Poland summons Israeli envoy over Yad Vashem social media post

WARSAW, Poland — Poland summoned Israel’s ambassador on Monday over a post on X by the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial institute that Warsaw claimed did not make clear that Jews were made to wear star badges during World War II by occupying Nazi German forces, and not by Polish authorities.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski was protesting against a social media post published Sunday in which Yad Vashem appeared to refer to Poland as the leader in taking certain discriminatory steps against Jews leading up to the Holocaust.

“Poland was the first country where Jews were forced to wear a distinctive badge in order to isolate them from the surrounding population,” the post said, linking to an article on the topic. “[On this day] 23 November 1939 Hans Frank, the governor of the Generalgouvernement issued an order that all Jews aged 10 and above must wear a white cloth armband 10 cm wide marked with a blue Star of David on their right arm.”

After receiving critical replies, including from the Auschwitz Memorial, Yad Vashem reshared the post, writing: “As noted by many users and specified explicitly in the linked article, it was done by order of the German authorities.”

But Sikorski replied that the original post should be made clear that Poland was “German-occupied” at the time.

On Monday, Sikorski replied: “Since the misleading post has not been amended, I have decided to summon the ambassador of @Israel,” referring to Ambassador Yaakov Finkelstein.

Since the misleading post has not been amended, I have decided to summon the ambassador of @Israel to @MSZ_RP

— Radosław Sikorski ???????????????? (@sikorskiradek) November 24, 2025

Others in Poland criticized the language used by Yad Vashem, including Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

The Israeli embassy in Poland did not immediately address the issue, and the Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sikorski’s complaint is the latest in a string of disputes between Israel and Poland in recent years over Holocaust memory in the country and the role of many Poles in aiding the Nazis during the Holocaust.

Six million Jews and others were killed in the Holocaust, many in Nazi death camps located in occupied Polish territory.

Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II, which lasted from 1939 to 1945. Warsaw takes pains to underline that the persecution of Jews on its territory, such as in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, was the work of the Nazi German occupiers.

The previous nationalist conservative government even came close to imposing a prison sentence on those suggesting that the Polish nation had been complicit in Nazi crimes.

More than three million of Poland’s 3.2 million Jews were killed by Nazi Germany, accounting for about half of the Jews in Europe killed during the Holocaust.

“Yad Vashem presents the historical realities of Nazism and WW2, including countries under German occupation, control or influence. Poland was indeed under German occupation,” Dani Dayan, the chairman of Yad Vashem, wrote on X on Monday.

“This is clearly reflected in our material. Any other interpretation misreads our commitment to accuracy.”

Wczoraj wieczorem rozpocząłem rozmowę, która — mam nadzieję — przyczyni się do skorygowania bardzo niesprawiedliwej narracji historycznej na temat Polski. pic.twitter.com/5O6TgIs4We

— Ambasador Tom Rose (@USAmbPoland) November 20, 2025

The controversy occurred days after Tom Rose, the US ambassador to Poland, referred to the issue at a conference in Warsaw, saying: “For decades, Poland has suffered a grave historic injustice — the persistent belief that Poland shares guilt for the barbaric crimes committed against it. It’s a grotesque falsehood, and the equivalent of a blood libel against the Polish people and the Polish nation.”