POLISH CATHOLICS RECALL THEIR PAIN AT AUSCHWITZ

NEWS from THE POLISH AMERICAN CONGRESS HOLOCAUST DOCUMENTATION COMMITTEE 177 Kent St., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11222 - (718) 349-9689
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 3, 2004



Michael Preisler (left) and Andrew Garczynski describe the suffering they and other Polish Catholics went through when they were prisoners at the dreaded Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland in World War II.

As part of the Polish American Heritage Month exhibit at the Glen Cove (N.Y.) Public Library, Preisler and Garczynski shocked their audience as they shared their memories of the barbaric and inhuman treatment they endured at the hands of Hitler's SS.

As co-chair of the Holocaust Documentation Committee of the Polish American Congress, Preisler has dedicated most of his efforts since emigrating here to informing Americans about the nightmare Catholics and other Christians also experienced during the Holocaust. He survived 3 1/2 years in Auschwitz.

What troubles Preisler most today are the signs he is beginning to see of a pro-German bias from some of the media when they report about the Holocaust. Whether by negligence or intent, they like to call concentration camps the Germans operated in Poland as "Polish" camps instead of the German camps they were, according to Preisler.

He cited Time magazine, Business Week, the Washington Post and Canadian TV as some of the most recent offenders.

"There were German concentration camps in Germany and there were German concentration camps in Poland. A German camp did not turn into a Polish camp just because the Germans ran it inside Poland," he said.

"And when we complain about how misleading such descriptions can be, they give us the lame excuse they used 'Polish' as a geographic location. But with that kind of logic, they might as well say Hitler became a Frenchman after Germany invaded France and he went to Paris to salute his victorious German soldiers there." he said.

Garczynski and Preisler both live in Queens, New York


HITLER'S WOMEN GUARDS JUST AS CRUEL AS SS-MEN



Even though she was only 16, Wanda Lorenc had already seen the inside of two German concentration camps.

First, they sent her to the infamous women's concentration camp at Ravensbruck. Then they put her in Spandau. That's where she found out how costly it would be for someone Polish like her to help a Jew.

It was only a piece of bread she gave another prisoner, a Jewish woman from Hungary. But one of the female German guards saw her do it and pounced on her.

The shrieking Nazi kept beating and kicking her and eventually kicked out the teenager's teeth. Then the Germans let loose one of their dogs to bite out a chunk of flesh from her side.

This was part of the gruesome story Wanda Lorenc told the audience at the Glen Cove Public Library.

Ms. Lorenc's father, mother and brother are honored at Israel's Yad Vashem for rescuing 12 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. She is a resident of Glen Head, New York.

Contact: Frank Milewski - (718) 263-2700