Latest news with #NaziCrimes
CTV News
11-07-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
Polish prosecutors investigate far-right lawmaker for comments on Auschwitz
WARSAW, Poland — Polish prosecutors launched a preliminary investigation after a far-right lawmaker described the gas chambers at the Auschwitz death camp as a 'fake.' Grzegorz Braun, a member of the European Parliament, has previously been accused of antisemitism, and extinguished Hanukkah candles in parliament with a fire extinguisher in 2023. He was a presidential candidate who won more than six per cent of the votes in the first round of the election earlier this year. Speaking to Poland's Wnet radio on Thursday, Braun said that 'ritual murder is a fact, and such a thing as Auschwitz with its gas chambers is unfortunately a fake,' news agency PAP reported. The reporter then ended the interview. Some Christians in medieval Europe believed that Jews murdered Christians to use their blood for ritual purposes, something which historians say has no basis in Jewish religious law or historical fact and instead reflected anti-Jewish hostility in Christian Europe. A spokesperson for the Warsaw district prosecutor's office, Piotr Antoni Skiba, said prosecutors were conducting a preliminary investigation into Braun's potential denial of Nazi crimes. The director of the Auschwitz museum, Piotr Cywinski, said he would file a separate complaint with prosecutors. He said that 'denying the fact that gas chambers existed is not only a manifestation of anti-Semitism and an ideology of hatred; in Poland it is also a crime.' Nazi German forces murdered some 1.1 million people at the Auschwitz site in southern Poland, which was under German occupation during World War II. Most of the victims were Jews killed on an industrial scale in gas chambers, but also Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, gay people and others. Prime Minister Donald Tusk described Braun's words as 'a disgrace.' He said that 'we must do everything so that no one in the world associates Poland with such people, such faces and such actions.' On Thursday, Braun was in the northeastern town of Jedwabne on the anniversary of a 1941 massacre in which Jews were burned alive by Polish neighbours during the Nazi occupation. He was among a group of people who tried to block the departure of cars carrying people who participated in a ceremony marking the anniversary, including Poland's chief rabbi, PAP reported. Police intervened and they were able to leave. Some Poles want the massacre site excavated to uncover possible evidence that Germans ordered Polish villagers to do the killings. Braun demanded the exhumation of the victims on Thursday. The Associated Press
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Polish prosecutors investigate far-right lawmaker for comments on Auschwitz
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish prosecutors launched a preliminary investigation after a far-right lawmaker described the gas chambers at the Auschwitz death camp as a 'fake." Grzegorz Braun, a member of the European Parliament, has previously been accused of antisemitism, and extinguished Hanukkah candles in parliament with a fire extinguisher in 2023. He was a presidential candidate who won more than 6% of the votes in the first round of the election earlier this year. Speaking to Poland's Wnet radio on Thursday, Braun said that 'ritual murder is a fact, and such a thing as Auschwitz with its gas chambers is unfortunately a fake,' news agency PAP reported. The reporter then ended the interview. Some Christians in medieval Europe believed that Jews murdered Christians to use their blood for ritual purposes, something which historians say has no basis in Jewish religious law or historical fact and instead reflected anti-Jewish hostility in Christian Europe. A spokesperson for the Warsaw district prosecutor's office, Piotr Antoni Skiba, said prosecutors were conducting a preliminary investigation into Braun's potential denial of Nazi crimes. The director of the Auschwitz museum, Piotr Cywinski, said he would file a separate complaint with prosecutors. He said that 'denying the fact that gas chambers existed is not only a manifestation of anti-Semitism and an ideology of hatred; in Poland it is also a crime.' Nazi German forces murdered some 1.1 million people at the Auschwitz site in southern Poland, which was under German occupation during World War II. Most of the victims were Jews killed on an industrial scale in gas chambers, but also Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, gay people and others. Prime Minister Donald Tusk described Braun's words as 'a disgrace.' He said that "we must do everything so that no one in the world associates Poland with such people, such faces and such actions.' On Thursday, Braun was in the northeastern town of Jedwabne on the anniversary of a 1941 massacre in which Jews were burned alive by Polish neighbors during the Nazi occupation. He was among a group of people who tried to block the departure of cars carrying people who participated in a ceremony marking the anniversary, including Poland's chief rabbi, PAP reported. Police intervened and they were able to leave. Some Poles want the massacre site excavated to uncover possible evidence that Germans ordered Polish villagers to do the killings. Braun demanded the exhumation of the victims on Thursday.
Associated Press
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Polish prosecutors investigate far-right lawmaker for comments on Auschwitz
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish prosecutors launched a preliminary investigation after a far-right lawmaker described the gas chambers at the Auschwitz death camp as a 'fake.' Grzegorz Braun, a member of the European Parliament, has previously been accused of antisemitism, and extinguished Hanukkah candles in parliament with a fire extinguisher in 2023. He was a presidential candidate who won more than 6% of the votes in the first round of the election earlier this year. Speaking to Poland's Wnet radio on Thursday, Braun said that 'ritual murder is a fact, and such a thing as Auschwitz with its gas chambers is unfortunately a fake,' news agency PAP reported. The reporter then ended the interview. Some Christians in medieval Europe believed that Jews murdered Christians to use their blood for ritual purposes, something which historians say has no basis in Jewish religious law or historical fact and instead reflected anti-Jewish hostility in Christian Europe. A spokesperson for the Warsaw district prosecutor's office, Piotr Antoni Skiba, said prosecutors were conducting a preliminary investigation into Braun's potential denial of Nazi crimes. The director of the Auschwitz museum, Piotr Cywinski, said he would file a separate complaint with prosecutors. He said that 'denying the fact that gas chambers existed is not only a manifestation of anti-Semitism and an ideology of hatred; in Poland it is also a crime.' Nazi German forces murdered some 1.1 million people at the Auschwitz site in southern Poland, which was under German occupation during World War II. Most of the victims were Jews killed on an industrial scale in gas chambers, but also Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, gay people and others. Prime Minister Donald Tusk described Braun's words as 'a disgrace.' He said that 'we must do everything so that no one in the world associates Poland with such people, such faces and such actions.' On Thursday, Braun was in the northeastern town of Jedwabne on the anniversary of a 1941 massacre in which Jews were burned alive by Polish neighbors during the Nazi occupation. He was among a group of people who tried to block the departure of cars carrying people who participated in a ceremony marking the anniversary, including Poland's chief rabbi, PAP reported. Police intervened and they were able to leave. Some Poles want the massacre site excavated to uncover possible evidence that Germans ordered Polish villagers to do the killings. Braun demanded the exhumation of the victims on Thursday.
Russia Today
09-05-2025
- Business
- Russia Today
German companies acknowledge responsibility for Nazi rise to power
Dozens of Germany's most prominent enterprises have acknowledged their responsibility for allowing Nazi tyrant Adolf Hitler to rise to power. In a letter published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the corporations, including Siemens, Uniper, and Volkswagen, have admitted that their forebearers' greed and silence contributed to Nazi crimes. 'The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 would have been unthinkable without the failure of the decision-makers of the time in politics, the military, the judiciary, and the economy,' the collective statement marking the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII in Europe said. Many German companies 'contributed to consolidating the Nazi rule' and were 'complicit' in the Third Reich's crimes as they were solely driven by the desire to make profit, the document added. The list of signatories included a total of 49 brands, including Adidas, Bayer, and BMW, as well as several major German banks, Deutsche Bahn, and Lufthansa. The companies stopped short of taking direct responsibility for the crimes of their predecessors and said instead that they 'assume responsibility for making the memory of the crimes of the Nazi era visible.' 'In 1933 and beyond, too many remained silent, looked away,' the companies said, adding that this past silence 'imposes responsibility… for the past, the present and the future' upon them. The companies vowed to 'stand against hatred, against exclusion, and against anti-Semitism' and called for the 'achievements' made by the EU after the end of the Cold War to be protected. The murky Nazi-era history of the biggest German corporations and families that largely control them has repeatedly appeared in the media. In 2022, former Bloomberg journalist David de Jong released a book titled 'Nazi Billionaires', which detailed the ties of companies such as Porsche, Volkswagen, and BMW to the Third Reich. According to the book, Germany's biggest automakers are still controlled by families that profited from Nazi rule. Some of their holdings include American brands ranging from Panera Bread to Krispy Kreme, in addition to luxury hotels across Europe. 'Businesses and many families in Germany were never really de-Nazified,' de Jong said at the time, adding that companies are only transparent when they are no longer controlled by the families of former Nazi collaborators.
Russia Today
08-05-2025
- Business
- Russia Today
German companies assume responsibility for Nazi rise to power
Dozens of Germany's most prominent enterprises have assumed responsibility for allowing Nazi tyrant Adolf Hitler to rise to power. In a letter published in the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the corporations, including Siemens, Uniper and Volkswagen, have admitted that their forebearers' greed and silence contributed to Nazi crimes. 'The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 would have been unthinkable without the failure of the decision-makers of the time in politics, the military, the judiciary, and the economy,' said the collective statement marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the WWII in Europe. Many German companies 'contributed to consolidating the Nazi rule' and were 'complicit' in the Third Reich's crimes as they were solely driven by the desire to make profit, the document added. The list of signatories included a total of 49 brands, including Adidas, Bayer and BMW, as well as several major German banks, the national railway operator Deutsche Bahn, and the Lufthansa airlines. The companies stopped short of taking direct responsibility for the crimes of their predecessors and said instead that they 'assume responsibility for making the memory of the crimes of the Nazi era visible.' 'In 1933 and beyond, too many remained silent, looked away,' the companies said, adding that this past silence 'imposes responsibility… for the past, the present and the future' upon them. The enterprises then vowed to 'stand against hatred, against exclusion, and against anti-Semitism' and called for the 'achievements' made by the EU after the end of the Cold War to be protected. The murky Nazi-era history of the biggest German corporations and families that largely control them has repeatedly appeared in the media. Back in 2022, former Bloomberg journalist David de Jong released a book titled 'Nazi Billionaires', which detailed the ties of companies such as Porsche, Volkswagen, and BMW to the Third Reich. According to the book, Germany's biggest automakers are still controlled by families that profited from Nazi rule. Some of their holdings include American brands ranging from Panera Bread to Krispy Kreme, in addition to luxury hotels across Europe. 'Businesses and many families in Germany were never really de-Nazified,' de Jong said at the time, adding that companies are only transparent when they are no longer controlled by family of former Nazi collaborators.
