Updated

Poland's tourism minister says he has fired the head of the national tourist organization after he said he wanted to remove the Auschwitz memorial and a Jewish history museum from tours for foreign journalists.

Witold Banka said on Twitter he was firing Marek Olszewski immediately over "scandalous remarks" the head of the Polish Organization of Tourism made in the Gazeta Wyborcza daily on Wednesday.

The newspaper quoted Olszewski as saying he wanted to "promote the values of Poland's culture" and had "no need to show places and events relating to the history of other nations."

Gazeta said he had removed the site of the former German Nazi death camp of Auschwitz and the POLIN museum from tours for foreign journalists.