Poland said it is demanding a formal apology from the U.S. over the comments made by FBI director James Comey (pictured above)

The US ambassador for Poland has been forced to apologise for comments made by the head of the FBI who blamed Polish people for helping the Nazis kill Jews during the Holocaust.

James Coney had written an editorial opinion piece for the Washington Post claiming Poland shares responsibility for the Holocaust with Germany.

The piece sparked outrage among Polish politicians and media.

US Ambassador Stephen Mull met with the Polish deputy foreign affairs minister and apologised for the comments.

He said: 'I made clear that the opinion that Poland is in any way responsible for the Holocaust is not the position of the United States.

'Nazi Germany alone bears responsibility.'

Mr Mull said he now had 'a lot of work' to do to rectify the situation.

Comey's April 16 opinion piece in the Washington Post stated that Poland played a role in Nazi Germany's genocide of six million European Jews in the Holocaust.

'In their minds, the murderers and accomplices of Germany, and Poland, and Hungary, and so many, many other places didn't do something evil,' Comey wrote.

The piece was titled Why I require FBI agents to visit the Holocaust Museum.

'They convinced themselves it was the right thing to do, the thing they had to do,' it continues.

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Poland's president Bronislaw Komorowski told public television that Comey's comments showed a 'lack of historical knowledge' and were an 'insult to thousands of Poles who helped Jews'.

On Sunday foreign ministry spokesman Marcin Wojciechowski wrote on Twitter that Mull would 'receive a note of protest and a summons for an apology.'

US Ambassador Stephen Mull apologised to Poland

The US Ambassador was quick to present an informal apology at memorial ceremonies in the Polish capital on Sunday marking the 72nd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Six million Polish citizens were killed under Nazi Germany's occupation of Poland during World War II. While half of the victims were Jewish, the other half were Christian.

Historical records show instances of Poles turning against their Jewish neighbours, either killing them or giving them up to the Nazis. Poles also risked their lives and families to save Jews.

In 2012, US President Barack Obama caused outrage in Warsaw when he labelled a World War II Nazi German facility in occupied Poland used to process Jews for extermination a 'Polish death camp'.

He subsequently expressed 'regret' at what he called his inadvertent use of the erroneous term 'Polish death camp.'

Poland's government keenly watches the global media for descriptions of former Nazi German death camps as 'Polish.

It says the term - even if used simply as a geographical indicator - can give the impression that Poland bore responsibility for the Holocaust.

US ambassador to Poland Stephen Mull (pictured right) was quick to present an informal apology at memorial ceremonies marking the 72nd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw on Sunday (above he lays flowers at Monument to the Ghetto Heroes)