The U.S. ambassador to Poland Stephen Mull has apologized for remarks made by FBI Director James Comey, who penned 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 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, “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 ImagesBurned-out tank, Warsaw, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesAdolf Hitler (right) prepares to fly to the Polish front, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesPost-invasion Poland, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesUnfinished Polish bombers, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesNear Sochaczew during the German invasion of Poland, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesPolish soldiers captured by Germans during the invasion of Poland, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesPolish soldiers and a Red Cross nurse captured during the invasion of Poland, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaptured Polish soldiers, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGerman troops prepare for victory parade after the invasion of Poland, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGerman 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 ImagesAdolf Hitler views victory parade in Warsaw after the German invasion of Poland, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesRight 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 ImagesHead 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 ImagesWarsaw citizens buried their dead in parks and streets after the invasion of Poland, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesWarsaw citizens buried their dead in parks and streets after the invasion of Poland, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesStreet scene following the German invasion of Poland, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGerman nationals prepare for repatriation during the invasion of Poland, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesPolish farmers and peasants flee German military during invasion of their country, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesPolish women clean captured Polish guns in Modlin Fortress, north of Warsaw, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesJewish women and children in Gostynin, Poland, after the German invasion, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesPolish refugees, Warsaw, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesWarsaw, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesNear Modlin Fortress, Poland, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesNear Modlin Fortress, Poland, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesScene in post-invasion Poland, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesPoles stand beneath monument to Polish patriot, Jan Kiliński, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesNear Sochaczew during the German invasion of Poland, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesNear Danzig after the German conquest of Poland, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesFlea market in post-invasion Warsaw Ghetto, 1940.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesNear Warsaw, fall 1939; sign points to the battle front.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
