{"id":50885,"date":"2017-03-14T17:05:54","date_gmt":"2017-03-14T15:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=50885"},"modified":"2017-03-14T15:32:35","modified_gmt":"2017-03-14T13:32:35","slug":"facing-history-half-a-century-since-expulsion-of-polands-jews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=50885","title":{"rendered":"FACING HISTORY HALF A CENTURY SINCE EXPULSION OF POLAND\u2019S JEWS"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>FACING HISTORY HALF A CENTURY SINCE EXPULSION OF POLAND\u2019S JEWS<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Daniel Schatz<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cMy grades were lowered and all my friends had suddenly disappeared. No one dared to talk to me anymore.”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

AN AERIAL view of the Palace of Culture in Warsaw that was built in 1955. During the communist era, many Jews were purged and accused of being \u2018Zionists.\u2019 Photo By: REUTERS<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This month marks the 49th anniversary of the state-sponsored antisemitic campaign of March 1968 in communist Poland. The last remaining survivors of the Holocaust \u2013 in a country that, prior to the war, had more than three million Jewish citizens \u2013 were declared to be \u201cforeigners,\u201d \u201cZionists,\u201d \u201ccosmopolitans\u201d and the ultimate enemies of the Polish People\u2019s Republic.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The purge resulted in the forced exodus of 20,000 Jews, a mere 25 years after Nazi Germany had carried out the Holocaust on Polish soil. Thousands of members of the country\u2019s intelligentsia, including outstanding scientists, artists and writers, were expelled from the country.<\/span>
\n Many of the \u00e9migr\u00e9s took refuge in Scandinavia, Israel and North America, among other destinations, forced to \u2013 once again \u2013 build a new life.<\/span><\/p>\n

The governing United Workers\u2019 Party under the leadership of first secretary W\u0142adys\u0142aw Gomu\u0142ka and internal affairs minister General Mieczys\u0142aw Moczar unleashed the campaign of hate in connection with the Six Day War.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael\u2019s aggression in the Arab countries was met with applause in Zionist circles of Jews \u2013 Polish citizens,\u201d Gomu\u0142ka declared during a passionate speech delivered before the Trade Union Congress of June 19, 1967.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first secretary concluded that \u201cwe do not want a fifth column to emerge in our country.\u201d He thereafter called for the expulsion of the country\u2019s last survivors, urging \u201cthose who feel that these words are addressed to them\u201d to emigrate. A cheering crowd greeted his words with long and enthusiastic applause.<\/span><\/p>\n

The speech constituted a signal for those who had long been awaiting the witch-hunt which now was given an official green light. A propaganda campaign followed in the state-owned press combined with the mass mobilization against \u201cthe enemies of socialist Poland,\u201d with a wave of rallies across the county.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the largest demonstrations, gathering up to 100,000 people, in Katowice, demanded a purge of \u201cZionist elements\u201d from party ranks, their removal from their positions, and the expulsion of their children from universities, exhibiting such slogans as \u201cDown with Zionism \u2013 the Agent of Imperialism!\u201d \u201cPurge the Party of Zionists!\u201d \u201cZionists to Zion!\u201d and \u201cWe\u2019ll Cut Off the Head of the Anti-Polish Hydra!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The unbearable consequences of the purge included Jews being prosecuted for defaming the Polish state and being subjected to systematic harassment and physical brutality at universities and workplaces. They were ultimately expelled from their jobs and campuses, had their citizenship revoked and were forced to emigrate.<\/span>
\n These developments were secondary to the main chapter of the March events, an uprising initiated by students and intellectuals against the Polish communist state, in parallel with the Prague Spring events in neighboring Czechoslovakia. Jews were accused of having instigated the rebellion, which called for democratic reforms, and were detained and beaten, subjected to torture and imprisonment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jozef Dajczgewand was arrested by the police on March 12, 1968 and sentenced to two years in solitary confinement where he was subjected to torture, following an antisemitic smear campaign directed against him in the state-owned national press. He concludes that \u201cwe lost all of our human dignity and human rights, there was a general feeling on the streets that Jews could, once again, be freely persecuted.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He recalls the systematic abuse, highlighting that \u201cthe police ordered me to take off my pants, screaming \u2018fu**ing Jew\u2019 while interrogating me. I closed my eyes wondering for a second if it was Poles who committed these acts, or the same Nazis who had persecuted my parents.\u201d Dajczgewand concludes that no Jews were left in the country when he was released from prison.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll my friends had left. I was all alone and Poland was cleansed from Jews. I could feel the echoes of history and decided to leave the country.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Another \u00e9migr\u00e9, Dorotea Bromberg, similarly recalls in a testimony to the Jewish Museum of Stockholm: \u201cWe could read in the newspapers and hear on the radio that it was Jews (\u2018Zionists\u2019) who had stirred up the students.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOn the same day my father was dismissed from his job. Almost all our friends and acquaintances disappeared.<\/span><\/p>\n

We were forced to leave the apartment that we had lived in for 20 years. We had to move to a small apartment in a building in which the neighbors were openly hostile towards us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEverything changed at school,\u201d she recalls. \u201cMy grades were lowered and all my friends had suddenly disappeared. No one dared to talk to me anymore. Only one friend remained, Grazyna. She refused to abandon me and protested to the teachers. She was called up to the school principal and told that she was never to attend school again. And she was forbidden to apply to any other school.\u201d<\/span>
\n Bromberg relates how \u201c16-year-old Grazyna went home, wrote a letter about how deeply she was ashamed at what was going on in Poland, and opened the gas tap…. As if it was not enough to lose my best friend I was accused of causing her death. The school reported me to the police and I was forced to confess my \u2018crime\u2019 in the assembly hall in front of the entire school.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She concludes: \u201cFollowing a virulent media campaign against my father he was threatened with prosecution, accused of taking part in a \u2018Zionist conspiracy\u2019 against Poland. He faced 10 years or life in jail. He was refused a lawyer and was cross-examined every day for a whole year. More than 100 witnesses were forced to sign false testimonies against him. Our situation became untenable and we applied for permission to leave the country.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The victims of the 1968 campaign were made stateless upon leaving Poland while their possessions were confiscated by the Polish state.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2000, Aleksander Kwasniewski gave his apology for the campaign of hate \u201cas the president of Poland and as a Pole.\u201d Eight years later, in 2008, Polish president Lech Kaczynski said that he wanted to atone for the 1968 events which he deemed \u201cshameful,\u201d highlighting that \u201cI treat this as my personal contribution to reversing the consequences of those sad, shameful events. Never more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Polish Republic, however, still stands out for its failure to fulfill and recognize its responsibility to the victims. No viable solution has been found to resolve the critical issue of compensation for the exiled and dispossessed, nor have any of its perpetrators been prosecuted.<\/span><\/p>\n

As we approach the 50th anniversary of the expulsion of Poland\u2019s Jews, this often forgotten dark episode of human history remains etched in our collective memory.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is high time to confront the remaining ghosts of the past following decades of passivity and inaction.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The author is a political scientist and Visiting Scholar at Columbia University\u2019s European Institute. He has served as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard, Stanford and Georgetown University.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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FACING HISTORY HALF A CENTURY SINCE EXPULSION OF POLAND\u2019S JEWS Daniel Schatz \u201cMy grades were lowered and all my friends had suddenly disappeared. No one dared to talk to me anymore.” AN AERIAL view of the Palace of Culture in Warsaw that was built in 1955. During the communist era, many Jews were purged and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50885"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50885"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50887,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50885\/revisions\/50887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}