FBI Head Says Regrets Linking Poland, Germany in Holocaust Remark

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — FBI Director James Comey has handed a letter to Polish Ambassador to the United States Ryszard Schnepf saying he regretted his recent remark on Poland’s alleged connection to the crimes of Holocaust, Radio Poland reported Thursday.

On April 15, in a speech at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s 2015 National Tribute Dinner, Comey said that not only Germany but also Poland and Hungary were home to "murderers and accomplices" of the Holocaust. The next day, the speech was published by the Washington Post, causing an uproar in Hungary and Poland. On April 18 Schnepf announced he sent Comey a letter of protest.

“I regret linking Germany and Poland in my speech because Poland was invaded and occupied by Germany. The Polish State bears no responsibility for the horrors imposed by the Nazis. I wish I had not used any other country names, as my point was a universal one about human nature,” Comey said in a letter obtained by Polish media.

Also on Thursday, Gazeta Wyborcza said that Comey had been planning to issue a formal apology to Poland and that a letter of apology had been drafted but for unnamed reasons the White House decided not to publish it.