Polish President Lech Kaczynski was a great friend of the United States and freedom loving peoples everywhere.
When Kaczynski visited the U.S. in 2007 he made sure to visit Nancy Reagan and to honor the role of Ronald Reagan in securing freedom in Eastern Europe (see my prior post for details and a photo)
Kaczynski also was a great friend of Israel and the Jewish people, as described in the Jerusalem Post:
[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu who met with Kaczynski in Poland and sat alongside him less than three months ago at the International Holocaust Awareness ceremony commemorating the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, issued a statement saying: “I knew Kaczynski as a Polish patriot, a great friend of Israel and as a leader who did much for his people and to further world peace and prosperity.”
Netanyahu said Kaczynski led an important process to begin a new chapter in relations between Poles and Jews, and between Poland and Israel.
Both Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak also issued statements mourning the loss, with Lieberman saying Kaczynski was a “true friend” of Israel who proved this both in words and deeds. Barak said Kaczynski’s death was a “great loss to his people and the entire world.”
President Shimon Peres, who had spent a considerable amount of time with Kaczynski in April, 2008 when Peres paid a state visit to Poland for the 65th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, expressed the shock of the State of Israel at the report of the terrible tragedy that has struck Poland, and said that Israel shares in the mourning of the Polish people and the free world.
A man who loved the United States, freedom for the individual, and the Jewish people. There are far too few such people in the world, and we just lost one of the best of them.
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Comments
My family comes from Poland. They are wonderful people, freedom-loving and I daresay on the average more appreciative of freedom than most Americans I meet, and they are profound friends of America. I am deeply sad today.
President Kaczynski was not only a hero to the Polish people, but many people around the world. I don't know what it was about the people in the Warsaw ghetto, but it spawned incredible heroes.
Another unsung Polish hero who was a great friend of the Jewish people was Irena Sendler. It is estimated that she saved 2,500 children and tried to reunite them with their families after the war.
Irena was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize but it went instead to …. Al Gore.
We need to celebrate and cherish those of courage and conviction and make their stories known.
http://www.auschwitz.dk/Sendler.htm
Poles are among the noblest and most cultured in all of Europe. The Nazis and the Soviets not only put her people to death but the Nazis literally destroyed her culture – books, manuscripts and etc. – the things that benefit not just Poland but the world. Poland has sustained unspeakable losses and for all of them, including this most recent among them, is deserving of our support and prayers.