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‘Pushed himself into a corner’: Polish speaker chides President Duda over Auschwitz event

The Polish leader said earlier that he had received an invitation but decided not to go, because the forum's organizers refused to allow him to speak alongside the representatives of Russia, Germany, France, the UK and the US

Polish President Andrzej Duda EPA-EFE/TOMASZ GZELL

Polish President Andrzej Duda

© EPA-EFE/TOMASZ GZELL

Warsaw, January 13. /TASS/. Polish President Andrzej Duda should have invited his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to the 75th anniversary event commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army, Poland's Speaker of the Senate Tomasz Grodzki said in an interview with the Rzeczpospolita newspaper published Monday, commenting on Duda’s refusal to travel to Jerusalem for the World Holocaust Forum.

According to Grodzki, "President Andrzej Duda has pushed himself into a corner, and now he has to choose between a rock and a hard place."

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"Whether he travels to this Israel or not — both options are bad," the speaker assumed. "If I were President Andrzej Duda, I would have invited President Putin to the Auschwitz events in Poland, and, if Putin didn’t come, then it would have been a whole different ballgame, and Duda would have had some line of defense," he pointed out.

The fifth World Holocaust Forum will take place on January 23 in Jerusalem. Some 30 leaders have been invited, including President Putin. The Polish leader said earlier that he had received an invitation but decided not to go, because despite all the efforts of Polish diplomacy, the organizers refused to allow him to speak alongside the representatives of Russia, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Auschwitz concentration camp’s liberation will take place on January 27. Earlier reports indicated that the occasion’s format does not involve formal invitations. The event is hosted by Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, which merely sends letters to various embassies, asking them to provide information on who will represent the nation in question at the commemorative event.

More than 1 million Jews, Soviet POWs, and members of the Polish intelligentsia were exterminated in the gas chambers or incinerated in the ovens of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. According to various data, a total of 1.5 to 2 million people of various nationalities, including 15,000 Soviet citizens perished in the notorious camp, which was liberated on January 27, 1945. More than 200 Soviet soldiers and officers laid down their lives during the struggle to liberate the camp and the neighboring town of Oswiecim (Auschwitz).

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