WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s president said Tuesday that he won’t attend a commemoration in Israel to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp because he is not allowed to speak at the forum, in contrast to the presidents of Russia and Germany.
President Andrzej Duda is not on the list of speakers for the Jan. 23 World Holocaust Forum at Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial.
Duda has voiced concerns about recent remarks from Russian President Vladimir Putin that imply that Poland was partly responsible for World War II.
The war officially started in Sept. 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Soon after, the Soviet Union annexed parts of eastern Poland as part of a non-aggression pact signed with Nazi Germany.
