WARSAW (EJP)—Auschwitz did not promote Poland as an “attractive tourist destination,” the president of Poland’s national tourist office told the Gazeta Wyborcza daily newspaper.
Following his remarks, Marek Olszewski was fired by Polish Minister of Tourism Witold Banka who described them as “scandalous.”
In an article in the newspaper, Olszewski was quoted as saying: “As the head of the Polish Tourist Organization, who loves his country, I want to show its best side, through our monuments, culture, hospitality, wonderful music.
“Auschwitz is not a tourist product but a place of martyrology, reverie and reflection, and we are promoting Poland as an attractive tourist destination.’’
“I do not need to expose places and events connected with the history of other nations.”
He added: “It was Poles, not the Jewish elites, that were completely plowed and liquidated during the war. Let us remember that the whole Jewish culture in practice has survived.”
Olszewski also removed a trip to the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.