poland 2009

 

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.

            Most antisemitism in Poland in 2009 was expressed in desecration and vandalism of Jewish sites and facilities with swastikas and Nazi-type slogans. The most publicized incident, however, was the theft on December 18 of the iron sign, reading Arbeit Macht Frei (Work sets you free), over the entrance to the Auschwitz death camp. After three days, the sign was found in northern Poland cut into three pieces. Police arrested a number of suspects, 20-39 years old, who admitted stealing the sign for a Swedish neo-Nazi group. Later in December it was revealed that the Swedish group had planned to sell the sign in order to "fund violent attacks against the Swedish prime minister and Parliament." In mid-March 2010 a Krakow court sentenced three Poles to 18 months-2.5 years imprisonment. Anders Hogstrom, a Swedish former neo-Nazi leader who reportedly instigated the theft, was to be extradited to Poland and the trial of others involved continued into 2010. The Polish minister of culture announced the allocation of $137,000 to reinforce security at the Auschwitz site.

            Swastikas, the symbol SS and “Jude Raus” were painted on a synagogue in Wroclaw as well as on a nearby Jewish information center in June, while "Jews to the ovens - that is your place" was painted on the sign at the main entrance to the Jewish cemetery in Gdansk in early September. The cemetery was desecrated more than six times in past years. In addition, the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland complained that antisemitic graffiti had been painted on the fence of the Jewish cemetery in Mszczonow in early August and that stones had been thrown at a bus carrying visitors who were leaving the Jewish cemetery in Gora Kalwaria (Ger), near Warsaw, which houses the tomb of Hasidic leader Yitzhak Meir Alter (1798-1866). The tomb was also vandalized in mid-May with a swastika and “Jude Raus.”

A racist children’s book, Entliczek, pentliczek (Best Polish rhymes), by Joanna Furgalińska, was published in June by the Sonia Draga publishing house in Katowice. It includes verses insulting ethnic groups such as Jews, Roma and Germans.

The Polish party Libertas Polska (Libertas Poland − LP) fielded candidates known for their antisemitic and Euro-skeptic positions in the EU-parliamentary election in June. They included Ryszard Bender, retired history professor from the Catholic University in Lublin, who claimed in 2000 on the notoriously antisemitic Radio Maryja that Auschwitz was not a death camp, and veteran Radio Maryja broadcaster Anna Sobecka. Both are representatives of the Polish parliament (lower and upper houses, respectively) and members of Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc, PiS) party, which is closely associated with Radio Maryja and is the main opposition party to the liberal government. Liberatas failed in its bid to gain seats in the European Parliament.

A film, Hitler’s Daughter, about Radio Maryja and its founder Roman Catholic priest Tadeusz Rydzyk, was criticized by Polish MPs and others, and its director Aro Korol was the recipient of death threats. Catholic fundamentalist Marek Jurek, former speaker of parliament and founder of the Christian conservative Right of the Republic Party (PR), called on the foreign ministry to intervene, claiming the movie "should not only be met with severe political reaction, but also legal steps." Korol responded that "it is essential to expose the antisemitic machinations of organizations in a country where radical and religious tolerance should be universal and unchallenged." The film was to be released in fall 2010.

On the education front, an agreement was signed in July between the prison service and the national Polish-Jewish Heritage Foundation, according to which prisoners will help renovate Jewish cemeteries desecrated during and after the Holocaust. The foundation, in return, "will provide courses in history and tolerance to the prisoners." The agreement involves more than a dozen prisons and according to the foundation, some one thousand cemeteries around Poland need restoring. In the first stage, the prisoners were to help in the establishment of a memorial in Radom and in the renovation of a graveyard in Zwierzyniec.

In addition, the first issue − Love in the Shadow of Death − of a comics series, Episodes from Auschwitz, came out in Warsaw in May. Each issue conveys facts about the Holocaust and contains a historical introduction and an epilogue. The series is intended as an educational tool for schools and young people. The author of the series is Michał Gałek and the artist is Marcin Nowakowski.

Among the large number of racist incidents recorded by the Polish Never Again association at football stadiums in the framework of their “Let’s Kick Racism out of Stadiums” campaign were several antisemitic events. For example, on May 16, during the Orange Ekstraklasa football match between Legia Warszawa and Polonia Bytom, several thousand Warsaw fans joined in the chant, “Hamas, Hamas! Juden aam het gas” (Hamas! Hamas! Jews to the gas), traditionally performed by fans of the Dutch club HFC ADO Den Haag. The latter, with which Warsaw fans have close ties, is regarded as one of the most racist fan clubs in Europe.

It has long been customary for fans from clubs from the same city to brand each other "Jews." During a second league match held between Stal Rzeszów vs. Świt Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki, on September 19, for instance, a group of fans shouted slogans such as "Jude, Jude, Jude Resovia" at the local Stal opponents from the Resovia Rzeszów club. In December, the district court of Krakow ordered the prosecutor’s office to reopen the inquiry concerning a derby match held between Cracovia and Wisła Kraków in November 2008 in Krakow, during which fans of the visiting team chanted "There were six of them, later twelve and they founded a pervert club. The club grew larger, the club developed and every Jew is a pervert," and "Off to the gas chamber with him" (to an injured player). The prosecutor’s office had decided in June 2009 to close the case due to the long-standing rivalry between the two teams, finding no fault in their behavior. It should be noted that many Polish fans identify with chauvinist and neo-Nazi groups such as National Radical Camp (ONR), National Rebirth of Poland (NOP) and Falanga, as well as with the transnational Combat 18.