Wladyslaw Gomulka was re-elected First Secretary of the Polish Communist Party at the Party Congress in Warsaw yesterday which dismissed Vice Premier Eugeniusz Szyr, the only Jew remaining in the powerful party Politburo. It dropped as well Foreign Minister Adam Rapacki who had taken a moderate line in foreign policy and had reportedly disagreed with the invasion of Czechoslovakia and the purge of hundreds of “Zionists” and “revisionists” from party and Government posts last spring.
According to reports from Warsaw, the Polish Government also decided to speed up the secret trials of students and faculty members, mostly Jewish, who were arrested for allegedly fomenting the student demonstrations for democratic reform last spring. The Government had reportedly intended to delay the trials until after the party Congress but changed its mind when the World Union of Jewish Students announced here last week that it was mobilizing student protests all over the world in opposition to them. Party leaders said they wanted to “take the wind out of the students’ sails” by moving up the trial date. Some of the arrested students have been in jail for more than six months.
Reports from Warsaw said the composition of the new Politburo and the party Central Committee is definitely “hard line” and linked more strongly than before to the Kremlin which has given its full support to Mr. Gomulka. The latter’s chief rival, former Interior Minister Gen. Miecyzlaw Moczar, who was regarded as the main force behind the anti-Jewish purges and propaganda campaign last spring and summer, was denied full membership in the Politburo. The apparent political setback for Gen. Moczar surprised some observers in the Polish capital but it was attributed to his advocacy of extreme nationalism rather than his hard-line on “Zionists” and “revisionists.” Gen. Moczar was named an alternate member of the Politburo and the Central Committee’s secretary in charge of security and armed forces last July when the anti-“Zionist” campaign was at its height. He had appeared in line for full membership in the Politburo and is still considered to be a power for Mr. Gomulka to reckon with.
Another hard-liner elected to the Politburo was Wladyslaw Kruczek, party leader from the Asessow area, who delivered the toughest denunciation of “Zionism” and “revisionism” heard at the Congress. Mr. Kruczek was one of three new members elected to replace Mr. Rapacki, Vice Premier Franciszek Waniolka and Vice Premier Szyr. The latter had been in charge of science and technology. His removal left the Politburo without a Jewish member for the first time since the Communists took power in Poland in 1944. Mr. Szyr was associated with much criticized shortcomings in scientific and technological fields.
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.
