Polish Jews Better off Than Poles in America, Gomulka Asserts in May Day Speech

Polish Communist Party chief Wladyslaw Gomulka claimed in a May Day speech in Warsaw that Jews in Poland are better off than Poles are in the United States. Gomulka charged that the U.S. discriminates against Polish Americans but Jews in Poland are free from any bias. Gomulka made his remarks at a celebration attended by U.S. Ambassador John Gronouski who stood among the diplomats of various nations. Mr. Gronouski, who is of Polish descent, did not walk out when the U.S. was attacked.

Denunciation of the Polish regime’s anti-Semitic policies was voiced in all parts of the world as ceremonies marking the 25th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising continued. From Paris, JTA reported that Gen. Pierre Koenig, French hero and former Minister of Defense, urged the press to give the public full information on the situation of the Jews in Eastern Europe. He condemned the renewal of anti-Semitism in Poland. In Teheran, where an international human rights assembly is in session, two leading Iranian newspapers deplored the existence of anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union and Poland “in this day and age.” In Rome, some 150 members of an extreme left-wing youth group demonstrated in front of the Polish Embassy with placards reading, “true Socialists are not anti-Semites” and similar expressions. In Bucharest, an anniversary gathering in the Great Synagogue heard Chief Rabbi Moshe Rosen extol the heroes of the Ghetto fighting. He made no reference to the present situation in Poland. In Washington, Senator Charles H. Percy, Illinois Republican, denounced anti-Semitism in Poland and called on his Senate colleagues to “encourage world opinion to protest against such practices”