Jan Stanczyk, Polish Minister of Labor and Public Welfare, said reports of anti-Semitism in Poland were exaggerated by Polish Jews leaving the country for the United States zone of Germany, in an understandable effort to provide reasons for their emigration.
He explained to a press conference at the Polish Embassy that the 80,000 surviving Jews in Poland “do not want to live in their own cemetery,” that some wish to go to Palestine, that others are too old to begin creation of a new life in a devastated country, and therefore “understandably” exaggerated the degree of anti-Semitism. He said that murders by some criminal bands for purposes of robbery are attributed to ideological reasons.
“We are accused of having too many Jews in high administrative posts,” he said, declaring that a high number of “very able Jews” hold important government and industrial positions. He cited the Minister of Industry and Deputy Ministers of Labor, Shipping and Foreign Trade, and Justice, as well as the very responsible post of Under-Secretary of State for the Prime Minister.
The chief source of anti-Semitism is among the small tradespeople who fear the competition of returned Jews, and among anti-Government and anti-Russian “conspirators” who use anti-Semitism to conceal illegal activities, Stanczyk said.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
