Racism in Poland has been a subject of extensive studies. Ethnic minorities historically made up a substantial proportion of Poland's population, from the founding of the Polish state through the Second Polish Republic, than they did after World War II when government statistics showed that at least 94% of the population self-reported as Poles.[1][2]
As per the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), hate crimes recorded by the Police of Poland dropped between 2018 and 2020, but rose steadily until 2022, reaching a level higher than 2018 (table below). Of the 440 prosecuted hate crimes, 268 (61%) were racist and xenophobic hate crimes, seconded by 87 (20%) antisemitic hate crimes, while only 6% were allegedly anti-Muslim hate crimes (25). [3][4]
By mid-16th century, 80% of world Jewry lived in Poland.[5][6] During the 15th century, radical Catholics in Kraków incited pogroms in 1469. In 1485, Jewish elders were forced to stop trading in Kraków. After the 1494 Kraków fire, pogroms happened again. King John I Albert forced the Jews to move to Kazimierz.[7] From 1527, Jews were no longer admitted into the city walls of Warsaw.[8]: 334
In the Second Polish Republic (1918–1939), the government restricted Jews from civil service and licence acquisition. From the 1930s, the restrictions extended to college admission and almost all professions. In 1921-22, 25% of college students were Jewish and the proportion fell to 8% by 1939, but the fringe far-right Endecja (National Democracy) party continued organizing boycotts of Jews.[9]
After Polish Prime Minister Józef Piłsudski's death in 1935, the fringe Endecja doubled down by vowing to "remove Jews from all spheres of social, economic, and cultural life in Poland". The government relented and organized the Obóz Zjednoczenia Narodowego (OZON, English: Camp of National Unity) to take over the Polish parliament in 1938. Laws against Jews were subsequently drafted.[9][10] American historian Timothy Snyder claimed that the pre-1939 Polish leadership[11]
[...] wanted to be rid of most Polish Jews [...] make no sense. How could Poland arrange a deportation of millions of Jews while the country was mobilized for war? Should the tens of thousands of Jewish officers and soldiers be pulled from the ranks of the Polish army?
World War II
The Auschwitz concentration camps would always stand as a testament that antisemitism caused the worst genocide in human history.A Holocaust memorial outside Auschwitz concentration camp I.
By the start of WWII, 12% of Polish population were Jewish, who were all but eliminated in the Holocaust.[9] Notable wartime pogroms in Nazi-occupied Poland included the 1941 Jedwabne pogrom, where a small number of Poles killed 340+ Jews with Nazi occupiers' aid.[12][9]
Post-war period
Instances of post-war antisemitic violence, including the Kraków pogrom on 11 August 1945 and Kielce pogrom on 4 July 1946, also happened, which are claimed to have been caused by lawlessness[13] and the Żydokomuna (Jewish communism) myth believed by some Poles.[14][15]
In 2022, the American civil rights group Anti-Defamation League (ADL) conducted a global survey on antisemitism, which found 35% of Poland's people to have "harbour[ed] antisemitic attitudes", the second highest among the 10 European states surveyed, despite the percentage significantly lower than the previous survey.[16]
Whereas, the Czulent Jewish Association, a Polish Jewish group,[17] reported in 2023 that 488 antisemitic incidents had been recorded in 2022, 86% of which involved online harassment and insults. It noted that "Jew" was often used to smear a perceived enemy as "disloyal, an outsider and unpatriotic."[18] Comments peddling antisemitic tropes and blaming all Jews for the Gaza War are also common in Reddit's subredditr/Poland.[19]
In June 2023, Polish-Canadian historian Jan Grabowski held a seminar on Poland's history of antisemitism in Warsaw. Far-right MP Grzegorz Braun forced its cancellation by smashing Grabowski's microphone.[20] During the 2023 Hanukkah, the same MP put out a menorah with a fire extinguisher in the Polish parliament.[21] He was expelled by the parliament and charged with hate crimes.[21] His behavior caused a global uproar,[22] while being praised by a pro-Palestinian multitude in Reddit's subreddit r/Poland who claimed to be "only anti-Israel".[19] Despite Grzegorz Braun's actions, he was elected to the European Parliament in June 2024.[23]
In June 1991, a riot broke out in the Polish town Mława after a Romani teenager drove into three Poles in a crosswalk, killing one Polish man and permanently injuring another, before fleeing the scene.[25][better source needed] A mob attacked wealthy Romani settlements in the town. Both the Mława police chief and University of Warsaw sociology researchers claimed the riot to have been caused by class envy, while the town's mayor and townsfolk believed it to have been racially motivated.[26] It is claimed that the riot's news coverage comprised anti-Roma stereotypes.[27][better source needed]
Africans
The most common word in Polish for a Black person is Murzyn, often deemed neutral in the past but a slur nowadays.[28][29] In Communist Poland, translations of the Uncle Tom's Cabin were widely circulated due to the communist regime's perception of the book's anti-slavery and anti-capitalist nature, despite it having reinforced anti-Black stereotypes.[29]
↑"OSCE ODIHR HATE CRIME REPORT: Poland". ODIHR. Retrieved October 16, 2024. The police records represent the number of proceedings initiated by police for hate crimes cases in 2022, including proceedings that were later discontinued owing to a lack of evidence.
↑Ducreux, Marie-Élizabeth (2011). "Les Juifs dans les sociétés d'Europe centrale et orientale". In Germa, Antoine; Lellouch, Benjamin; Patlagean, Evelyne (eds.). Les Juifs dans l'histoire: de la naissance du judaïsme au monde contemporain (in French). Ed. Champ Vallon. pp. 331–373.
↑Hagen, William W. (1996). "Before the 'final solution': Toward a comparative analysis of political anti-Semitism in interwar Germany and Poland". The Journal of Modern History. 68 (2): 351–381. doi:10.1086/600769. S2CID153790671.
Polonksy, Antony; Michlic, Joanna B., eds. (2003). "Explanatory notes". The Neighbors Respond: The Controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland. Princeton University Press. p. 469. ISBN978-0-691-11306-7.
Smith, S. A., ed. (2014). The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 206. ISBN9780191667510. Here anti-communism merged with antisemitism as concepts such as Polish żydokomuna (Jewish Communism) suggest.
Michnik, Adam; Marczyk, Agnieszka (2018). "Introduction: Poland and Antisemitism". In Michnik, Adam; Marczyk, Agnieszka (eds.). Against Anti-Semitism: An Anthology of Twentieth-century Polish Writings. New York: Oxford University Press. p. xvii (xi–2). ISBN978-0-1-90624514.
Krajewski, Stanisław (2000). "Jews, Communism, and the Jewish Communists"(PDF). In Kovács, András (ed.). Jewish Studies at the CEU: Yearbook 1996–1999. Central European University. Archived from the original(PDF) on 30 October 2018.
"Poland: 50 years since 1968 anti-Semitic purge". DW News. March 18, 2018. Retrieved October 17, 2024. In 1968, the Polish Communist party declared thousands of Jews enemies of the state and forced them to leave Poland. Fifty years later, historians and witnesses warn of a revival of Polish anti-Semitism.
"'It Changed Our Society Entirely': TV Series Shows How Poland Expelled 16,000 Jews in 1968". Haaretz. September 15, 2024. Retrieved October 17, 2024. The Polish TV series 'End of Innocence,' about the communist government's brutal clampdown on 'Zionists' in March 1968, explores a rarely discussed tragedy for thousands of Jews – as told by a writer-director who lived through it
"Over a third of Poles "harbour antisemitic attitudes", finds international study". Notes from Poland. June 2, 2023. Retrieved October 15, 2024. Separately, the ADL also asked directly if people have a favourable or unfavourable opinion of Jews. In Poland, 64% said they had a favourable view, while 19% admitted to the opposite. That latter figure was the highest among all countries surveyed [. ...] When presented with the antisemitic stereotypes, 62% of people in Poland said it was "probably true" that Jews are more loyal to Israel than their own country, 57% that they talk too much about [...] the Holocaust, and 53% that they have too much power in the business world and financial markets.
"Polish MP who doused menorah wins higher office". Israel Hayom. June 10, 2024. Retrieved October 16, 2024. Grzegorz Braun gained notoriety last December for extinguishing a Hanukkah menorah in the Polish parliament with a fire extinguisher, labeling Judaism as a "cult of the Talmud and Satan."
↑Anna Giza-Poleszczuk, Jan Poleszczuk, Raport "Cyganie i Polacy w Mławie - konflikt etniczny czy społeczny?" (Report "Romani and Poles in Mława - Ethnic or Social Conflict?") commissioned by the Centre for Public Opinion Research, Warsaw, December 1992, pp. 16- 23, Sections III and IV "Cyganie w PRL-u stosunki z polską większością w Mławie" and "Lata osiemdziesiąte i dziewięćdziesiąte".
