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While Denmark saved most of its Jews, Poland had a long history of anti Jewish pogroms and attitudes. It was easy for the Nazis to get their cooperation/acquiescence in the murder of large numbers of Jews. However, they should be called Nazi death camps in Poland, not Polish death camps.

EASY for them to get cooperation? The NAZIs wanted to kill the slavs just as much as they wanted to kill the Jews! The laws Poland suffered under at that time were worse than ANY OTHER NAZI-occupied country. Poland had just fought a war with Russia, and attempted to stop the Panzer tanks with HORSES. The rest of Europe just stood by and WATCHED.

There were MILLIONS of Poles slaughtered - Jewish and Non-Jewish alike. There are many thousands more who DID what they could to save who they could at risk of not only their death, but the deaths of their ENTIRE FAMILY whether they participated in hiding Jews or not. Thank you though, for understanding why what Obama said was wrong. There were collaborators in EVERY nation that were occupied by the NAZIs, and many who felt helpless to do anything. I would imagine the incentive of self- and family-preservation would be something that was VERY, VERY hard to push past. Also, please don't forget all of the Poles who helped hide Jewish families whose story will never be recognized or told as they were slaughtered - entire families gone without a trace - right alongside the Jewish families they tried to save. As for other Poles across the world back then - do you know how many signed up as soon as they knew we were finally "in the war"? In my husband's own family there were 3 old enough on his mother's side, and 4 old enough on his father's side. They stormed the beaches at Normandy, and fought all the way through Europe hoping to rescue their families and friends, only to see Poland fall into the hands of the Soviets, and then suffer through decades of Communist oppression.

When Obama says, "Polish Death Camps" not only is he offending Poland, he is offending every Polish-American, as well. The things told to me yesterday by Jewish people right here in the US who lost family members in the Holocaust make this quite clear as I was continually told I had no right to be offended at all (and that was the mildest statement). My family HAS members murdered by the NAZIs for hiding Jews, and their names are memorialized in Yad Vashem. For people to turn around and tell me or members of my family that we *didn't do enough* - members here in America, and family still in Poland at the time - to say I'm disgusted and deeply offended is putting it mildly.

Many people in Poland today believe that Obama’s statement (written and read) was deliberate to appeal to ignorant Americans like yourself and to the Poland hating Jews in America. I suspect they are right.