Deputy Foreign Minister Jan Dziedziczak and Vice-President of the European Parliament Ryszard Czarnecki are expected to attend the conference “What Was the Truth? German Camps, Polish Heroes”, which is organised by the Łukasiewicz Institute under the auspices of the President of the Republic of Poland. President of the Polish-German Parliamentary Group and MP Szymon Szynkowski aka Sęk, Senator Professor Jan Żaryn, President of the Polish Anti-Defamation League Maciej Świrski and Deputy President of the Institute of National Remembrance and co-founder of the Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jewish People During World War II Mateusz Szpytma have all confirmed their participation in the event. A discussion panel featuring these eminent guests will be organised as part of the project subsidised by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The session will be held on 15th November at 11 am in the Bronisław Geremek Room No. 14 (Building G, Sejm of the Republic of Poland). The highlight of the conference is a discussion panel featuring the eminent representatives of public institutions, museum curators, historians and members of organisations and NGOs committed to shaping Poland’s historical policy, The conference will begin with a presentation of the Łukasiewicz Institute project and its website www.jakbylonaprawde.instytutlukasiewicza.pl. The website brings stories and accounts of former prisoners of German death and concentration camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau, Gross-Rosen and Ravensbrück. All the stories are also available in English and German. Following the conference a digital package presenting the Polish perspective on the history of World War II will to be circulated among 300 different editorial teams in the US, Germany and the UK. The Łukasiewicz Institute is also preparing a publication in three different languages to be distributed in memorials and museums that are devoted to the history of World War II.
The project is aimed against mendacious language such as “Polish camps” that is perpetuated by the foreign media. In 2008–2014 alone, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to take measures against more than 600 uses of such terms. They cropped up in the media in 35 different countries. The project “What Was the Truth? German Camps, Polish Heroes” has been created in collaboration with the Institute of National Remembrance and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and State Museum. The partners of the project include the following institutions: Museum of Polish History, Museum of the Warsaw Uprising, Polish Historical Society, Karta Centre, Polish-German Parliamentary Group as well as Polish Post Poczta Polska and Polish Security Printing Works.
