Poland’s embassy in the United States published a sharply worded letter to Tucker Carlson on October 5, 2026, demanding that he retract his remarks about Nazi Germany and apologize publicly. Bogdan Klich, the chargé d’affaires heading the mission in Washington, accused the American commentator of distorting history and making excuses for Adolf Hitler.
Klich linked the remarks to the memory of Nazi victims, including American service members killed or wounded in the fight to liberate Europe. His complaint therefore extends beyond Poland’s borders: it also concerns how the war against the Nazi regime is presented to an American audience.
The interview behind the diplomatic protest
The intervention follows Carlson’s interview with Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former British minister and member of parliament. According to Polish Radio’s account of the interview, Carlson discussed German territories and populations and the settlements following World War I in connection with Germany’s invasion of Poland. He also challenged whether Britain benefited from fighting World War II.
Rees-Mogg disputed that framing and warned that Carlson was approaching a defense of Hitler. Carlson denied defending Hitler, according to reporting on the exchange. That denial was part of the interview, before the embassy published its letter.
What the embassy’s letter alleges
Klich argued that describing Polish land as German territory inhabited by Germans served to justify the Third Reich’s aggression. He demanded an immediate public retraction and apology, arguing that freedom of expression should not be used to rehabilitate Nazi propaganda or dishonor the victims.
The diplomat also addressed Britain’s and France’s declarations of war. In his view, these were more than the fulfillment of a political commitment to Poland: he argued that both countries would have been attacked even if they had not declared war. That is a judgment about an alternative course of history, distinct from the documented sequence of events.
The historical record at issue
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum records that Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, beginning World War II in Europe. Britain and France declared war on September 3 in accordance with their guarantee to Poland. Earlier territorial arrangements form part of the background; they do not change which state launched the invasion.
That precision also matters for Holocaust remembrance. The Nazi regime, its allies and collaborators murdered six million European Jews. The museum describes a persecution that became increasingly radical and culminated in mass murder. That history gives the debate over the war’s origins and the aggressor’s responsibility significance beyond a dispute about borders.
Poland’s demand centers on responsibility for what is broadcast. Examining policy decisions and their costs requires evidence. Presenting an aggressor’s stated reasons as absolving it of responsibility for an invasion makes a different claim. Klich’s protest addresses that shift and calls for a public correction reaching the audience that heard the original remarks.
World news
