POLAND 2006

 

The new coalition government formed in May included openly antisemitic parties for the first time since the 1920s. An assault on Poland’s chief rabbi was one of the most serious antisemitic incidents perpetrated in several years. The 61st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp and the 60th anniversary of the pogrom in Kielce were commemorated.

 

the jewish community

There are some 5,000–10,000 Jews in Poland out of a total population of close to 40 million. The majority live in Warsaw, Wroclaw, Krakow and Lodz, but there are smaller communities in several other cities. There are virtually no Jews in the eastern part of Poland where once large, important communities, such as those of Lublin and Bialystok, existed.

The Union of Jewish Religious Communities (Zwiazek Kongregacji Wyznania Mojzeszowego), or Kehilla, and the secular Jewish Socio-Cultural Society (Towarsztwo Spoleczno-Kulturalne Zydowskie), or Ferband, are the leading communal organizations and these, together with other Jewish groups, are linked by membership in the KKOZRP, which acts as a roof organization. There is a Jewish primary school in Warsaw maintained by the Lauder Foundation, which has been active in rehabilitating Jewish life in Poland, especially through youth projects. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is also active in Poland, particularly in social welfare. The leading Jewish publications are the monthly Midrasz, Dos Jidische Wort, Jidele for youth and Sztendlach for primary school children. All of these publications appear in Polish, except for Dos Jidische Wort which is published in a bi-lingual Yiddish-Polish edition.

Important institutions are the Jewish Historical Institute, with its revamped museum, the E.R. Kaminska State Yiddish Theater in Warsaw and the Jewish Cultural Center in Krakow. There are centers for Jewish studies in Warsaw University and the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.

In March the Polish government announced its desire to change the official name of the memorial site at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The government, led by the Law and Justice Party, requested that the UNESCO-listed name be changed from “Auschwitz Concentration Camp” to the “Former Nazi German Concentration Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau." Polish officials stressed their frustration at hearing references in the media to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp as a "Polish concentration camp." The initiative was supported by Yad Vashem.

In September, the agreement concerning the building plan of the 12,800 square meter Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw was finally signed. The building was designed by Finnish architect Rainer Mahlamäki, whose concept won the international architectural competition for the museum. The multi-million project, which will be erected on the site of the ghetto, is being partly financed by the Polish government.

There was little progress made in the ongoing struggle for restitution of private property (both Jewish and non-Jewish) seized during the war and in its aftermath) and this issue remains a bone of contention. However, the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland and the Jewish Communities continued to work toward the restitution of items of Jewish communal property in accordance with existing legislation and in 2006 a number of significant initiatives were pursued aimed at preserving cemeteries, synagogues and other landmarks.

 

parliamentary organizations and extra-parliamentary groups

Parliamentary Parties

In May, Poland witnessed the creation of a new government coalition which, for the first time since the 1920s, included openly antisemitic political parties. Besides his own conservative-populist Law and Justice Party, the coalition, led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, comprises two radical nationalist parties. One of them is Self-Defense (Samoobrona), some of whose members are neo-Nazi skinheads turned politicians, such as Mateusz Piskorski, its foreign policy spokesman. Self-Defense leader Andrzej Lepper holds an honorary doctorate from Ukraine’s MAUP university (see Ukraine). Lepper claimed he was unaware that MAUP published virulently antisemitic literature and refused to return the award. The other radical party, League of Polish Families (Liga Polskich Rodzin − LPR), has a tradition that goes back directly to the antisemitic brawls of the 1920s and the 1930s.

LPR leader Roman Giertych was appointed minister of education, and LPR activists occupy a number of other posts: Piotr Farfal, 28, of All-Polish Youth (Mlodziez Wszechpolska − MW − the LPR’s youth wing), became deputy head of the state-run Polish Television (TVP). Farfal’s extremist past was exposed by Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland’s largest newspaper, which quoted from the anti-fascist magazine Never Again (Nigdy Wiecej). The latter reported that in 1995 Farfal edited and published a racist skinhead magazine entitled Front, whose third issue declared: “Harsh repression against Jews is necessary if our nation wishes to develop independently and healthily. It is time we rid ourselves completely of the Jews... Poles bribed by Jewish money and those who sell to Jews deserve not only our contempt but also severe punishment... Our cause is holy, Jews out of Poland!” In another edition of the magazine, Farfal himself stated: “We do not accept cowards, collaborators or Jews.” Despite widely-held expectations among the public and the media, Farfal did not resign from his position.

Faced with international pressure, most notably the refusal of the Israeli embassy in Warsaw to cooperate with the education ministry while the LPR leader held the post, Roman Giertych attended the commemoration ceremony for Jedwabne victims on 10 July. Critics of Giertych have pointed out that his overtures to the Jewish community (such as an interview with the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz) were in stark contrast to the antisemitism that is rampant among the party’s rank and file. Giertych himself is honorary chairman of the above-mentioned All Polish Youth, which organized a video-taped neo-Nazi gathering in 2004, which the police were investigating. Leokadia Wiacek, personal assistant to Roman’s father Maciej (LPR, Polish representative to the European Parliament), was dismissed by the latter in November for having been detected on the video giving the Nazi salute.

Early in July, the LPR Gdansk representative on the town council, Grzegorz Sielatycki, was quoted on a TV program “Fight for the Polish Word” as having written that the Jewish soul is sick, degenerate and abnormal. LPR leader Roman Giertych claims Sielatycki was a teenager when he wrote it and Sielatycki denies it. In 1998, he urged the removal of Jewish writers from Polish literature.

The government paid for and built a large monument to Roman Dmowski, which was unveiled on 11 November, despite a wave of public protest. Located in the center of Warsaw, the monument honors the man known as the father of 20th century antisemitism in Poland. Dmowski wrote, for example:

The Polish Commonwealth pursued a fatal policy during the two centuries prior to the partitions, a policy which led to such Judaization of the country that it had more of them than all the rest of the world… [becoming unofficially] the European fatherland of the Jews… They regarded it as a new Palestine in which they destined Poles for a future role more or less similar to that which the non-Israelite majority of the population of Canaan had in biblical times... So far our historiography has not yet explained the role of Jews in the disintegration of the political life of the Commonwealth and its partition... what we do know is that… their political behavior was often more than tellingly contrary to Polish aims. ... The struggle against the obstacles placed in the way of the Polish question by the Jews became, henceforth, the most difficult task of Polish politics.

Dmowski wrote hundreds of pages in this vein and antisemitism lay at the core of his political credo.

President Lech Kaczynski and his twin brother, Prime Minister Jaroslaw, prefer to identify themselves with the legacy of Jozef Pilsudski, another early 20th century politician credited with the rebirth of the Polish state. Pilsudski was an authoritarian leader who orchestrated a military coup but never promoted antisemitism. In fact he even banned Dmowski’s quasi-fascist organization the Greater Poland Camp (Oboz Wielkiej Polski − OWP) in 1933. President Kaczynski has condemned antisemitism on a number of occasions; however, the Law and Justice Party appears to be increasingly embracing elements of the nationalist ideology espoused by Dmowski.

            Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, for example, has repeatedly voiced his support for Radio Maryja, which frequently broadcasts antisemitic messages while supporting the government. For example, on 27 March, Radio Maryja’s regular commentator Stanislaw Michalkiewicz launched a vehement attack on the “Holocaust industry,” stating “Jews have humiliated Poland internationally by demanding money... Kikes [Judejczykowie] sneak up behind us to try to make our government pay them money on the pretext of these demands.” Michalkiewicz further referred to “the rows kicked up by the Jews on the site of the Auschwitz camp, inflation of the Jedwabne incident, and currently, preparations for a huge propaganda event in Kielce, on the anniversary of the so-called pogrom.” After initiating an investigation, the Polish state prosecutor dropped the charges against Michalkiewicz for these statements in August.

Member of the European Parliament Marcin Libicki, a regional leader of Law and Justice in Poznan, sparked a controversy by demanding the demolition of the synagogue in this city, built in 1907 and destroyed by the Nazis in World War II. “The synagogue building has no aesthetic value,” stated Libicki in an article published in a local edition of Gazeta Wyborcza on 12 January. He claimed that the construction of the synagogue in the early 20th century had been “an openly anti-Polish act” and part of “a plan of Kulturkampf [cultural struggle] which led to a cultural diminution of the architectural expressions of Polish and Catholic influence in the city.” Concluding the article, Libicki (an art historian by profession) proposed that the building be demolished. Although Libicki was not disciplined by his party for this and for similar statements, he was criticized by Poznan city council and the local archbishop.

 

Extra-parliamentary Groups and Publications

The “national-revolutionary” National Rebirth of Poland (NOP) continued to promote violent forms of neo-fascism and antisemitism, including Holocaust denial, while the National-Radical Camp (Oboz Narodowo Radykalny − ONR), which draws its members from among neo-Nazi skinheads, increased its activity in 2006, especially in the south.

The Polish National Party (Polska Partia Narodowa) is led by extreme right publisher Leszek Bubel, whose virulently antisemitic publications, such as the weekly Tylko Polska (“Only Poland”), are distributed by the government-owned company Ruch.

            Obywatel (“The Citizen”) is an important intellectual publication and an organizing center on the edges of the extreme right and the extreme left. Contributors have included Self-Defense MP Mateusz Piskorski and French Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy.

Another extreme right publication and website aiming to influence the cultural spectrum is Phalanx, which promotes a variety of skinhead and nationalist music.

 

ANTISEMITIC and racist activity

While no official data is available for 2006 alone, the magazine Never Again identified 227 hate incidents in the latter half of 2005 and first half of 2006, most of them antisemitic, including an assault, desecrations, and violent behavior and antisemitic slogans at football stadiums. On 27 May, Michael Schudrich, Poland’s chief rabbi, was punched and attacked with pepper spray in a Warsaw street by a man shouting “Poland for the Polish!” This was the first report of an antisemitic assault in many years. The police arrested Karol G., a 33-year-old extreme-right activist and former parliamentary candidate of the Polish National Party (PPN), who admitted to the assault. The attack was widely condemned by the government and the media, and President Kaczynski apologized personally to Schudrich. Three months later, the assailant received a two-year suspended prison sentence.

On 16 May an anti-racist activist was stabbed and nearly killed near his home in Warsaw. The attack was widely regarded as connected to the neo-Nazi website Redwatch, operated by the Polish branch of the Blood and Honor network, which had published the activist’s name on its list of “enemies.” The Redwatch website published the photos and names of people allegedly “involved in anti-fascist and anti-racist activities, including non-white immigrants, activists of leftist associations and all kinds of supporters and activists of the homosexual and pedophile lobby in the wider sense.” After a lengthy investigation, the authorities in Poland arrested several people linked to Redwatch (see also below) and one man who allegedly carried out the attack on the activist. Nevertheless, the site continued to list names of “race traitors.”

Earlier, in March, Redwatch posted threats against a female history teacher from Bialystok who included classes about the Holocaust. They published her picture, her telephone number and threats such as, "We’ll stab you in the back," and called her "an enemy of the white race."

Two Jewish student leaders from Warsaw received an antisemitic message on their telephone, threatening to blow up the local synagogue and put Jews in concentration camps. The police were investigating.

A Via Crucis Easter ritual held on 14 April at the sanctuary of Kalwaria Zebzydowska, near the Auschwitz concentration camp reportedly featured antisemitic elements. Dr. Shimon Samuels of the Simon Wiesenthal Center wrote a letter of protest to Polish Foreign Minister Stefan Meller.

            Shouts such as “Sieg Heil” and “Jews to the gas,” were reported at a boat party attended by about 200 skinheads in Agustow on 12 August.

 

RESPONSES TO racism and ANTISEMITISM

Commemoration

On the 61st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, 27 January, Szymon Szurmiej, chairperson of Poland’s Shalom Foundation, Cardinal Glemp, the primate of Poland, and Stanislaw Dziwisz, archibishop of Krakow, appealed to the Polish people to light candles in memory of the murdered Jews. An empty tram with a Star of David on it passed through the streets of Warsaw. A modest commemoration ceremony took place in the city of Auschwitz. On 26 January, a ceremony was held at the site of the Warsaw Ghetto destroyed in World War II.

The 60th anniversary of the pogrom in Kielce (4 July) was marked by the unveiling of a monument and the sounding of sirens in memory of the 42 men, women and children (most of them Holocaust survivors) lynched by a mob of several hundred Poles. The massacre has never been fully investigated. The prosecutor of the Institute of National Remembrance, Krysztof Falkiewicz, said Polish and Soviet special service involvement was being reviewed. At the ceremony held on 4 July, an aide read a message from President Lech Kaczynski, who was ill, which read: "I want to say... what happened in Kielce 60 years ago was a crime... a great shame and a tragedy for the Poles and the Jews, so few of whom survived Hitler’s Holocaust.”

 

Official and Public Activity

In response to an increase of racist and antisemitic manifestations in Poland, as well as to a EU Parliamentary report mentioning Poland as ranking high in intolerance and antisemitism, Polish President Lech Kaczynski declared in early June that there would be no tolerance of antisemitism. Agnieszka Magdziak-Miszewska, adviser on Jewish Affairs to the prime minister, announced the creation of a police unit to combat neo-Nazi activities. According to the Never Again Association, there are about 500 racist and xenophobic Polish websites currently online.

After years of selling antisemitic literature, the Antyk Church bookshop finally closed down in October when Rev. Henry Malecki, operator of the shop, did not renew the lease and returned to his parish. The Third Report on Poland published by ECRI (European Commission against Racism and Intolerance) had warned about its incitement in 2004.

            In response to Holocaust denying statements made in Iran and the Iranian intention to send researchers to Poland, Polish Foreign Minister Stefan Meller said in February that they would not be allowed to study the Holocaust. The Museum of Auschwitz also stated that it would not allow access to its archives to Holocaust deniers.

On 5 June, Radio Polonia reported that a 21-year-old was arrested in north-western Poland and was being charged with promoting fascism, initiating racial hatred, participating in a criminal group, violating the privacy law and operating the neo-Nazi website Redwatch.

Following the inclusion of extreme right parties in the government, a mass protest movement of teachers and students was held under the banner “Giertych Must Go” (Giertych Musi Odejsc). Throughout the year, the media regularly exposed neo-Nazi activity of LPR skinhead activists. Never Again (Nigdy Wiecej) magazine continued to be the main source of information about the antisemitic extreme right, while the Never Again Association conducted anti-racism activities in football, music and on the Internet. In cooperation with Collegium Civitas, a Warsaw-based academic institution, the association initiated a national hate crime monitoring program.