Auschwitz
AuschwitziStock

Poland's tourism minister on Wednesday announced the dismissal of the head of the national tourism organization after he said he wanted to remove the Auschwitz memorial and a Jewish history museum from tours for foreign journalists, The Associated Press reports.

The minister, Witold Banka, said on Twitter he was dismissing Marek Olszewski immediately over "scandalous remarks" the head of the Polish Organization of Tourism made in Wednesday's Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

The newspaper quoted Olszewski as saying he loved his country and wants “to show its best side, through our monuments, culture, hospitality, wonderful music.”

“Auschwitz is not a tourist product but a place of martyrology, reverie and reflection, and we are promoting Poland as an attractive tourist destination. … I do not need to expose places and events connected with the history of other nations,” he added.

Olszewski also reportedly said that “it was Poles, not the Jewish elites, that were completely plowed and liquidated during the war. Let us remember that the whole Jewish culture in practice has survived.”

JTA noted that Olszewski twice ran for mayor of the town of Kamien Pomorski as a member of the right-wing populist Law and Justice party.

Some 1.1 million people, mainly Jews but also Poles, Roma, Russians and other nationals were killed at Auschwitz during World War II.