Coren: 'No insult'

The Press Complaints Commission has rejected a complaint by the UK Federation of Poles that an article by Times writer Giles Coren insulted Polish immigrants and portrayed them as antisemites.

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Elstree Federation Synagogue visit Poland with their minister

Thirty members of Elstree's Federation Synagogue, Ohr Yisroel, went on a two-day visit to Poland led by their minister, Rabbi Raphy Garson and his wife Deborah. The tour was hosted by J-Roots, a division of Aish UK specialising in trips to Eastern Europe for young Jews, and accompanied by Auschwitz survivor Eva Neuman. In addition to visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Elstree group toured the Jewish quarter of Krakow, as well as Kielce and Krasnik. Lightning visits were also paid to the Lublin yeshivah, the site of Maidenek concentration camp and the Warsaw Ghetto.

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Auschwitz site ‘needs £50m refit’

Almost £50 million is needed to preserve buildings at Auschwitz, according to officials maintaining the site.

Museum director Piotr Cywinski has appealed to EU governments to help fund repair work and create new exhibition centres.

The Polish government contributes around 10 million zloty (£2.5m) each year, with foreign contributors donating around 600,000 zloty (£150,000).

Some former barracks buildings require urgent reinforcement, with funds also needed to convert other structures into educational rooms for visitors.

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Bielski’s son attacks Polish massacre ‘lies’

The son of a legendary wartime partisan on whom a new Hollywood film is based has spoken out against allegations in the Polish press branding the partisans "murderers and thieves".

Robert Bielski's father Tuvia led 1,230 Jews through the Belarusian forest after escaping Nazi-occupied Poland, and built a secret village there.

Now his story has been made into a film based on Nechama Tec's book Defiance: The Bielski Partisans. Produced by Edward Zwick, it stars James Bond actor Daniel Craig as Bielski as well as Billy Elliot actor Jamie Bell.

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Coren launches his own assault on Poland

The Federation of Poles in Great Britain has lodged a complaint against columnist Giles Coren, over what it calls an "insulting" and "ignorant" article he wrote about Polish immigrants.

Mr Coren wrote a story headlined Two waves of immigration, Poles apart, in The Times on July 26. He discussed two kinds of migration: economic and humanitarian.

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MPs fly to Poland to learn legacy of hate

A group of nine MPs visited Poland last week to discuss combating antisemitism in the country.

The three-day trip was organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET) and the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism (PCAA).

It included a visit to the former Nazi death camp at Majdanek and meetings with government officials and Jewish residents.

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Ten Polish students on work placement at Donisthorpe Hall

Ten Polish students are on a three-month work placement at Donisthorpe Hall. Carol Whitehead, the home's chief executive officer, said of the EC-funded scheme: "The programme will give young people an insight into care of the elderly and the opportunity to live and work in another country." This is the second group to take part in the initiative. Two students completed the scheme in June and one of the duo is now a care assistant at the home.

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Rabbis ordained in Poland

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Lauder urges Polish law

Ronald Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress, has called on Poland to restore properties seized during the Second World War and the Communist era to their rightful owners.

“To deny the return of stolen property, or adequate compensation, violates basic democratic principles,” he wrote in the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita this week. “Such denial to a Holocaust victim is a double humiliation.”

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The baroness planning to sue Poland over lost family assets

Baroness Deech, the former BBC governor and Oxford college head, has hired lawyers in a bid to force the Polish government to compensate her for a series of family properties apparently confiscated during the Second World War.

The estate includes a block of flats in Krakow which belonged to her maternal grandmother, killed in a concentration camp, and a now-derelict oil refinery owned by her paternal grandfather near a village where he was once mayor.

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