Press Releases 2004

USHMM, courtesy of Philip Vock

The United States and Poland signed an agreement on May 11 to preserve Jewish cultural sites remaining from the World War II Nazi occupation of Poland.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said the pact demonstrates that Poland is "a partner, a friend and an ally in all things." He said it is an important move toward preservation of the ancestral heritage of Jews who fled Poland during the Holocaust and became Americans.

Polish Ambassador Przemyslaw Grudzinski said, "My country sees it as an important task and moral obligation to preserve places connected to the Jewish long lasting presence. It is an effort to pay tribute to the victims of the Holocaust and save the legacy of this inherent part of the history of Poland." Some of the Nazis' most notorious death camps were in Poland.

The agreement was negotiated between the Polish government and the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad an agency that aims to identify historic sites around the world that relate to the heritage of American ethnic groups. So far, it has linked U.S. preservation efforts with 16 European nations since 1992.

Grudzinski said the United States and Poland already have worked together to raise money for an English-language translation of a history of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The U.S. also has worked with Poland to help acquire Jewish cemeteries in recent years, commission Chairman William Miller said.

More than 3 million Jews lived in Poland before World War II. Today, only a few thousand live there. After the war, Poland's communist government left religious sites to deteriorate and crumble, Miller said.

"The efforts of our governments, working together as partners with the private sector, are needed to ensure that the remnants of a great culture survive in a country from which a majority of American Jews trace their heritage," Miller said at a ceremony in the White House's Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

Text courtesy: Associated Press