On Thursday, a member of the Polish parliament, deeply offended by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ callous use of the Holocaust by referring to the immigration processing centers on the U.S. border as concentration camps, fired off a blistering letter essentially accusing her of being someone who “cheapens the history, or uses it for political point-scoring.”
Dominik Tarczynski, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, tweeted a copy of the letter, accompanied by a statement that read, “With this letter, I am formally inviting @AOC to come to Poland, where Adolf Hitler set up the worst chain of concentration camps the world has ever seen, so that she may see that scoring political points with enflamed rhetoric is unacceptable in our contemporary Western societies.”
The letter started with Tarczynski asserting, “I am also a great fan and friend of the United States of America.” He then immediately segued to noting his “distress in having learned of your recent statements regarding concentration camps.”
After delineating the monstrous brutality of the murderous Nazi regime as they slaughtered six million Poles, Jews and non-Jews, Tarczynski said of the concentration camps, “It has caused a deep wound that persists on our proud Polish and European history that we must all deal with every single day, and that we reaffirm to one another can never be forgotten, and never allowed to happen again. This is why when someone cheapens the history, or uses it for political point-scoring, we become agitated and upset.”
Tarczynski offered to host Ocasio-Cortez on a visit to the infamous death camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor and Majdanek, noting, “At these camps and others, over three million human souls were extinguished, and millions more detained and affected directly.”
The text of the letter reads:
Dear Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez,
My name is Dominik Tarczynski and I am a Member of Parliament in Poland where I serve as the Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. I am also a great fan and friend of the United States of America.
I write to you out of distress in having learned of your recent statements regarding concentration camps.
As you should be aware, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi) who led Germany, were responsible for the darkest period in my country’s and our whole continent’s history by devising a chain of concentration camps in order to exterminate those who they believed were subhuman, or a threat to their imperialistic machinations — this included both Jewish Poles and non-Jewish Poles and which resulted in the loss of six million of our citizens.
While under German Nazi occupation, a number of concentration camps were set up in my country, Poland. It has caused a deep wound that persists on our proud Polish and European history that we must all deal with every single day, and that we reaffirm to one another can never be forgotten, and never allowed to happen again.
This is why when someone cheapens the history, or uses it for political point-scoring, we become agitated and upset.
I understand that there are heightened tensions in your politics right now, but I would urge severe caution in attempting to leverage phrases such as “concentration camp” for political ends. It will lead nowhere good.
With this in mind, however, I wish to extend the olive branch of education to you, Congresswoman, and would be delighted if you would accept my offer to come to Poland and study the concentration camps here for real so that you can see first hand how different it is from your immigration processing centers on the U.S. border.
At your convenience, we could visit Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor and Majdanek.
At these camps and others, over three million human souls were extinguished, and millions more detained and affected directly.
I look forward to hearing back from you with the hope of setting up a trip to my country soon.
You speak often of partisanship, and I feel this is one area in particular where we can begin to live that ideal.