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Polish Government Removes Anti-semitic “ritual Murder” Picture from Catholic Church

January 12, 1947
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The Polish Government has ordered the removal from the Catholic church in Leczyca, near Lodz, of a ritual murder painting which has been displayed there for many years, serving as a stimulus for anti-Jewish propaganda, it was revealed at a press conference in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The picture which shows Jews murdering a child for ritual purposes, was shown to the correspondents present at the conference.

M. Sluczanski, an official of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, told the correspondents that the anti-Semitic picture was removed over the opposition of the church. He emphasized that a part of the Catholic clergy in Poland is still engaged in spreading anti-Jewish propaganda and said that the government is taking all possible measures to combat it.

A trial of two Polish women, Rozalia Gadomska and Sabina Leszcyzkowa, charged with spreading rumors that Jews kidnapped the 12-year-old son of Gadomska “for ritual purposes” was held this week in Otwock, near Warsaw. The court established that Gadomska’s son was kidnapped by two non-Jews shortly before the Kielce pogrom last July, in an attempt to provoke anti-Jewish disturbances. Both women admitted that they spread the rumor that the kidnappers were Jews, since they did not know that the boy had been kidnapped by Poles. They were acquitted after the court found that they had not intended to incite the population against the Jews.

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