Lech Kaczynski
Photo: Reuters
Poland pres pledges to grant citizenship to Jews forced out in communist-era
Lech Kaczynski leads muted ceremonies marking the 40th anniversary of anti-Semitic purge. 'All of those who left then, and were forced to give up their citizenship, will have their citizenship returned to them if they want it,' he says
WARSAW, Poland - Poland's president led muted ceremonies Saturday marking the 40th anniversary of a communist-era anti-Semitic purge, and vowed to grant citizenship to the Jews who were stripped of it upon leaving the country.
"All of those who left then, and were forced to give up their citizenship, will have their citizenship returned to them if they want it," President Lech Kaczynski said at Warsaw's Gdansk Train Station.
A plaque marks the symbolic point from which an estimated 15,000 Jews - survivors of the Holocaust and their children - were driven from Poland by the country's communist regime. "I treat that as my contribution to rectifying those sad and shameful acts," Kaczynski said.
On March 8, 1968, police and Communist Party worker-activists invaded Warsaw University's campus. They attacked students protesting the expulsion of two colleagues who had spoken out against the closure of a play.
The episode and subsequent clashes and civil unrest that played out across Poland between students and police radicalized many young people.
'We left here with a piece of Poland'
Poland's communist leaders then used Jews as scapegoats in a campaign aimed at silencing the social unrest and quelling a power struggle within the regime. Thousands of Jews were forced to leave Poland and relinquish their citizenship at the time.
Since the fall of communism in 1989, successive Polish governments have sought to address the injustices committed by the communist regime, but have struggled with the thorny issue of expelled Jews due to the murky legal status of communist-era decrees.
"We left because we couldn't be Poles here, but also because we couldn't live here as Jews," said Michael Sobelman, who spoke in the name of those who emigrated. "Poland didn't want us then."
Sobelman, who left in June 1969, thanked the president for his "Noble and beautiful gesture" to return citizenship to those who lost it.
"Along with our small number of bags, we left here with a piece of Poland, that for 40 years was abroad with us," Sobelman added. "We are in a symbolic way returning it here today."
This year's commemoration, which includes a series of academic conferences and a handful of documentary film viewings, comes amid a rebirth in Poland of Jewish life that was devastated during the Holocaust. It also comes as Poland - once home to Europe's largest Jewish community of nearly 3.5 million before it was nearly obliterated under the Nazi occupation - continues to confront painful memories from its historical ties with Jews.
Most recently, a new book by Princeton University professor Jan Gross released in January about the deaths of Jews at the hands of Poles in the aftermath of World War II sparked debate here about anti-Semitism in the country.
