Anti-Semitism has become one of the most serious problems in postwar Poland, a cause of concern among Polish intellectuals who fear it is worsening, the New York Times reported today from Warsaw.
The development has occurred despite the fact that, of the 3,000,000 Jews who lived in prewar Poland, the Nazis left only 30,000 alive and, of these, about 1,000 emigrate annually to other countries. It has occurred also despite the fact that the attitude of the Polish Government toward Jews, Jewish emigration and Israel is considered “scrupulously correct,” according to the report.
However, one major element in the ruling Polish Communist Party was reported to be seeking to exploit anti-Semitism to increase that element’s influence in the party. That element is the “partisan group,” a highly nationalistic faction of younger men considered “hard-line Communists and who are probably the party’s most dynamic force,” the Times stated, continuing that these Communists are working hard to replace older party officials, many of them Jews, with the stand that party jobs should go to people “with Polish names.”
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