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Anti-semittic Polish Students Disrupt Play Depicting Role of Jews in War

January 28, 1947
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Anti-Jewish demonstrations have been taking place every evening in a Polish theatre in Cracow during the performance of the play “Wielkonoc” which is devoted to the promotion of good will between Poles and Jews by depicting the role of Jews during the revolt against the Nazis in the Warsaw ghetto.

The demonstrations are carried out by groups of Polish students who attend the performance for the sole purpose of creating a disturbance. The first demonstration took place during the premiere, when the anti-Semites in the sudience interrupted with shouts and booing. The theatre management, nevertheless, decided to continue staging the play until the anti-Semitic students tire of their disruptive activities.

The author of the drama is a young and gifted Polish playwright, Stefan Otwinowsky. When the play was presented in Lodz, the Polish population there received it very coldly. Many Poles left the theatre before the and of the performance and on many subsequent evenings the show played to a nearly empty theatre. On account of heavy financial losses, the Lodz theatre was finally compelled to withdraw the play.

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