Communist Leader Proposes Deportation of ‘zionist’ Elements to Israel

A member of the Warsaw Politburo called in effect yesterday for the deportation to Israel of “Zionists” in Poland who, he charged, were the instigators of the current student unrest and hostile to Poland and to Socialism. But Ignacy Loga-Sowinski, who is also president of the Trade Union Council, tried to draw a line between “Zionists” and “Polish citizens of Jewish origin, loyal to the Polish people and linked to the national culture who consider Poland to be their motherland.”

The official declared in a speech published in the newspaper Glos Pracy, that Zionists were trying to win over Polish Jews. Those who side with them, he said, are themselves Zionists and consider Israel their motherland and “therefore, they should be given permission to leave Poland for Israel.” He insisted that his suggestion had nothing to do with anti-Semitism. “Only Zionists in this country and abroad present our struggle (against Zionism) as anti-Semitism.” he said. Jews loyal to Poland, he added, “should be considered our brothers.”

Victor Zorza, wrote in the Guardian today that the Polish Government’s apparent invitation to Polish Jews to emigrate might be a ruse to get Jews to apply for exit visas and thus put their names on a list of “disloyal elements.” Mr. Zorza pointed out that Poland has banned emigration to Israel since the late fifties.

Mr. Zorza reported that a study of photographs of anti-Zionist posters that began to appear at officially organized meetings all over Poland after the student riots last week indicated that they may have been prepared long before the student demonstrations and that an anti-Zionist campaign was planned by Communist authorities well in advance, irrespective of any demonstrations. “It is also clear that they have all come from the Party’s Agitprop department whose head is Leon Stasiak, a Jew.” Mr. Zorza wrote. His brother is Stefan Staszowski, former Warsaw party secretary, who is now under attack for allegedly promoting student riots.

Reports reaching here from Warsaw today said that demands for a purge of “Zionist elements” has spread to Poland’s Foreign Trade Ministry, which employs many Jews and to the Foreign Ministry. Resolutions passed at party meetings in the “Dal,” the State trading organization in Warsaw and published in the press, demanded that these “elements” and their collaborators must be dismissed from both ministries and from radio, press and television posts. The resolutions also demanded the exposure and punishment of people guilty of economic offenses in foreign trade and other branches of the economy.