Leaders of the Polish Socialist Party today reiterated their demand for the resignation of Gen. Marjan Kukiel, Polish Minister of War, charging him with responsibility for anti-Semitism in the Polish Army. The resignation of Gen. Kazimierz Sosnkowaki, Polish Commander-in-Chief, was also asked.
They voiced these demands at today’s session of the Polish National Council. Members of the anti-Semitic Endek party asserted that the issue of anti-Semitism in The Polish Army has been exaggerated, but deputies of all other groups who participated in the debate agreed that anti-Semitism does exist in the ranks of the Polish armed forces and that the High Command has not done enough to combat it.
The demand of the Socialist deputies for the removal of Gen. Sosnkowski and Gen Kukiel was supported today by Witold Kulerski, one of the leaders of the Polish peasant Party. Addressing the Council, he pointed out that his group considers the anti-Semitic incidents only a fragment of the general spirit of hate of democratic ideas fostered by a group of Polish officers who have learned nothing from the war.
“Before the war,” he said, “certain Polish groups conducted strong anti-Semitic campaigns. This evil has now partly been transferred into the Polish Army, here are organized anti-Semitic groups existing in the midst of the Polish forces and more than one foreign agency is utilizing this fact. Action by the Polish military authorities has not been energetic enough and did not succeed in ending anti-Semitism where it manifested itself in the army units. Indeed, anti-Semitic agitation in the army is but a part of the campaign against the government and our National Council.”
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Defending Kukiel and opposing the demand for his resignation, deputy Michal Kwiatkowsky of the Christian-Democratic Party, argued that, although he himself is against anti-Semitism, he must point out that “anti-Semitism is not confined to Poland alone, but can be found even in the United States.” It would be wrong to say that Gen. Kukiel is responsible for anti-Semitism in the Polish Army and must resign, Kwiatowsky said.
Deputy Fengler, of the Endek Party, suggested that the entire issue be post-coned until the commission of inquiry appointed by the Polish National Council to Investigate the treatment of Jews in the army makes its report. Another Endek deputy, Kerznowski, said that the charge of anti-Semitism is nothing but slander of the Polish Army “by enemies of Poland.”
Adam Ciolkosz, Socialist leader, in a long speech denouncing the mistreatment of Jews in the armed forces, said that the Jewish workers of poland are part of the Polish Socialist movement. “Any attack against them is an attack against the Polish Socialists as a whole,” he declared. He insisted on the resignation of Sosnkowski and Kukiel.
The two Jewish deputies, Dr. Ignacy Schwarzbart and Dr. Emanuel Szerer, also participated in today’s debate. Dr. Schwarzbart pointed out that “there are Jews in the ranks of the Polish military units which fought at Cassino,” Jewish representatives, he said, wanted to avoid precipitating the issue of anti-Semitism in the Polish Army for the sake of the Polish cause, but things reached a point where it was no longer possible to keep silent.
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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.
