WARSAW, Poland (JTA) – A judge in Poland called Jews a “despicable, filthy nation” in an online forum in 2015.
Jarosław Dudzicz was promoted in 2017 to president of the court in Gorzów Wielkopolski by Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro. But while serving as a member of the National Council of the Judiciary, he wrote in an online newspaper forum that Jews are “A despicable filthy nation, they do not deserve anything.”
The comment was first reported Thursday by the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper.
According to the report, the comment was written by a user with the handle “jorry123” in response to an article about the World Jewish Congress. A resident of Wrocław reported the comment to the prosecutor’s office, which determined that its author was Dudzicz, then a district court judge.
The judge admitted to posting the comment in the online forum. However, he was not charged because as a judge he has immunity.
Under Polish law, a person can be jailed for up to three years for publicly insulting a group of people because of their national, ethnic, racial or religious affiliation.
According to Gazeta Wyborcza, jorry123 posted other hateful comments. Under an article about historian Jan Tomasz Gross, who writes about Polish complicity in the Holocaust, he wrote: “Jewish and German liars against Poland and Poles.” He called the Kielce pogrom “ a communist provocation,” and said that since most Jews were communists, “these Jews stood against other Jews to justify further war.”Asked by Gazeta Wyborcza for a comment, Dudzicz said that he did not remember anything.
In 2018, Dudzicz became a member of the National Council of the Judiciary, which is charged with safeguarding the independence of Polish courts.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
