Associated Press bans phrase “Polish death camps”

Dear Friends of The Kosciuszko Foundation The Associated Press has joined The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle and Yahoo! Inc., in changing their Stylebook regarding concentration camps.

 

According to David Minthorn, Deputy Standards Editor and AP Stylebook co-editor, the new entry in The AP Stylebook reads as follows:

 

concentration camps For World War II camps in countries occupied by Nazi Germany, do not use phrases like Polish death camps that confuse the location and the perpetrators. Use instead, for example, death camps in Nazi-occupied Poland.

 

This is a major development because more than 1,700 newspapers and more than 5,000 television and radio broadcasters subscribe to the Associated Press. The AP Stylebook is the most widely-used journalistic style guide in the United States.

 

These changes can be attributed to you, the more than 300,000 people that have signed the Kosciuszko Foundation Petition on German Concentration Camps. http://www.thekf.org/events/news/petition/

 

Thanks to all that have signed this petition. Your vigilance will ensure that the media is accurate in writing about German concentration camps in Nazi-occupied Poland.

 

The Kosciuszko Foundation will continue to collect signatures on this petition until all news outlets stop using the erroneous phrase. When you see that a news outlet makes this mistake, please direct them to the petition and show them that respectful news organizations no longer use this phrase.

 

All the best,
Alex Storozynski
President & Executive Director
The Kosciuszko Foundation