WARSAW (EJP)--- The president of one of the most prominent teachers unions in Poland has publicly criticised Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s constant Holocaust denial and called on teachers around the world to back his organisation’s campaign against those who deny the Holocaust.

Skóawomir Broniarz, who heads the Education International member organisation, the Związek Nauczycielstwa Polskiego, branded Ahmadinejad’s statements “disgusting”, referring specifically to the December 2005 comment that "the Holocaust was a myth".

Appearing to express somewhat of a left wing stance, Broniaz condemned “the revisionism of history practiced by Iran’s government”.

“We are aware of the complex political situation in the Middle East, however questioning the legality of the existence of Israel by questioning the Holocaust is, in our opinion, disgusting,” he said.

Personal pain

The Polish teacher also wrote of his personal pain when looking back at the Holocaust, the murder of six million Jews during by the Nazis during WWII.

“For the Polish people, who witnessed the annihilation of Jewish nation, the Holocaust denial is totally unacceptable and very painful,” he wrote.

In his open statement, released on Holocaust Memorial Day January 27, Broniaz claimed that Poland “of all other countries, feel the most the effects of the Holocaust and its influence on the history of Europe and the World after 1945 the most.”

Poland was the first country to be conquered by the Germans, the trigger that prompted Britain to declare war in September 1939. During the six years of WWII Germany used Poland as a base for many of its concentration and death camps where Jews were killed, including the infamous Auschwitz camp.

While some Poles attempted to object to the Nazi techniques and policies of extermination, many locals were complicit in the Nazi discrimination and violence against the Jews and other groups including homosexuals.

In his statement, however, Broniaz chose to focus on the better side of the relationship between what he called “Poles and Jews”, which he admitted was not always simple.

“For hundreds of years Poles and Jews were living together and next to each other. Although our relationship wasn’t always easy, we had a feeling that we were building one, common country in which Polish and Jewish identity was not to be put in any danger.”

Praising the Jewish contribution to Polish history, he added: “Among millions of murdered Jews we lost members of family, friends, neighbors and common citizens, who made a huge contribution to the national development.”

Anti-Semitism remains

Poland is far from close to ridding itself of anti-Semitism, a hatred which many say never died following the end of WWII.

Just this week, Polish agriculture minister and deputy
prime minister Andrzej Lepper was accused of collaborating with anti-Semites when he accepted a professorship with the controversial International Academy of the Personnel Management (MAUP) in Kiev.

In October 2006 customs officers in Poland intercepted a parcel containing hundreds of neo-Nazi CDs on its way from the United States to Germany.

However, the ZNP leader appealed to Polish teachers and all teachers around the world “to condemn the denial of truth about the annihilation of Jewish people by teaching about the Holocaust.

“We believe that education is the way to prevent intolerance, racism and the annihilation of whole nations,” he concluded.