--- description: The U.S. ambassador to Poland, Stephen Mull, has apologized for remarks made by FBI director James Comey on Poland's role in the Holocaust title: U.S. Apologizes to Poles Over FBI Chief's' Holocaust Article image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1fb6f51b2731cf07/6987ebca428a9e0a43ccafc6/h_51895187.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # U.S. Ambassador Apologizes to Poles Over FBI Director's Holocaust Remarks by [Sabrina Toppa](/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 20, 2015 4:31 AM CUT  The U.S. ambassador to Poland, Stephen Mull, right, lays flowers at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw on April, 19, 2015 The U.S. ambassador to Poland, Stephen Mull, right, lays flowers at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw on April, 19, 2015Jakub Kaminski—EPA by [Sabrina Toppa](/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 20, 2015 4:31 AM CUT The U.S. ambassador to Poland Stephen Mull has apologized for remarks made by FBI Director James Comey, who [penned](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-scariest-lesson-of-the-holocaust/2015/04/16/ffa8e23c-e468-11e4-905f-cc896d379a32%5Fstory.html "undefined") a Washington _Post_ op-ed last Thursday in which he accused Poland of being a collaborator in the Holocaust. Mull, who had been summoned by Polish authorities, conceded that Comey’s remarks were “wrong, harmful and offensive.” During Nazi Germany’s occupation of Poland in World War II, more than 6 million Poles died in addition to millions of Jews, Roma and other groups who died in several extermination camps in the country. In his article, which was based on a speech he delivered at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Comey referred to Polish “murderers and accomplices” and claimed that “in their minds” they “didn’t do something evil.” The Polish embassy in Washington, D.C., published a [statement](http://www.waszyngton.msz.gov.pl/en/news/poland%5Fs%5Fambassador%5Fintervenes%5Fafter%5Fa%5Fstatement%5Fmade%5Fby%5Fthe%5Fdirector%5Fof%5Fthe%5Ffederal%5Fbureau%5Fof%5Finvestigation%5F "undefined") over the weekend castigating Comey’s article “especially for accusing Poles of perpetrating crimes which not only did they not commit, but which they themselves were victims of.” On Sunday, Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz [said](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/02358b02fe6e404b8c24a9cbd66a9ad0/poland-summons-us-envoy-over-fbi-heads-holocaust-comments "undefined"), “To those who are incapable of presenting the historic truth in an honest way, I want to say that Poland was not a perpetrator but a victim of World War II.” ### World War II Erupts: Color Photos From the Invasion of Poland, 1939  Refugees near Warsaw during the 1939 German invasion of Poland. (Sign reads, 'Danger Zone -- Do Not Proceed.') Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Burned-out tank, Warsaw, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Adolf Hitler (right) prepares to fly to the Polish front, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Post-invasion Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Unfinished Polish bombers, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Near Sochaczew during the German invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Polish soldiers captured by Germans during the invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Polish soldiers and a Red Cross nurse captured during the invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Captured Polish soldiers, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  German troops prepare for victory parade after the invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  German victory parade in Warsaw after the invasion of Poland, 1939\. (Hitler is on platform, arm raised in Nazi salute.) Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Adolf Hitler views victory parade in Warsaw after the German invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Right to left, front row: Adjutant Wilhelm Brueckner, Luftwaffe fighter ace Adolf Galland, Gen. Albert Kesselring and Gen. Johannes Blaskowitz view the victory parade in Warsaw after the German invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Head of the SS Heinrich Himmler (right), one of the chief architects of the Holocaust, speaks with an unidentified officer in Warsaw after German invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Warsaw citizens buried their dead in parks and streets after the invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Warsaw citizens buried their dead in parks and streets after the invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Street scene following the German invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  German nationals prepare for repatriation during the invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Polish farmers and peasants flee German military during invasion of their country, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Polish women clean captured Polish guns in Modlin Fortress, north of Warsaw, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Jewish women and children in Gostynin, Poland, after the German invasion, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Polish refugees, Warsaw, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Warsaw, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Near Modlin Fortress, Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Near Modlin Fortress, Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene in post-invasion Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Poles stand beneath monument to Polish patriot, Jan Kiliński, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Near Sochaczew during the German invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Near Danzig after the German conquest of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Flea market in post-invasion Warsaw Ghetto, 1940. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Near Warsaw, fall 1939; sign points to the battle front. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3827721/poland-fbi-holocaust-james-comey/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3827721/poland-fbi-holocaust-james-comey/"},"headline":"U.S. Ambassador Apologizes to Poles Over FBI Director's Holocaust Remarks","datePublished":"2015-04-20T04:31:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:49:39.514Z","description":"Envoy concedes that remarks were \"offensive\"","url":"https://time.com/3827721/poland-fbi-holocaust-james-comey/","keywords":["jews","Holocaust","diplomacy","Poland"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1fb6f51b2731cf07/6987ebca428a9e0a43ccafc6/h_51895187.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sabrina Toppa","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1fb6f51b2731cf07/6987ebca428a9e0a43ccafc6/h_51895187.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The 72nd anniversary of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising","caption":"The 72nd anniversary of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising","creditText":"Jakub Kaminski—EPA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3827721/poland-fbi-holocaust-james-comey/","name":"U.S. Ambassador Apologizes to Poles Over FBI Director's Holocaust Remarks"}}]}] ```