Purely Commentary

Poland's Insane Trend to
Perpetuate Anti-Semitic
Policies of Communist Regime

By Philip
Slornovitz

Stereotype of Jew Crops Up,

in Canadian Magazine

(Direct JTA Teletype Wire

to The Jewish News)
Ludicrtiusness of Polish Tragedy -
Vladyslaw Gontullta, the Communist party's first secretary,
TORONTO — The Canadian Jew-
If it were -not so tragic, the situation in Poland would be sheer
has offered Poland's.remaining 30,000 Jews passports for Israel and ish Congress has protested to 13
ludicrousness.. The anti-Zionist charges' are so laughable that anyone
has tried to moderate the "anti-Zionist" campaign, the popularity Canadian newspapers that carried
who haS the meager understanding of conditions in Poland must view it
of which constitutes a threat to his leadership.
a syndicated article which con-
ts a joke, yet the joke has turned into..a tragedy, several hundred Jews,
But for many Polish Jews the harm has been done. They had tained a vulgar stereotype of a
who otherwise undoubtedly would have thought - twice before applying
a chance to emigrate earlier and remained.
Jew and pictured Jewish business
for. exit visas, are emigrating, and the few Jews left there, while sitting
After telling themselVes for years that Poland was their home- practices in a shabby light.
on.a powder keg, must be dazed by what had happened to them. Sud-
The article, by Tom Alderman,
land, they are now being told that their loyalty is suspect.
denly a. land to which the few survivors have pledged their loyalty and
A recently purged Jew. ---one of hundreds dismissed from job or purported to show how a non- .
labored for its Communist ideologies* find themselves outlawed. Never
from the party in the lash;' seven weeks—bewailed his fate: "Fifty JeWish confidence man adopted
before has anything akin to this comedy suddenly emerged as a menac-
years in the movement; 'kicked out of the party, lost my job and the guise of an Orthodox Jew as
ing tragedy.
part of his racket to cheat custo*-;
my son in jail."
But no one is really fooled by what has happened. For instance,
iners in secondhand furniture. The
Even those who have been pensioned off, rather than dismissed, guise helped .according to the
most recently, in response to the anti-Semitic campaign launched
find little solace in the pensions. "They won't have to pay those writer, himself Jewish, by arous-
against the Polish film-makers, a group of prominent Americans—Hollis
pensions for long," saitri: man who knows many important Jewish ing latent anti-Semitism in the
Alpert,. Penelope Gilliat, Philip T. Hartung, Pauline Kael, Stefan Kan-
party members. "A lot of:them are going to die of broken hearts." customers who could brag that
fer, Stanley Kaufmann, Arthur Knight, Joseph Morgenstern, Andrew
Just how far the "anti-Zionist" campaign has taken root in the they had "put one over on the
Sarris, Richard Schickel, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Wilfred Sheed, . John
Polish people was illustrated recently in a conversation between a tribe." The article appeared in
Simon, addressed this protest to the N. Y. Times:
Westerner and a customs official.
•
the Canadian Magazine, a weekly
The undersigned members • of the National Society of Film
"You. Westerners don't understand because your press lies supplement distributed by leading
Critics wish to express the gravest concern over current anti-
about Poland," the customs official said. "Of the 30,000 Jews in newspapers all over Canada.
Semitic actions in. Poland. This concern extends, naturally, to all
Poland,, many occupy •iniportant posts, especially in the minis-
Poles who are oppressed, in every field. But we are more familiar
In a letter to the 13 news-
tries, and it's quite naturally that we want to get rid of them papers that used the supplement,
with the careers of film people and, through , them, we are made
because
they
don't'
work;
they
only
work
for
themselves
and
have
keenly aware of the injustices that are being committed generally.
Louis Herman, chairman of the
no national spirit." ,
Joint CJCongress - Bnai Brith
The rector of the Polish national film school, Jerzy Toeplitz,
"What do you reproach the Jews with, with being ministers or
Committee on Community Rela-
who has made that school internationally. esteemed, and his vice
Jews?" asked the Westerner.
tions, said that the article,
rector have been dismissed. The well-known film directors, Alek-
"You don't understand," the customs official said. "They didn't
describing how a confidence:
sander Ford and Jan Rybkowski, have been dismissed. Jerzy Bos-
work and we will replace them with people who work for the nation
man used latent anti-Semitism to
sak, a film teacher and documentary - maker with many admirers
and not for themselves. •
further his own racket, was it-
outside Poland, is reported to have been dismissed, along with
"In any case, they should be happy—we've not taken away
self guilty of stimulating the
numerous other Polish Jews in the film industry. The present is
their apartments or their cars or imprisoned them."
same sentiments among readers..
grim for them; the future looks grimmer for them and others.
Nonetheless, persistent rumors suggest that some purge vic-
"The effect on the reader is
During the last twenty years Poland seemed to haVe learned
tims have been forced out of their apartments, and an atmosphere that it holds up the figure of
the
from World War II all the tragic lessons that the German occupa-
of uneasiness has been created that appears difficult to dispel.
Jew to ridicule and identifies him
tion had provided. Now it is not ironical, it is simply horrible, that
- • A current Warsaw story sums up this atmosphere as well as with shady business ethics" and
some of the people who have done most to re-establiesh Polish
anything.
"helps revive and reinforce a
culture in the world should be among the first to suffer through
"Is that you, Jaworski?" a tense voice on the telephone asks, stereotype that has no place in
Poland's apparent resumption of its long, dark history of anti-_
"This is Kowalski."
the decent press of this country."
Semitism.
"But which Kowalski? I know dozens of them."
Brown acknowledged that the local
This is one of many protests that had been addressed to the Poles
."Israel Kowalski, the one you hid in the closet during the editors had no control over the
Occupation."
to indicate the shock that was caused by the sudden .developments
contents of the supplement they
emerging from the power struggle.
"Oh, yes, how are you? Haven't heard from you in 20 years." used but urged each of them to
Thus, the eminent pianist, Arthur Rubinstein, in a letter published
"Let's cut things short. Do you still have that closet?"
dissociate their papers from the
in the N. Y. Times, appealed to Poland "to cease this outrage" and to
The numbers of Jews asking to emigrate to Israel has increased article.
world public opinion "to rally to the defense of the Polish intelligentsia
considerably since the "anti-Zionist" campaign began last month.
The con man's method, accord-
and Polish Jewry," and explained his position as follows:
•
The entire Polish fiasco as it is still being experienced has assumed ing to the Alderman article, was
Some days ago the world observed the 25th anniversary of the
such proportions that the world outside that. tragic land, where millions to adopt a Jewish-sounding name
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, when 40,000 Jews took up arms in a
arid a Yiddish accent, study a few
doomed effort to combat the Nazi forces. This was surely one of- the of Jews were sacrificed on the altar of Nazism and where the Nazi paissages from the Talmud in which
policies are being reintroduced by the Communist regime, is amazed.
glorious chapters in the annals of martyrdom and heroic resistance
Protests .appear useless. Meanwhile the status of the remaining Jews in he would claim proficiency, don
to tyranny. What irony and tragedy that at this moment virulent Poland is in jeopardy.
a .skull cap and "put a mez.uba
anti-Semitism is being revived on Polish soil soaked with the blood
over the door . . (eat) raw garlic
of millions of Jews. The wave of anti-Jewish hysteria in Poland is
Added to the tragedy is the self-degrading attitude of some of the and smell up the fridge . with
being whipped up by potent reactionary forces in the regime and Jewish community leaders who are aligning themselves with the Com- gefilte fish." The article was
exploited as a weapon in a power struggle, a scapegoat for popular munists. There is a lack of courage in resisting the attacks. While it is illustrated by drawings showing a
discontent, a smoke-screen for economic and political ills, an in- true that anything other than submission would spell destruction for diminutive, pot-bellied, long-nosed
strument to stifle progressive reforms demanded by the intelligent- this group, their yielding to the form of propaganda that has developed figure with a skull cap on his head
sia and students. The close link 'between., anti intellectualism, anti- is far from exhilarating. Evidently self-hatred still dominates over those and dollar bills clutched in 'his
liberalism and anti-Semitism is once again tragically demonstrated. who would rather have a place in the party than in humanity.
hand.
On March 8 thousands of Warsaw University students demon-
strated for freedom of expression, fair trials and an end censor-
ship. These demonstrations spread swiftly to other universities
throughout the country, and were met by police violence and
arrests.
It is universal knowledge that the outbreak of students' dem-
onstrations was due to the suppression by the authoritieS of public
performances of "Dziady," the masterpiece of Mikiewicz, Poland's
greatest poet. Will the music of Chopin be next: to be prohibited
By ALFRED WOLFMANN
German newsmen listened pa-
regularly denounce Bonn's dip-
from being heard in public? The political ideology of Chopin and his
(Copyright '1968, JTA Inc;)
litely while a neo-Nazi publisher
lomatic and trade relations with
friend Mickiewicz was identical.
BONN —' Not too long ago g this praised the NPD as "true demo-
Israel.- But the rest of his inter-
Since then 'Poland has been undergoing a massive systematic correspondent reported in some de- cratic" before an audience of an
view with President Arif was
course of purge and propaganda whoSe -central feature has been its tail how the extreme right wing estimated million Ir a q i TV
news of the dog-bites-man vari-
undisguised anti-Semitism. The Jewish community of 18,000, many and the extreme left in Germany
watchers. More astounding, they
ety. That an Arab leader reviles
elderly or ill, is accused of disloyalty and browbeaten into self- though mortal enemies on most
quietly accepted a left-handed
Israel, says there will never be
abasement. Dozens of distinguished Jewish academics, artists, issues, find a common ground
compliment from . the right-wing
peace with it and that it will
writers and intellectuals of international repute are called alien to when it comes to Israel. Indeed Frey who averred that the "so-
soon cease to exist is hardly
Poland, charged with being spiritual instigators of the student their polemics against the Jew- called govenrment of the Soviet
,world-shaking these days. It
movement, expelled from the Communist Party. and dismissed from ish State are so much alike in zone (meaning East Germany)
should also be remembered that
their positions.
content and tone that they appear
has taken a good stand on the
while Arif sent Iraqi troops to
Scores of students are arrested. All, intellectuals and students to have been written by the same Israel question."
the banks of the Jordan during
alike, are named and are pointed out as Jews. Many hundreds of hand.
:last June's war they didn't get
That such may be the case was
The monumental cynicism of the
others less prominent are also being purged more quietly 'but not
less efficiently.
demonstrated recently when cor- Russians and their East German their toes wet,. let alone "meet
in Tel Aviv" as he had enjoined
Most shocking is that all this is being done to the accompani- respondents of the Soviet Tass satellites was probably lost on most them to do.
ment of a vast propaganda campaign which has charged the coun- news agency, Radio Moscow and of the Iraqi TV audience. They had
But Arif's shaky prestige was
try's -atmosphere fearfully. Jews are accused of being "cosmopoli- East Germany's ADN news serv- found in Frey a knight in shining
tans, national nihilists, members of an international Zionist con- ice dutifully took down the words armor from the West. He told bolstered considerably when be
spiracy, Zionist lackeys of Western imperialism." Jewish philan- of one Gerhard 'Frey, owner, pub- them that the entire German Vtips greeted in Paris by Gen. de
thropic organizations which have poured millions of dollars into the lisrer and editor-in-crief of West people supported the Arab cause Gaulle last month with all the
pomp
economic and social rehabilitation of war-torn Poland are accused Germany's most rabid neo-Nazi against Israel. Perhaps more im- matic and flourish of a great:diplo-
event. De Gaulle may not
portant
for
the
Arabs,
who
com-
journal,
the
Deutsche
Nationalzei-
of conspiracy, sabotage and espionage at the behest of international
Zionism and Western imperialism.
tung und Soldatenzeitung, The plain that most Western journa- he loved but he is not unadmired
in Germany. To some Germans,
The moral nadir of this campaign is the falsification and dis- scene was, of all places, Baghdad, lists are biased in favor of Israel,
tortion of the facts of Jewish martyrdom at the hands of the Nazis, capital of Iraq, where Dr. Frey Dr. Frey brought to West Ger- especially those who *privately
the obscene denigration of the Jewish victims of mass' murder. was visiting at the personal invita- many's newsstands the remarks on agree with the de Gaulle version,..
Of Jewish history, the VIP treat .
This is the brutal lexicon used by Stalin and his anti-Semitic tion of President A-bdel Rahman Israel of President Arif, uncen-
rrent accorded Arif in Paris rubbseii
purges of 1948-52 and in the infamous doctors' plot he concocted in Arif. The occasion was a televised sored and unexpurgated.
One quote from his lengthy in- off on the shoulders of Dr. Frey
January 1953. It is, tragically, the very language that has been press conference of Israeli "ag-
who was feted in Baghdad. •
revived in the Soviet Union since the Arab-Israel War last June, in gression" against the Arabs but terview with the Iraqi chief of
The Nazi-minded publisher es
state
got
staunchly
defended
West
Germ-
banner
headlines
in
the
an ominous propaganda campaign against the Jewish people. This
is the policy and the propaganda now taken over and carried any's extreme right-wing National Nationalzeitung und Soldatenzei- certainly not shy. The greater part
tung; "Israel Has Not Long To of his writings from the :Iraqi
further by the Polish authorities.
Democratic Party (NPD).
Live!"
Read "Jews" for Israel and capital described the garlands o
Thereupon Rubinstein was attacked by the Polish official press
The nature of the NPD can be
agency PAP which accused him of "demagogery," "vulgarity," "Zion-
gauged from the fact that the one can see how the headline might praise heaped upon him and. Ns
ist propaganila," "defamation of our country."
1938 Munich pact and "ansch- titilate Germans of a certain turn nievispaper by the local populate
If Rubinstein is a Zionist propagandist and is "vulgar," what excuse
hiss" with Austria are planks in of mind. Dr. Frey has a sharp eye and officialdom. He is also `not •
averse to posing as the savior of
for their actions can the Polish Communists offer on the basis of a
its political platform. Little won- for circulation values.
German interests in the Middle
report from Poland to the N. Y. Times by its Warsaw correspondent,
that it has been the subject of
Frey added a sub-head to the East: It was he, he wrote, who
Jonathan Randal, one of whose reports contained the following revealing
bitter notes from Moscow accus-
effect
that
"Germany
is
Financ-
"succeeded in healing the deep
information:
ing the Bonn government of
ing Israel's Crimes" against the wounds caused by Bonn's polidy
abbeting
the
rise
of
neo-Nazism.
Arabs, that apparently for the tolvard the Arab world.?'. , Some
2—Friday, June 7,:1968:.
THE DETROIT JEWISH, NEWS But in Baghdad, Soviet, and,.Rast,, benefit
of ,NPD stalwarts who Germans might believe him. '

.

-

Strange Pals Come to Light: Communists
Are Polite to Pro-Arab German Neo-Nazis