| The Minneapolis-St. Paul StarTribune ran a story about the Holocaust, which included the phrase "notorious Polish concentration camp". 3/14/2008 - The Minneapolis-St. Paul StarTribune ran a story about the Holocaust, which included the phrase
"notorious Polish concentration camp". OK, we've seen this before. But what is different this time
is that the paper is DEFENDING its usage!
The article: http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/15948397.html
Their response to protests:
>> The Auschwitz concentration camp was in occupied Poland. Because there were concentration camps
all over Europe during WWII, the reference was to locate this particular concentration camp among
the many. If the writer had been describing a particular camp in occupied Austria, she might have
described it as an Austrian camp. Also, the notoriety of Auschwitz as a Nazi concentration camp --
undoubtedly the best-known concentration camp by name -- and context of the story erases even the
slightest possibility there would be confusion about who was running the camp. <<
Please protest to corrections@startribune.com
Some arguments you may want to use:
"camp in Poland" provides geographic location; "Polish camp" implies atribution.
Would the author write:
about Guantanamo as a "Cuban detention camp"?
about 9/11 as an "American terrorist attack"?
about the thousands of American soldiers who died on D-Day as having been storming a "French
fortification"?
about a bomb blast at a Tel Aviv bus stop as an "Israeli atrocity"?
Please keep those cards, letters and e-mails coming.
-Ted Mirecki, Washington DC
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