Poland’s President Andrzej Duda gives a press conference on February 6, 2018 in Warsaw to announces that he will sign into law a controversial Holocaust bill which has sparked tensions with Israel, the US and Ukraine. Image by Getty Images

WARSAW, Poland (JTA) — The presidents of Poland and Israel met near the Auschwitz death camp, where they held talks together and then led the March of the Living.

Polish President Andrzej Duda assured his Israeli counterpart, Reuven Rivlin, on Thursday afternoon prior to the two-mile march from the Auschwitz barracks to the Birkenau death camp that the amendment to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance, which makes it illegal to suggest that Poles or the country were complicit in Nazi crimes during the Holocaust, is not about blocking the survivors’ accounts. Duda also said he is “not afraid” to talk about difficult elements of the past.

Duda told reporters in an appearance with Rivlin that he is taking part in the March of the Living to give testimony to the memory of the Holocaust and “to say to the world Never Again. To even shout: ‘Look what anti-Semitism, xenophobia, racism can lead to.’”

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At the same time, Duda stressed that the law, which aroused much controversy, is not intended to block the testimonies of the survivors, even if they depict Poland in a negative light.

“We wanted to defend the historical truth and I, as the president, want to defend it,” he said. “Also these are elements that are difficult for the Poles. The behavior of people during the war was different. There were also those who have to be condemned. And I’m not afraid to talk about it.”

“Israel is following from afar the academic and political debate in Poland on the issue of remembrance and responsibility. We appreciate the internal examination, and for the soul-searching of Polish society,” Rivlin said. “But there is also great disagreement, about which I spoke earlier with the president. Especially because of the special Jewish connection to Poland, we demand that Poland continue to be committed to comprehensive and unrestricted research on the events of the Holocaust period.”

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