About the author ESSaY

Rafal
When ‘Zionist’ Meant ‘Jew’:
Pankowski Revisiting the 1968 Events in Poland
Rafal Pankowski is the author of Neo-
Fascism in Western Europe (Polish Academy By Rafal Pankowski February 2008
of Sciences: 1998) and Racism and Popular
Culture (Trio, Warsaw: 2006). He has
written widely on racism and nationalism
for publications including The Economist,
Index on Censorship and Searchlight. A
resident of Warsaw, he is the Deputy
Editor of Nigdy Wiecej (“Never Again”)
magazine and a research program
coordinator at the Collegium Civitas in
Warsaw.

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the contemporary debate over Zionism,
anti-Zionism, anti-Semitism and related
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identifies and challenges anti-Zionist
orthodoxies in mainstream political
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Z Word is supported by the American
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www.z-word.com The 1968 May Day Parade in Warsaw: Participants march down Marszalkowska Street carrying
anti-Zionist banners
or contact the editors at: Photo credit: Taran Photo

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The 1968 state sponsored anti-Zionist campaign in Poland demonstrates how
CREDITS easily anti-Zionist rhetoric slips into open antisemitism. It is also a striking ex-
ample of how a supposedly internationalist anti-imperialist movement is prone
© Copyright the American Jewish
Committee (AJC). All content
to hateful manipulation that, in fact, has very little to do with the Middle East.
herein, unless otherwise specified, is The language and imagery adopted at that time resurfaces regularly
owned solely by the AJC and may not with that utilized by contemporary antisemites. The notion of “Zionism”
disseminated in any way without prior loses almost all its original meaning, becoming a politically acceptable
written consent from the AJC. All rights
reserved. synonym for all things Jewish. According to this schema, which is strongly
rooted in traditional antisemitism, the “Zionists” are accused of conspir-
ing across borders for the benefit of Israel and its US imperial ally, to the
detriment of the local population, most notably through their control of
the international media. The actions of “Zionists” are frequently com-
pared and equaled to those of the Nazis and, thus conceived, “Zionism”
emerges as a purely evil phenomenon akin to historical Nazism.
Antisemitism and communist ideology activists of the pre-war fascist National Radical Camp
(Oboz Narodowo-Radykalny, ONR) led by Boleslaw
On the surface, communism was a thoroughly internation- Piasecki was allowed to operate legally with their own
alist ideology and movement, opposed to all kinds of ethnic representation in the Polish parliament in the 1950s. With
and religious discrimination, including antisemitism. assistance from the government, Piasecki created and
Indeed, many original adherents of the Polish communist led his new ‘patriotic’ organization, the PAX Association,
movement found it attractive precisely because they saw which came to play an active role in 1968. Similar develop-
in it the most consistent and principled response to the ments emerged in other communist states like Romania,
antisemitism that was rampant in Polish society in the where former members of the antisemitic Iron Guard
1920s and 1930s, openly preached by the Catholic Church were allowed to join the Romanian Communist Party.
and the right-wing Nationalists. According to some The Polish Nobel prize-winning poet Czeslaw Milosz
estimates1, in the 1920s and 1930s around 22-26 percent wrote of such alliances: “Let it be stated here clearly:
of the Polish Communist Party’s membership was made the Party/Descends directly from the fascist Right.”3
up of Jews – Jews made up 9 per cent of the entire Polish State-sponsored communist antisemitism owed a great
population. At the same time, the Jewish communists deal to Stalin’s personal paranoia, but it also reflected
were a marginal group within the wider Jewish com- deeper dynamics. The communist regimes were increas-
munity. The clandestine Communist Party remained ingly seeking their legitimacy in nationalist rather than
relatively weak and was dissolved by order of Josef Stalin, revolutionary rhetoric. Over the years, they were trying
the Soviet dictator, in 1937. Many of its leaders were sub- to reach out to non-communist sections of society and
sequently called to Moscow, imprisoned and murdered to find some acceptance among a wider public, which, in
by the Soviet political police during the mass purges. some cases, meant turning a blind eye to antisemitism
When the communists re-emerged as the ruling Polish or even actively sponsoring it. Moreover, as the Soviet
Workers Party after World War II, the stereotype of Union sought allies in the Arab world, anti-Zionist
“Jewish communists” became even stronger as part of the language became widespread. This encapsulates what
popular psyche. Jan Gross remarks: “As to the persistence happened in Poland in the late 1960s, when a growing
of the zydokomuna (Jewish communism) myth in popular wing in the Party expressed nationalistic sentiments,
memory, one may attribute it, among other reasons, to an combined with an anti-Jewish zeal. The eruption of anti-
attempt by complicitious Poles to deflect their own guilt semitism in 1968 has to be understood in this context.
over having contributed to the triumph of communism.”2
In fact, Jewish communists constituted a rather small The Partisans
part of the post-war leadership, and they usually hardly
identified themselves as Jews at all. After the Holocaust, The so-called ‘partisan’ wing of the ruling Polish United
the Jewish community in Poland still numbered some Workers Party in the 1960s was led by the Interior Minister,
250-400,000. Many of them left the country in subsequent General Mieczyslaw Moczar. Ironically for a self-styled
waves of emigration, for example after the Kielce pogrom Polish nationalist, his own ethnic background was actu-
in 1946 and in 1956, when the emigration regime was ally Belarusian, but that was kept strictly secret. 4 Moczar
liberalized. By 1968 only 25-30,000 Jews lived in Poland. gathered around himself a significant group of war veterans
Meanwhile, sinister currents of institutionalized (hence the group’s popular name), younger party cadres,
antisemitism appeared across the communist bloc. Stalin military and security personnel and bureaucrats, as well as
ordered the execution of the leaders of the wartime Jewish some writers and artists. They were unified by an eclectic
Antifascist Committee in the late 1940s and his anti-Jewish ideology that combined socialism with patriotic pathos,
obsession reached new heights with the alleged uncovering praised the heroic aspects of national history and expressed
of a ‘Doctors’ Plot’ in 1952. Such tendencies were in turn hostility to all forms of alleged ‘cosmopolitanism’. The
reflected by the other communist regimes, most famously ‘partisans’ venom was directed against ‘revisionists’ - a
during the trial of Rudolf Slansky in Czechoslovakia in 1952. code word for leftist dissidents and members of the liberal
In a symbolic rapprochement in Poland, a group of wing of the party who were regarded as an obstacle towards

When ‘Zionist’ Meant ‘Jew’: Revisiting the 1968 Events in Poland 2

building a more authoritarian nationalist regime. Jews, too, This comment sparked off the systematic removal of the
were an obvious target of the ‘partisans’ growing anger. remaining Jewish officers from the Polish army, supervised
The ‘partisans’ believed the party could regain by a special commission. Although only a few hundred out
public support by publicly purging itself of Jews and of the total number of 40-45,000 officers in the Polish mili-
by employing nationalist rhetoric. The aim of the tary at that time were actually Jewish, the number of those
‘partisans’ was to construct a system of national com- purged also included many officers who were considered
munism, with a mixture of communist, nationalist sympathetic or friendly to their Jewish colleagues. This
and populist ideology. Jan Gross called it “a varia- tendency reflected a changing power situation in the Middle
tion of National Socialism plain and simple.”5 East, where the Soviet bloc provided increasing military
The extent to which Wladyslaw Gomulka, the first secre- assistance to the Arab states in their conflict with Israel.
tary of the Central Committee of the party – and therefore
the de facto leader of the country - personally shared the
‘partisans’’ nationalist ideology is debatable. Gomulka had “The Middle Eastern conflict served as a
led the party in 1945-48 , but was later dismissed and impris- pretext for unleashing antisemitic smears
oned for alleged “right-nationalist deviation” in the 1950s. and vendettas at home. An atmosphere
In 1956 he was swept back to power on the wave of popular
protest and subsequently introduced a more humane – in
of suspicion and denunciation swept the
relative terms, at least—version of the communist regime country”
in Poland. He was forced to resign in the wake of a mas-
sacre of shipyard workers by the military forces in Gdansk
and Szczecin in 1970 in which around 40 people died. On 9 June 1967, in the wake of the Six Day War, the
According to most accounts, Gomulka remained a con- Warsaw Pact states, with the exception of Romania,
vinced communist internationalist till his death, and in this decided to break diplomatic relations with Israel. The
context it was often mentioned that his wife was Jewish. Middle Eastern conflict served as a pretext for unleashing
Nevertheless, he presided over the increasingly antisemitic antisemitic smears and vendettas at home. An atmosphere
policy, probably fearing the ‘partisans’ could turn against of suspicion and denunciation swept the country. For
him as the old guard of the communist leaders were pressed example, Moczar was said to have prepared and passed to
to give way to the younger protégées of Moczar. Gomulka’s Gomulka a list of 94 young Jews who allegedly contacted
acceptance of antisemitic elements in the party policy and the Israeli embassy as possible volunteers for the IDF.
propaganda reached its peak in the late 1960s, when the The wife of Marian Spychalski, the Polish commander-
tension in the Middle East was used to legitimize another in-chief, was rumored to have been in Israel visiting
wave of anti-Jewish purges pushed for by the ‘partisans’. family members. The issue was raised in a discussion
among party activists at a military unit in Babice. Jewish
The beginning of the anti-Jewish Purges members of the party leadership were attacked openly
at the meeting, among them Eugeniusz Szyr, a deputy
In the early and mid-1960s, purges of Jewish officers prime minister and a Spanish civil war veteran.
began in the Ministry of the Interior as well as in the On the day of Israel’s victory a birthday party was held
army. A special unit was set up in the Ministry of the at the office of the popular women’s magazine Przyjaciolka,
Interior that compiled a secret list of Jews living in which was interpreted as a celebration of the Israeli military
Poland deploying the same criteria behind Hitler’s in- success. Moczar informed Gomulka that the wife of General
famous Nuremberg Laws. The list included all kinds of Czeslaw Mankiewicz, a deputy commander of the Polish air
personal information to be used in the years to come. defense, had attended the party. Mankiewicz was immedi-
In 1960 Marshal Biriuzov, a Soviet deputy minister of ately dismissed from his post. Later it transpired that his
defense, reportedly remarked to his hosts while visiting wife in fact had not even been present in the city at all on the
Poland, “an army commanded by Jews and counterrevolu- day of the party, but too late for the dismissal to be reversed.
tionaries cannot be used in the fight against imperialism.” On 19 June 1967 Gomulka made an important speech at

When ‘Zionist’ Meant ‘Jew’: Revisiting the 1968 Events in Poland 3

a Trade Union Congress, in which he declared that “every family had long been assimilated in Polish society
citizen of Poland must have only one fatherland—People’s and she did not know. Another interrogated student
Poland.” He shocked many by referring to Israel’s alleged was shown a Nazi anthropological album and asked
sympathizers as the “fifth column”, a term strongly charged if she recognized Morawski’s facial features there.
with memories of German-inspired sabotage during the The protest against antisemitism became part and par-
Second World War. Years later, Gomulka was said to have cel of the general democratic movement that emerged in the
regretted using such language to describe Polish Jews. weeks that followed. In February 1968, Warsaw University
Nevertheless, through the Trade Union Congress speech students distributed a leaflet entitled “Against Fascist
he provided an official justification to the mass antisemitic Provocation!” penned by Karol Modzelewski in response
campaign already unleashed by Moczar’s supporters. to the antisemitic leaflets distributed by security services.
On 8 October 1967 Moczar made a speech on the an- On 29 February 1968, at a memorable meeting of the
niversary of the establishment of People’s Militia in which Polish Writers’ Union, the famous Polish historian, Pawel
he likened the Israeli military to the Nazis. This close Jasienica, quoted an antisemitic leaflet distributed by
similarity, according to him, was lost on “blinded Zionists, security services in Warsaw and commented critically
including our Zionists in Poland”. A campaign of intimida- on the authorities’ acceptance of such propaganda. As a
tion against Polish Jews, including numerous anonymous result Jasienica was put on a list of forbidden authors and
letters and threatening phone calls was in full swing. In was not able to publish any works until his death in 1970.
1967, a group of about 500 Jews emigrated from Poland.

The Democratic Student Movement

“One of the participants recalled: ‘They beat
Israel’s victory was actually viewed with sympathy in many
first of all girls and first of all the brunettes.
sections of Polish society. Many Poles saw it as a setback for I was thinking, ‘why the brunettes?’ I
the despised Soviet bloc. They felt a connection with Israel, understood it much later’”
based on the history of the Jewish presence in Poland and
the fact that many Israeli citizens had their roots in Poland.
Meanwhile, a democratic movement of students On 3 March 1968, Adam Michnik and Henryk Szlajfer,
and young intellectuals emerged in Poland. It was as- student leaders, were expelled from the University. A
sisted by older Marxist dissidents such as Jacek Kuron few days later, Warsaw students gathered at a rally and a
and Karol Modzelewski and supported by a number sit-in in defense of the expelled, and in support for human
of liberal-minded professors at Warsaw University, rights. Both the national anthem and “The Internationale”
among them the renowned philosopher Leszek were sung. The student rally was brutally attacked by riot
Kolakowski, sociologist Zygmunt Bauman and economist police and plain clothes “workers-activists”. One of the
Wlodzimierz Brus. The crushing of the movement was participants recalled: “They beat first of all girls and first
accompanied by aggressive ‘anti-Zionist’ propaganda. of all the brunettes. I was thinking, ‘why the brunettes?’
On 30 January 1968 students staged a demonstra- I understood it much later.” The riots continued for
tion against banning of a theatre play based on Adam several days and spread to other cities. A wave of arrests
Mickiewicz’s 19th century Romantic text ”Dziady” ensued and an ever stronger wave of anti-democratic
(“Forefathers’ Eve”) that was deemed anti-Russian and antisemitic propaganda followed in the media.
by the authorities. The police arrested many of them Later that year leaders of the student movement were
and during interrogations asked “Why do you al- convicted to prison sentences ranging from one and a
low yourself to be manipulated by kikes?” half years to three years in the case of Adam Michnik.
Anna Morawska, a daughter of Professor Stefan The official propaganda stressed the “cosmopolitan”
Morawski, a liberal philosopher, was among the outlook of the student activists, often emphasizing their
detained. She was shocked by the policemen ask- alleged family connections with the Jewish communist
ing her if she knew she was Jewish. Her father’s ‘elite’ of the Stalinist period. The newspapers enjoyed

When ‘Zionist’ Meant ‘Jew’: Revisiting the 1968 Events in Poland 4

printing the Jewish-sounding names of the young dis- groups of Trotskyists in Poland and abroad. Nevertheless,
sidents, frequently commenting on their allegedly according to historian Jerzy Eisler, the importance attached
privileged background: Seweryn Blumsztajn, Henryk to it by the official propaganda could be interpreted as
Szlajfer, Jozef Dajczgewand, and so forth. In the case another means of highlighting the Jewish background of
of Aleksander Smolar, the official line emphasized the some of the opposition activists: “after all Trotsky’s name
fact that his father had been the editor of Folks-Sztyme, was Leib Bronstein and he was a Jew by origin.”8 A curious
a Yiddish language newspaper published in Poland. term – ‘Zionist-Trotskyite’ – was coined and it became a
The official press often linked the burgeoning demo- regular feature of the media campaign against the dis-
cratic movement with organizations such as Klub Babel, sidents in 1968. This was reflected by propagandists such as
the youth meeting club run by the Jewish Social-Cultural Bogdan Hillebrandt, who spun conspiracy theories linking
Association. According to Bogdan Hillebrandt, the club was ‘Zionists, Trotskyites and revisionists’ with former mem-
“a propaganda forum for Jewish chauvinism and national- bers of Hashomer Hatzair, a left-Zionist youth organization.
ism, aiming at infecting the youth with a Zionist attitude.”6
In particular, the Jewish-communist family back- The Meaning of ‘Zionism’
ground of the 18-year old student leader Adam Michnik
was remorselessly exploited by official propaganda, ‘Zionism’ was a key charge in all the accusations. In most
which reminded readers ad nauseam that his father had cases, there was rather little doubt it simply served as a
been a censor, while his brother had served as a court shorthand for being Jewish or sympathizing with Jews.
martial judge during the early years of communist “Zionist” Jews were presented as a rootless yet unified
Poland. Such attacks on Michnik were continually re- and homogenous trans-national group working for the
peated in the organs of communist propaganda over the benefit of Israel and the United States. They were accused
of “cosmopolitanism” and “nationalism” simultaneously.
Such apparent contradictions are in fact a typical feature
“A curious term—‘Zionist-Trotskyite’—was of antisemitic discourse throughout the centuries.
coined and it became a regular feature of the In the key state media company, Interpress, six
journalists were excluded from the party organization
media campaign against the dissidents in for being “Zionists”. Asked what he actually meant by
1968” “Zionist”, the director reportedly answered that he
had no time to check it precisely in an encyclopedia but
he believed a Zionist is a person whose parents were
next several decades. Significantly, they persist today Jewish. Similar situations were commonplace.9
in the discourse of the Polish extreme right. Michnik is At a Warsaw party organization meeting on 26 June
now the editor of the country’s main liberal newspaper, 1967, a female party member was criticized for her absence
Gazeta Wyborcza, and is considered to be a founding at a previous meeting which condemned Israel. A party
father of Polish liberal democracy, which makes him official was reported as saying: “Your hair and skin tone
an eternal bete noire for the nationalist extremists. show that you are of Jewish descent. You cannot deny it.
Similar treatment has been meted out to one of Poles of Jewish descent do not participate in these meet-
Michnik’s closest collaborators in the student movement ings on purpose, you should explain your attitude.” The
of Warsaw in the late 1960s, Jan Gross, who later became party member in question felt duly obliged to present
a political science professor in the United States. Gross is documents proving that in fact she was not Jewish.10
the author of ground-breaking books about antisemitism The state-sponsored mobilization required mass
that are loathed by the contemporary Polish nationalists.7 participation. In March and April 1968 all over the country
Official propaganda always stressed the Trotskyist televised official rallies were organized in support of the
influence on the dissidents. And there was, indeed, a government with slogans such as “Zionists Go to Zion”,
degree of ideological inspiration as well as organizational “Antisemitism no! Anti-Zionism yes!”, and the most
assistance provided to the 1960s student movement by curious of all “Zionists to Siam!” (“Syjonisci do Syjamu!”).

When ‘Zionist’ Meant ‘Jew’: Revisiting the 1968 Events in Poland 5

The last slogan was indicative of the fact that the par- hid behind the label of “progressive anti-Zionism.”
ticipants in the rallies couldn’t care less about the real Piasecki threw his lot with General Moczar and the PAX
objectives of Zionism or about the Middle East as such, Association took an active part in the antisemitic cam-
which seemed distant and irrelevant to the Polish situ- paign. Its publications, such as the daily newspaper Slowo
ation. The same fact was illustrated by a popular joke: Powszechne, thundered against ‘Zionists’ and ‘cosmopoli-
tans’. It claimed the Polish student movement was manipu-
—Daddy, how do you spell “Zionist”? lated by “a political triangle formed by Washington, Bonn
—I don’t know but before the war you spelt it with a “J”! and Tel-Aviv, in unity with the global Zionist movement.”
A meeting of young party members with General
In other words, ‘Zionist’ became an offensive term Moczar on 8 April 1968 was characteristic of the dominant
used against real or perceived Jews whatever their politi- propaganda, too. The Minister of the Interior claimed
cal persuasion. Communist rhetoric did not allow openly that “all the Western press, as it is commonly known,
targeting people on the basis of racial criteria, while the is generally controlled by Jewish nationalists smearing
targeting of alleged “Zionists” was perfectly acceptable. the Polish nation and the Polish government”. Radio
The protagonists of the campaign preferred to Free Europe, for example, was “dominated by Zionist
talk about “Zionism” rather than about Jews per se elements.” He went on to attack Jews among the party
so that, if needed, they could always point to a hand- ranks. According to Moczar, “it is a worrying phenom-
ful of “good Jews” who could be used to prove their enon in our social-political life that many ex-policemen
point. According to Professor Michal Glowinski, from the ghetto today occupy responsible positions
who analyzed the discourse of 1968, “the good Jew” in the party and in the state in socialist Poland.” The
was a permanent feature of the propaganda.11 Nazification of Zionists and Jews was on display here.
Alleged double loyalty and treachery of the “Zionists”
was a common theme. The regional party secretary in
Lublin exclaimed at a 21 March 1968 rally: “Our youth “...an encyclopedia that had just been
must not be led astray by such educators as Brus, Bauman, published, under the entry “Hitlerite
Kolakowski and the like, by the trans-national writers concentration camps,” overemphasized
such as the Slonimskis (Antoni Slominski was a Polish-
Jewish poet) or the Kisielewskis (Stefan Kisielewski
Jewish suffering and neglected the issue of
was a liberal writer and columnist) and must not be led ethnic Polish victims”
astray by the young Zionist organizers and participants
of the unrest in Warsaw and other academic centers … In the first half of 1968, some forty people were
We have the right to demand a clear self-declaration sacked from the staff of the State Scientific Publishing
from those Jews, citizens of our state, who have not House (PWN). The pretext was found in the fact that
self-declared themselves yet.” On 19 March 1968 Gomulka an encyclopedia that had just been published, under
himself spoke in a similar vein at a rally in Warsaw. In the entry “Hitlerite concentration camps”, overempha-
his view the chief problem was the necessity for a “self- sized Jewish suffering and neglected the issue of ethnic
declaration on the part of Jews – citizens of our state”. Polish victims. The question became a major subject in
On 11 April 1968 Boleslaw Piasecki condemned, in his the official press. A new entry was printed and sent to
parliamentary speech, “the anti-Polish - internal and the encyclopedia subscribers with a request to remove
external – action of Zionist nationalism”. This charge and replace the relevant page. A stream of articles were
against “nationalism”, made by the historic leader of published in the press that eulogized Polish assistance
Polish extreme nationalists, demonstrated a curious yet to Jews during World War II, while highlighting the
characteristic inversion of meaning, according to which the cases of supposed Jewish collaboration with the Nazis.
liberal and Marxist dissidents were associated with “Jewish Even the most crude antisemitic arguments were
chauvinism” while the hard-line totalitarian antisemites used in the “anti-Zionist” campaign. The Protocols of

When ‘Zionist’ Meant ‘Jew’: Revisiting the 1968 Events in Poland 6

the Elders of Zion and similar antisemitic materials old-guard communist, Stefan Jedrychowski, also spoke
were secretly printed in 1968 and distributed through out, along with the nominal head of state Edward Ochab.
party channels, in the military and security forces.12 Ochab resigned from all his official posts in protest
The party committee in Lodz, one of Poland’s industrial against antisemitism. His letter to the party leader-
centers, published a special brochure titled “Zionism, its ship stated: “As a Pole and a communist, I protest most
genesis, political outlook and anti-Polish position” in which strongly against the antisemitic campaign organized in
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was quoted as a supposedly Poland by various dark forces; yesterday’s ONR mem-
reliable source. The same Lodz committee circulated a bers (a fascist party) and their prominent supporters
leaflet which turned out to be based directly on an article today.” At a party school of political cadres a resolution
in the notorious Nazi newspaper Der Sturmer. Once alerted to condemn Israel and its Polish supporters met with
about it, Gomulka order an internal investigation which some resistance. One discussant said that to divide the
established that an officer in the Ministry of the Interior, nation according to ethnic origin was “in contradiction
Wladyslaw Ciaston, was responsible for the publication. not only to Marxism and to common sense but also meant
He was subsequently dismissed but later reinstated to his sliding down towards racist, Hitlerite positions.”14
position. He worked as the head of the Security Service and
vice-minister of the interior in the 1980s before being nom-
inated to the post of Polish Ambassador to Albania in 1988. “The Jews, he said, ‘are prone to revisionism
As Kenneth S. Stern wrote, it is “easy (…) for one and Jewish nationalism, Zionism in
form of antisemitism – anti-Zionism – to open the particular.” ...he called for further
floodgates for expressions of the other strains, tar-
“correction of an incorrect nationality
ring Judaism as a religion and Jews as people.”13
structure in the central institutions.’”
Repression and Emigration of ‘Zionists’
Andrzej Werblan, a party ideologist, countered such
As part of repressive measures that followed the arguments in an article on the pages of the monhly
student unrest, hundreds of students were expelled journal Miesiecznik Literacki, in which he complained
from universities. Professors who were seen as sym- of over-representation of Jews in academic jobs and
pathizers of the student movement were sacked. In other important positions (“much higher than would
this way, Polish academia was deprived of its leading result from the proportion of the Jewish population in
stars, especially in the field of humanities. Kolakowski, our society”). The Jews, he said,“are prone to revision-
Bauman, Brus, Hirszowicz and many others were ism and Jewish nationalism, Zionism in particular.” In
dismissed and emigrated to continue their careers as conclusion, he called for further “correction of an incor-
eminent academics in major universities in the West. rect nationality structure in the central institutions.”
Shortly after his arrival in Israel, Zygmunt Bauman The purge continued downwards, reaching lower
issued a statement in the Ma’ariv newspaper in which he levels of the administration and party organization
asserted: “Polish workers are not antisemitic, and the intel- as well as various professional bodies, media outlets,
ligentsia is far from it either. The regime rests chiefly on the schools and many other institutions. Hundreds of
antisemitism of the new bourgeoisie, which is composed real or perceived Jews or “Zionists” were sacked or
of army officers, governmental and party officials.” Many forced to resign in humiliating circumstances.
members of this ‘new bourgeoisie’ were more than happy to The wave of repression raised concerns of interna-
occupy the positions as part of their upward social mobility. tional public opinion. Among others, on 6 April 1968, the
The purge extended to family members of the demo- philosopher Bertrand Russell protested in defense of the
cratic activists, as well as those representatives of the dismissed academics on the pages of The Times. In the face
communist establishment who expressed reservations of reports in the international press, on 13 April 1968, the
about the antisemitic campaign, such as the widely Polish Ambassador to France held a press conference in
respected Foreign Minister Adam Rapacki. A leading Paris where – in a familiar pattern to be repeated by Polish

When ‘Zionist’ Meant ‘Jew’: Revisiting the 1968 Events in Poland 7

diplomats until quite recently - he informed the interna- repression emerged as experienced activists. Many of
tional press that antisemitism in Poland did not exist. them played a leading role in the formation of Solidarity
About 15-20,000 Jews were forced to emigrate from in the 1980s that eventually defeated the regime.
Poland in an atmosphere of intimidation in 1968 and
1969, and some 25 per cent of them settled in Israel.
As noted by Jan Jozef Lipski, a famous Polish Socialist “The anti-Jewish and nationalist discourse
author, the emigrants could hardly be described as employed by the Communist authorities...
Zionists: “People who felt ideologically connected
with Zionism had left much earlier, before 1968.”15
(is)...today echoed by the notorious
All of the emigrants were forced to renounce their antisemitic broadcaster, Radio Maryja”
Polish citizenship. Among them were many prominent
figures in intellectual and artistic circles, such as the
writer Henryk Grynberg, film director Aleksander Ford The antisemitic campaign of 1968 left perma-
and Ida Kaminska, the 1967 Oscar-winning actress and nent scars upon Polish society. It resulted in a mas-
founder of the Jewish Theatre in Warsaw. Interestingly, sive purge of alleged “Zionists” in universities and
despite almost all of the remaining Yiddish-speaking many other key professional fields. Together with a
population fleeing the country, including the major- wave of forced mass emigration of Jews, it deprived
ity of the Theatre’s actors, the government continued Poland of a big part of its intellectual talent.
to maintain the Jewish Theatre as well as other Jewish The anti-Jewish and nationalist discourse employed
institutions as a smokescreen for external use, in order by the Communist authorities has become a permanent
to prove that Jewish culture was protected in Poland. feature of political life in Poland, today echoed by the
The same respect was not extended to many other notorious antisemitic broadcaster, Radio Maryja, and its
symbolic sites. After his daughter Barbara was arrested political allies. The language of national populism finds
as a participant of the student movement, the grave of its place, among others, on the pages of ‘intellectual’
General Henryk Torunczyk, a communist activist and publications such as Obywatel, which serves as an ‘anti-
Spanish Civil War veteran who died in 1966, was threat- globalist’ organizing center on the edges of the extreme
ened with removal from a Warsaw cemetery reserved right and the extreme left. Its contributors, besides a
for those who served the country with distinction.. The streak of Polish MPs, have included French Holocaust
charge against Torunczyk, raised by a fellow Spanish denier Roger Garaudy, Horst Mahler, the German left-
Civil War veteran, was that “he had allowed his daughter wing terrorist turned neo-Nazi, and Alexander Dugin,
to be brought up in a Zionist spirit.” The exhumation leader of the National Bolshevik Party in Russia. On a
was stopped thanks to a higher level intervention.16 more popular level, at least two nazi-skinhead rock bands
By May 1968 Gomulka himself became seriously have put “68” into their names to show their identifica-
alarmed by the antisemitic excesses and ordered the tion with the “anti-Zionist” national-communist spirit
“anti-Zionist” campaign be halted. The damage to society of that year in Poland (Deportacja 68, Sztorm 68).
and to Polish-Jewish relations, however, was not reversed. On the other hand, the events of 1968 paved the way
for the pro-democracy movement whose heritage is an
Anti-Zionism and the end of communism important point of reference in contemporary public
debates. Support for human rights and the rejection
It can be argued that in the end the “anti-Zionist” cam- of antisemitism in all forms are part of that heritage.
paign of 1968 contributed to the gradual undoing of the Perhaps the most striking lesson of the 1968 Polish events
communist regime in Poland. By embracing antisemitic is simply this: they serve as an eternal warning against
rhetoric, the regime lost whatever remained of its ideologi- the manipulation of Israeli-Palestinian conflict by re-
cal credentials as a progressive force. A whole generation casting an anti-Zionist agenda in antisemitic terms.
of students and young intellectuals subjected to harsh

When ‘Zionist’ Meant ‘Jew’: Revisiting the 1968 Events in Poland 8

1 Werblan, Andrzej. “Przyczynek do genezy konfliktu,” Miesiecznik Literacki 6/1968, p.66 cited in Eisler, Jerzy. Marzec 1968. Geneza, przebieg, konsekwencje,
Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warszawa, 1991, p. 126.
2 Gross, Jan T. Fear. Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz, Random House, New York, 2006, p.243.
3 Cited in Gross, Jan T. Fear. Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz, Random House, New York, 2006, p.243.
4 Lesiakowski, Krzysztof. Mieczyslaw Moczar, Rytm, Warszawa 1998, p.25.
5 Gross, Jan T. Fear. Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz, Random House, New York, 2006, p.243.
6 Hillebrandt, Bogdan. Marzec 1968, Wydawnictwo Spółdzielcze, Warszawa 1986, p.40.
7 E.g. Gross, Jan T. Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, Princeton University Press, Princeton 2001.
8 Eisler, Jerzy. Marzec 1968. Geneza, przebieg, konsekwencje, Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warszawa, 1991, p. 100.
9 Eisler, Jerzy. Marzec 1968. Geneza, przebieg, konsekwencje, Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warszawa, 1991, p. 131.
10 Eisler, Jerzy. Marzec 1968. Geneza, przebieg, konsekwencje, Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warszawa, 1991, p. 132.
11 Pankowski, Rafal. “Tutaj dziala sam jezyk. Wywiad z Prof. Michalem Głowinskim,” Nigdy Wiecej 1(16)/2008.
12 Eisler, Jerzy. Marzec 1968. Geneza, przebieg, konsekwencje, Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warszawa, 1991, p. 145.
13 Stern, Kenneth S. Antisemitism Today. How It Is the Same, How It Is Different, and How to Fight It, American Jewish Committee, New York 2006, p.41.
14 Eisler, Jerzy. Marzec 1968. Geneza, przebieg, konsekwencje, Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warszawa, 1991, p. 134.
15 Cited in Eisler, Jerzy. Marzec 1968. Geneza, przebieg, konsekwencje, Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warszawa, 1991, p. 431.
16 Eisler, Jerzy. Marzec 1968. Geneza, przebieg, konsekwencje, Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warszawa, 1991, p. 381.

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