“I don’t. Except I didn’t say Poland was responsible for the Holocaust. In a way I wish very much that I hadn’t mentioned any countries because it’s distracted some folks from my point,” he said in response. “

…There is no doubt that people in Poland heroically resisted the Nazis, and some people heroically protected the Jews, but there’s also no doubt that in every country occupied by the Nazis, there were people collaborating with the Nazis,” he added.

During a memorial event at the US Holocaust Museum of Washington, DC, last Wednesday, Comey referred to “otherwise good people” who succumbed to Nazi ideals and became “murderers and accomplices” in Germany, Poland, Hungary and other places during the second world war.

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told commercial broadcaster InfoRadio earlier that Comey’s remarks concerning the role of Hungarians in the Holocaust was “a rude and insulting generalisation”.

Szijjártó said the Hungarian government had voiced its concern to the US administration, adding that “it was right” that the US state department had publicly apologised for the remarks.

He said, however, that US-Hungarian cooperation was smooth both in economic and defence terms, and a notable improvement could be discerned in political ties.

The US Department of State’s acting spokesperson said on Monday that the US recognized and admired “the brave efforts of countless Poles, Hungarians and others in occupied Europe in protecting their Jewish countrymen and women from Nazi genocide.”

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