: Poland’s Diplomatic Effort to Save Jews During the Holocaust” and “Beyond Duty: Diplomats Recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.”
