Anti-Semitic Attacks in Poland in 2007

Anti-Semitic Attacks in Poland in 2007

This page is part of a section on "2007 List of Anti-Semitic Attacks" maintained by PaulaSays. This is only a partial list. If you know of an attack not reported on these pages, please send a note to: .

• Justice needed: A Polish member of the European Parliament has published a booklet suggesting that Jews are unethical, are obsessed with separateness and are a "tragic community" because they don't accept Jesus as the messiah. The extreme right-wing parliamentarian Maciej Giertych, an influential member of the nationalistic, Catholic-based League of Polish Families, released "Civilization at War in Europe" on Feb. 14 at the European Parliament headquarters in Strasbourg. Giertych's son, Roman, Poland's education minister and deputy prime minister, now heads the league, which has been battling the stain of anti-Semitism for years. The 32-page booklet by the elder Giertych aims to prove that European culture, education and morality should be the province of only one civilization. Poland and other parts of Europe are depicted as having a Catholic core which cannot coexist with what he depicts as the Jews' Torah-based civilization.
  The anti-Semitic booklet published by a far-right Polish member of the European Parliament has continued to spark outrage among EU officials and Jewish leaders. The booklet maintains: "It is a civilization of programmed separateness, of programmed differentiation from the surrounding communities ... By their own will, they [the Jews] prefer to live a separate life, in apartheid from the surrounding communities ... They form the ghettos themselves… It was only Hitler's Germany that created the concept of forced separation," Giertych adds, claiming that "Jews are not pioneers" but migrate from poorer communities to settle among other civilizations "preferably among the rich."
• Justice served: Maciej Giertych, a Polish Member of the European Parliament (MEP), whose anti-Semitic tract entitled 'Civilizations at War in Europe' caused widespread outrage, has been officially censured by the Parliament's speaker, Hans-Gert Pöttering. After summoning Giertych on Tuesday, Pöttering declared at the beginning of Wednesday's plenary session that he had reprimanded the Polish deputy and said that he "profoundly regretted" that Giertych's tract "constitutes a violation of fundamental rights and of human dignity to which our institution adheres." He added that the European Parliament (EP) could "not be associated with what has been written in your brochure."
• Justice reinforced: In March, the European parliament’s bureau rejected an appeal by Polish MEP Maciej Giertych to reverse a decision sanctioning him for publishing an anti-Semitic and xenophobic pamphlet.

Early months of 2007:

• March 5, 2007 - Swidwin - Vandals desecrated a small Jewish cemetery in western Poland, knocking over about half of the 20 grave markers and smashing many of them. It was the third time since 2003 that the cemetery has been attacked.
• A number of buildings in Lodz have been covered with anti-Semitic slogans such as “Jews to the gas!” In another case, graffiti included a Star of David hanging on gallows. The city is covered with this kind of graffiti because it has two football teams, Widzew and ŁKS, and their supporters often call each other “Jews”, considered very offensive in many Polish circles.
• April 23, 2007 - Augustow - Vandals desecrated a Jewish cemetery in Augustow in northeastern Poland. Swastikas were sprayed on five gravestones and a memorial plaque to Holocaust survivors was smashed.
• A powerful Polish priest has made anti-Semitic comments and claimed that President Lech Kaczynski of Poland “is in the pockets of the Jewish lobby.”The priest, the Rev. Tadeusz Rydzyk, who controls a conservative Catholic media empire that includes the influential Radio Maryja, made the comments during a private meeting in April. Father Rydzyk has run Radio Maryja since the early 1990s, adding a national newspaper and TV station. Controversy has followed him, largely because of anti-Semitic comments on Radio Maryja, but he still has political influence, backing Mr. Kaczynski in 2005. “You know what this is about: Poland giving $65 billion” to Jews, Father Rydzyk said on the tape, according to the newsmagazine. “They will come to you and say, ‘Give me your coat! Take off your trousers! Give me your shoes!’ ” Call to Action: SIGN THE PETITION DEMANDING RYDZYK'S REMOVAL —
  http://www.wiesenthal.com/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=fwLYKnN8LzH&b=2913555
• In August, the Czestochowa Jewish Cemetery was defaced with Nazi graffiti. Vandals desecrated about 100 gravestones at one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in Poland. The letters SS, swastikas, and the slogan “Jews Out” were painted on the gravestones with black spray paint. Police had not observed activity by anti-Semitic groups in the region for some time and are still investigating. The Jewish community characterized it as "one of the biggest acts of destruction in years" at the cemetery with 4,500 graves.
• November: Vandals have attacked a Jewish cemetery in the Polish city of Gdansk for the sixth time in the past 11 months, according to Polish Radio. Among the gravestones damaged were several with the Star of David and another stating that respect should be shown for the deceased.

  Jewish community spokesman Mieczyslaw Abramowicz said the attackers also destroyed part of the fence around the cemetery, one of the oldest in central Europe.