Poland demands apology from Tucker Carlson over defense of 1939 Nazi invasion

Diplomatic demand for public apology

The Polish Embassy in Washington published an open letter on Monday, 5 October 2026, from its chargé d'affaires, Bogdan Klich, addressed directly to American political commentator Tucker Carlson. The letter expressed profound indignation regarding statements Carlson made during an interview with Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former British government minister and Conservative Member of Parliament known for advocating Brexit. The Polish diplomatic mission published the correspondence on the social media platform X after Carlson questioned Allied participation in World War II and defended aspects of Nazi Germany's 1939 aggression against Poland. Klich condemned the remarks, demanding an immediate and public retraction alongside a formal apology.

This statement constitutes a colossal insult to the millions of victims of Nazism, including hundreds of thousands of American soldiers who died or were wounded while liberating Europe from occupation.

Disputed claims regarding 1939 invasion

During the broadcast, Carlson argued that Adolf Hitler possessed valid reasons for invading Poland, stating that 15% of Polish territory had previously belonged to Germany before being allocated under the Treaty of Versailles. Carlson told Rees-Mogg that this land constituted German territory inhabited by Germans and stated that Hitler's arguments were true. Although Rees-Mogg responded by pointing out that Prussia had previously participated in the partitions of Poland, Carlson disregarded the counterargument. In his letter, Klich rejected Carlson's territorial claims, noting that Adolf Hitler and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had meticulously prepared the invasion with the primary objective of destroying the Polish state, physically exterminating its population, and pursuing a bloody conquest of the world.

Defense of Allied wartime entry

Carlson also asked why Great Britain chose to fight Nazi Germany, asserting that British intervention yielded no tangible benefits and caused the loss of the British Empire and national sovereignty. Klich disputed that assessment, explaining that the declarations of war made by Great Britain and France were not merely allied political obligations. The diplomat asserted that even if London and Paris had refrained from declaring war against the Third Reich in September 1939, both nations would still have faced inevitable German attacks. Klich stated that Carlson's arguments distorted established historical records regarding the origins and nature of the European conflict.

As an American journalist exercising the democratic right to freedom of speech, you have now become an apologist for Adolf Hitler. In doing so, you resort to lies, completely falsifying documented historical facts.

Limits of free speech and historical memory

The Polish envoy concluded that freedom of expression in a democratic society does not justify historical revisionism or the whitewashing of totalitarian aggression. Klich warned that distorting the historical record dishonors wartime victims and risks repeating past tragedies. The interview with Rees-Mogg is not the first time Carlson has criticized Allied participation in the war against the Third Reich. In earlier broadcasts, the former Fox News host invited podcaster Daryl Cooper, known for revisionist commentary on Adolf Hitler.

Nazi propaganda cannot be rehabilitated under the guise of freedom of speech, nor should freedom of speech be used to desecrate the memory of the victims of World War II.