The March Events
Targeting the Jews
Wlodzimierz Rozenbaum
Nadeslal
Wlodzimierz Rozenbaum
The political and social turmoils of 1956 forced more than 51,000 Jews out of Poland. Nearly 37,000 remained, adjusting to the new situation.1 The invitation by the Polish government extended to the American Joint Distribution Committee ( JDC, popularly known as ‘Joint’) and the ORT (the Russian Organization for Rehabilitation through Training) helped to invigorate the life of the Jewish community by subsidizing training and co-operatives, which offered employment to those who had lost their government jobs. Many believed the letter of the Secretariat of the Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza (Polish United Workers’ Party; PZPR) Central Committee of April 1957 on combating nationalism and antisemitism. However, behind the façade Gomulka’s team put into motion a number of decisions that had a clearly restrictive effect on the Jewish community.