The Poland First to Fight conference aims to remind the world that Poles were victims of Nazi German and Soviet occupation, and that Poland as a country suffered massive losses during World War II, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
The three-day conference, held by several Polish American and Polish expat organisations, will take place at the US capital’s National Press Club, a professional organisation and social community for journalists and communications professionals.
Conference participants are set to discuss topics such as the struggle of Polish soldiers on various fronts of World War II, the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact under which Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union carved up Poland between them, and the 1940 Katyn Massacre of almost 22,000 Polish officers and intellectuals by the Soviets.
Organisers say their purpose is to "dispel existing misconceptions and falsehoods" about Poland’s World War II history and to inform the public in the United States about the war while paying tribute to the victims, both ethnic Poles and Polish Jews.
According to the organisers, the conference is intended to be a response to growing "anti-Polonism" and attempts to distort Polish history.
The event runs until Wednesday.
Ahead of the conference, Prof. Mieczysław B. Biskupski, a professor at Central Connecticut State University, told Radio Poland in an interview that “Americans don’t know, or understand, or I’m sorry to say, care about Poland’s role in World War II; what they do know is all too frequently distorted.”
(gs/pk)
Source: IAR, ipoland.org