Behind the Headlines the Jews of Poland

Warsaw still feels like one huge memorial to Jewish suffering and martyrdom. Forty years after the war, the city still bears the traces of Nazi occupation and is covered with the vestiges of what was once one of the world’s largest and most dynamic Jewish communities.

The past is seen and felt everywhere. At the foot of a new office building are the remnants of the war-time “little ghetto” and the bus for the new sports stadium leaves from the site of the Umschlagplatz, the assembly ground to which the city’s Jews were taken by the Germans before boarding the trains for their final destination.

Anti-Semitism in Poland is still a highly sensitive issue. In the light of the past, the slightest incident takes on alarming proportions Polish officials say, however, that only a handful of such incidents did take place, especially during the political “anarchy” which marked the last months of 1981, and that the government is determined to do all it can to prevent any possible reoccurrence.

The Polish Minister for Religious Affairs Jerzy Kuberski, was clear on the issue: “We are determined to fight and stamp out any possible symptom (of anti-Semitism) whatever its origin. I can say with the full approval and on behalf of (Prime Minister and leader of the military council) General Wojciech Jaruzelski that the government will combat any person or group who engages in such activities.”

ANTI-SEMITES REMOVED FROM THEIR JOBS

Kuberski, who as the man in charge of the government’s relations with the Catholic church is one of Jaruzelski’s closest aides, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in the course of a two-hour interview, that all those suspected of having engaged in anti-Semitic activities have been removed from their former jobs.

Western observers in Poland stress that during the last months of 1981 anti-Semitism had become an internal political issue. Nationalistic elements, generally associated with the “Grun-wold” group, were trying to turn public opinion against Solidarity by claiming that many of Lech Walesa’s closest aides were Jews.

The object of most of these attacks was Jewish-born history professor, Bronsilaw Garemek. Leaflets distributed during the bitter struggle for power depicted Geremek with accentuated Jewish traits asking a rabbi for advice.

Other incidents during this period include a broadcast made December 15 over Warsaw Radio; several articles in the press, especially in the local Szczecin paper, “Glas Szczecinski; and the publication of an openly anti-Semitic book, “The Invasion of the Phantoms 1944-47.”

SITUATION DURING THE “POWER VACUUM”

Kuberski, like most Polish officials with whom I met, stressed that all these incidents took place during what they called the “power vacuum” of 1981.

Kuberski said that the man who made the broadcast over Warsaw Radio, Prof. Zdzislaw Clesiolkiencz, as well as the editors of the Szczecin paper, have all been fired from their former jobs. As for “The Invasion of the Phantoms” book, it was published, he said, by an “underground press” without official approval. Kuberski stressed that such incidents con no longer occur.

Observers in Poland say that in the last months of 1981 most political actions vying for power, at one point or another, used some form of nationalistic and anti-Semitic arguments. They say that occasionally even some of the Solidarity militants used this method.

The worst such incident occurred in November, 1981, about a month before the military take-over, when one of Solidarity’s leaders, Marian Jurczyk, head of the Szczecin trade union, said in a speech in the industrial city of Trzebatow that “the government is filled with Jews who have changed their names to conceal their real identities.” Jurczyk, now interned with the other solidarity leaders, concluded: “This is one of the reasons why the government must be changed.”

The paradox is that in this country in which less than 10,000 Jews at the most still live, Jews are still on all senior levels both within the opposition and the government. There even is a Jewish minister, Jerzi Urban, in charge of information in Jaruzelski’s current administration.

EFFORTS TO IMPROVE RELATIONS WITH JEWS

Kuberski stressed in his interview with JTA that the government does not only want to stamp out any manifestation of anti-Semitism but also wants, in a more positive way, to try and improve Poland’s relations with the Jewish people.

“We have in common a thousand years of joint history and culture. Poland would not be what it is without the Jewish contribution,” Kuberski said. As a first step, the minister hopes to obtain a resident rabbi for the city’s community.

He said he had discussed the subject with an American rabbinical delegation earlier this year and is waiting for suitable candidates to conclude the necessary administrative procedure. “Should we obtain no candidates,” Kuberski said, “We will probably send some of our own young people to the Budapest Rabbinical Seminary.”

There are currently four Polish Jews who attend courses at Warsaw University’s Department of Hebrew Studies. Kuberski said that some of these have expressed an interest to follow rabbinical training but added that this would take several years and his department would like to obtain a foreign, though Polish-speaking rabbi, to serve the community in the meantime.

The minister said that an exhibition dealing with the 1,000-year history of Jews in Poland, which is currently touring the United States, will open in Warsaw this summer and next year will tour most of Poland’s large cities.

HOPES TO IMPROVE TIES WITH ISRAEL

Kuberski, who visited Israel last year where he attended a session of the Korcziak Committee, said he hoped to visit Israel again next year. He stressed, “When I go to Israel, I do so with the Polish government’s knowledge and approval. It is in our behalf, a sign of friendship.”

Poland wants to improve relations with Israel, but as Urban told JTA: “Such an improvement cannot be effected at the cost of changes in our overall foreign policy and our political alliances.”

Urban, like most other Polish officials, clearly implied that such an improvement can be best accomplished in economic and cultural matters.

Most Polish officials stressed that the actual resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries “depends on Arab-Israeli ties,” indicating that Warsaw will resume the diplomatic relations broken after the Six-Day War in 1967 only after Israel signs peace agreements with all its Arab neighbors.

“This,” officials said, “should not preclude, however, an improvement of Polish-Israel relations in other fields.” The officials say Poland is prepared to cooperate with Israel in historic and cultural research and undertake joint cultural projects such as exchanges of students and academics. Poland also plans to give an international dimension to next year’s 40th commemoration of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

In spite of Poland’s somber economic situation, the government has voted special credits to help rebuild the Warsaw’s old synagogue and the Jewish cemetery, one of Europe’s oldest. The Poles also want to renew their ties with the Jewish world and hope that Jewish delegations from abroad will come to see for themselves that the Polish government’s intentions are serious and sincere.