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Racism in Poland

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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]

Year Hate crimes recorded by police Prosecuted Sentenced
2022 1,180 440 312
2021 997 466 339
2020 826 374 266
2019 972 432 597
2018 1,117 397 315

Jews

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Further information: Antisemitism, Supersessionism, and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

Middle Ages

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King Casimir III the Great brought Jews to Poland during the Black Death when Jewish communities were persecuted across Europe.[5][6]

Renaissance

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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 (generally speaking, temporary stays were possible in the royal palace). Only the Praga suburb was open to them.[8]: 334 

Interwar period

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Antisemitic poster dated to the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921.

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 far-right Endecja (National Democracy) party continued to organize anti-Jewish boycotts.[9]

After Polish Prime Minister Józef Piłsudski's death in 1935, the 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. Anti-Jewish laws were subsequently drafted.[9][10] American historian Timothy Snyder claimed that the pre-1939 Polish leadership

[...] 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?[11]

Mid-20th century

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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 under the auspices of the Nazis.[12][9]

Brief post-war antisemitic violence, including the Kraków pogrom on 11 August 1945 and Kielce pogrom on 4 July 1946, also happened. They are claimed to have been caused by lawlessness[13] and the Żydokomuna (Jewish communism) myth believed by some Poles.[14][15][16]

21st century

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2020s

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Antisemitic graffiti in Lublin depicting a Star of David hanging from gallows, c. 2012.

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.[17]

Whereas, the Czulent Jewish Association, a Polish Jewish group,[18] 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."[19] Comments peddling antisemitic tropes and blaming all Jews for the Gaza War are also common in Reddit's subreddit r/Poland.[20]

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.[21] During the 2023 Hanukkah, the same MP put out a menorah with a fire extinguisher in the Polish parliament.[22] He was expelled by the parliament and charged with hate crimes.[22] His behavior caused a global uproar,[23] while being praised by a pro-Palestinian multitude in Reddit's subreddit r/Poland who claimed to be "only anti-Israel".[20] Despite Grzegorz Braun's actions, he was elected to the European Parliament in June 2024.[24]

On 1 May 2024, the Nożyk Synagogue in Warsaw was hit with three firebombs by a 16-year old. Poland's President Andrzej Duda condemned the attack.[25]

Roma

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See the main article: Roma people
Further information: Antiziganism

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.[26][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.[27] It is claimed that the riot's news coverage comprised anti-Roma stereotypes.[28][better source needed]

Africans

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The most common word in Polish for a Black person is Murzyn, often deemed neutral in the past but a slur nowadays.[29][30] 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.[30]

References

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  1. ↑ Główny Urząd Statystyczny, Wyniki Narodowego Spisu Powszechnego Ludności i Mieszkań 2011 Archived 21 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Warszawa 2012, pp. 105-106
  2. ↑ Polish population census 2002 nationalities tables 1 or 2
  3. ↑ "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.
  4. ↑ "Poland Hate Crime Report 2022". ODIHR. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Poland – Virtual Jewish History Tour" at Jewish Virtual Library via Internet Archive.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Polish Jews History", at PolishJews.org via Internet Archive.
  7. ↑ The Torah Ark in Renaissance Poland: A Jewish Revival of Classical Antiquity, Ilia M. Rodov, Brill, pages 2-6
  8. ↑ 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.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Laqueur, Walter (July 30, 2009). "Toward the Holocaust". The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195341218. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  10. ↑ 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. S2CID 153790671.
  11. ↑ Snyder, Timothy (2015). "The Promise of Palestine". Black earth: the Holocaust as history and warning (1 ed.). New York: Tim Duggan Books. ISBN 978-1-101-90345-2.
  12. ↑ Wróbel, Piotr (2006). Lessons and Legacies: The Holocaust in international perspective. Northwestern University Press. pp. 391–396. doi:10.2307/j.ctv47w635. ISBN 0-8101-2370-3. JSTOR j.ctv47w635. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
  13. ↑ Grabski, August. "Book review of Stefan Grajek: Po wojnie i co dalej? Żydzi w Polsce, w latach 1945−1949 translated from Hebrew by Aleksander Klugman, 2003" (PDF). Central and Eastern European Online Library (CEEOL) (in Polish). Kwartalnik Historii Żydów (Jewish History Quarterly). p. 240 – via direct download, 1.03 MB.
  14. ↑
  15. ↑
  16. ↑ *"Poland's President Apologizes for 1968 Purge of Jews". Haaretz. March 18, 2018. Retrieved October 17, 2024.
  17. ↑
  18. ↑ "Addressing Antisemitism through Education in the Visegrad Group Countries. A Mapping Report". Żydowskie Stowarzyszenie Czulent. 5 October 2022. Retrieved October 15, 2024.
  19. ↑
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Examples:
  21. ↑
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Wright, George (18 January 2024). "Grzegorz Braun: Polish MP who doused Hanukkah candles loses immunity". BBC News. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
  23. ↑
  24. ↑
  25. ↑
  26. ↑ Rebecca Jean Emigh; Szelényi, Iván (2001). Poverty, Ethnicity, and Gender in Eastern Europe During the Market Transition. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 101–102. ISBN 978-0-275-96881-6. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  27. ↑ "Poles Vent Their Economic Rage on Gypsies". The New York Times. July 25, 1991. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  28. ↑ 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".
  29. ↑ ""Murzyn" i "Murzynka"". www.rjp.pan.pl. Retrieved 2020-08-14.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 "#DontCallMeMurzyn: Black Women in Poland Are Powering the Campaign Against a Racial Slur". Time. August 7, 2020.
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