Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

World

Auschwitz museum launches ‘Polish death camps’ text corrector

-

The Auschwitz museum on Tuesday launched a multi-lingual computer application that writers can use to avoid the mistake of referring to Nazi German death camps as being "Polish".

Warsaw routinely requests corrections when global media or politicians describe as "Polish" former death camps like Auschwitz set up by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II.

The move comes after Poland's new right-wing government proposed jail terms of up to five years for anyone who refers to Nazi death camps as Polish.

Even if used as a geographical indicator, Poles insist the term can give the impression that they bore some responsibility for the Holocaust.

US President Barack Obama used the term in 2012 and later expressed "regret".

Dubbed "Remember", the application is intended "to help avoid the use of the term 'Polish concentration camps' or 'Polish death camps' in 16 languages," according to a statement issued by the Auschwitz state museum in Oswiecim, southern Poland on Tuesday.

Poland was attacked and occupied by Nazi Germany in World War II and was among the hardest hit by the conflict, losing six million of its citizens between 1939 and 1945, including three million Jews in the Holocaust.

The application works as an add-on to Microsoft Word and Apple text editors and is available at: https://correctmistakes.auschwitz.org/

The Auschwitz museum on Tuesday launched a multi-lingual computer application that writers can use to avoid the mistake of referring to Nazi German death camps as being “Polish”.

Warsaw routinely requests corrections when global media or politicians describe as “Polish” former death camps like Auschwitz set up by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II.

The move comes after Poland’s new right-wing government proposed jail terms of up to five years for anyone who refers to Nazi death camps as Polish.

Even if used as a geographical indicator, Poles insist the term can give the impression that they bore some responsibility for the Holocaust.

US President Barack Obama used the term in 2012 and later expressed “regret”.

Dubbed “Remember”, the application is intended “to help avoid the use of the term ‘Polish concentration camps’ or ‘Polish death camps’ in 16 languages,” according to a statement issued by the Auschwitz state museum in Oswiecim, southern Poland on Tuesday.

Poland was attacked and occupied by Nazi Germany in World War II and was among the hardest hit by the conflict, losing six million of its citizens between 1939 and 1945, including three million Jews in the Holocaust.

The application works as an add-on to Microsoft Word and Apple text editors and is available at:

AFP
Written By

With 2,400 staff representing 100 different nationalities, AFP covers the world as a leading global news agency. AFP provides fast, comprehensive and verified coverage of the issues affecting our daily lives.

You may also like:

World

Calling for urgent action is the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Business

The cathedral is on track to reopen on December 8 - Copyright AFP Ludovic MARINParis’s Notre-Dame Cathedral, ravaged by fire in 2019, is on...

Business

Saudi Aramco President & CEO Amin Nasser speaks during the CERAWeek oil summit in Houston, Texas - Copyright AFP Mark FelixPointing to the still...

Business

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal infers that some workers might be falling out of the job market altogether.