Warsaw, Poland - The United Nations has accepted Poland's request to rename the Auschwitz death camp on its list of World Heritage sites to make clear it was run by Germans not Poles, the Polish government just announced.
Auschwitz and the linked Birkenau camp in Poland would be known as "Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi German Concentration and Death Camp", Culture Minister Kazimierz Ujazdowski said. "UNESCO has made a decision as a result of Poland's request to change the name of Auschwitz Birkenau to reflect the historical truth," Mr. Ujazdowski said, with the Israeli ambassador at his side. "This is a victory for truth."
But a spokesman for the Paris-based UN education and culture arm UNESCO said he could not confirm the news.
Poland has long battled accusations by some Jewish and Western commentators that Poles were willing Nazi helpers during the war — accusations driven by documented incidents of Polish anti-Semitism and complicity in the Holocaust. But the Poles argue that such cases were isolated.