The Anti-Zionist Campaign in Poland, 1967-1968 [summary in English] (original) (raw)

2001, Kampania antysyjonistyczna w Polsce 1967-1968

The campaign analyzed in this study began as an anti-Israeli policy but quickly turned into an anti-Jewish campaign, and this evident anti-Jewish character remained its distinctive feature. It developed in two acts. In the summer of 1967, the Cold War and subordination to Moscow had caused the Communist leaders of Poland take the Arab side in the distant conflict in the Near East. The inhabitants of Poland were supposed to follow in the steps of their rulers. Thus an anti-Israeli propaganda campaign was unleashed, mobilizing the masses to express dictated opinions and feelings. The political police monitored non-conformist attitudes and informed the leaders that Polish Jews sympathized with Israel. Władysław Gomulka, the communist party leader, stigmatized them for this crime, and the first punishments began to fall. Those who had previously sought to deal with the Jews, a number of them concentrated in particular in the Ministry of Interior (MSW) with its secret services, felt that their moment had at last approached. The events of the spring of 1968, called the March events, had a much more extensive scope and greater drama than the first act. In reaction to student protests and the ferment among intellectuals, who had been increasingly frustrated by restrictions on freedoms, censorship and withdrawal from the reforms Gomułka had promised when taking power in 1956, the authorities unleashed a large-scale hate campaign. Among the alleged internal enemies the campaign attacked, Zionists appeared in first place. In just a few days the anti-Zionist propaganda reached its apogee, masses were mobilized against the enemies, hate sessions organized throughout the country, and a purge begun. Simultaneously, an unclear intra-party struggle was going on behind the scenes. The campaign was officially terminated in July 1968, although its deceleration had begun earlier. Its most significant aftereffect, a wave of mass Jewish emigration, lasted for many months afterwards.