The Polish 1968 political crisis (also known in Poland as 'March 1968' or 'March events', Polish: Marzec 1968 or wydarzenia marcowe) describes major student and intellectual protests against the communist government of the People's Republic of Poland, their repression by state forces and the concurrent Soviet anti-Zionist reaction. The student and intellectual protests coincided with and supported the events of Prague spring in neighboring Czechoslovakia. Before the campaign, which began in 1967, Poland had 40,000 Jews; within a few years, fewer than 5,000 remained. Prior to the Holocaust, 3.3 million Jews lived in Poland; at that time, it was the second largest Jewish community in the world. For other uses, see Student (disambiguation). ... Demonstrators march in the street while protesting the World Bank and International Monetary Fund on April 16, 2005. ... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... Capital Warsaw Language(s) Polish Government Socialist republic Leaders  - 1948–1956 BolesÅ‚aw Bierut (First)  - 1981-1989 Wojciech Jaruzelski (Last) Prime minister  - 1944-1947 E. Osóbka-Morawski  - 1947-1952 and 1954-1970 Józef Cyrankiewicz  - 1952-1954 BolesÅ‚aw Bierut  - 1970-1980 Piotr Jaroszewicz  - 1980 Edward Babiuch  - 1980-1981... Anti-Zionism is a term that has been used to describe several very different political and religious points of view, both historically and in current debates. ... People in a café watch Soviet tanks roll past The Prague Spring (Czech: Pražské jaro, Slovak: Pražská jar, Russian: пражская весна) was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia starting January 5, 1968 when Alexander Dubček came to power, and running until August 20 of that year when the... For other uses, see Holocaust (disambiguation) and Shoah (disambiguation). ...

Background

Protest in 1968 Europe

An escalating wave of protest and dissent in Czechoslovakia marked the highpoint of a broader series of dissident social mobilization. The protests of the workers within the communist framework seemed to recall the 1956 protests in Poland. Numerous events of protest and revolt, especially among students reverberated across the continent in 1968, but many followed rather than preceded the Polish crisis.

A growing crisis in Communist Party control over universities, the literary community and intellectuals more generally marked the mid-1960s. Among those persecuted for their political activism on campus were Jacek Kuron and Adam Michnik. Jacek Kuroń (March 3, 1934-June 17, 2004) was a Polish historian, dissident and opposition leader with the Solidarity movement. ... Adam Michnik in WrocÅ‚aw, March 2006 Adam Michnik (born October 17, 1946, Warsaw, Poland) is the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza a major Polish newspaper, where he sometimes writes under the pen-names of Andrzej Zagozda or Andrzej JagodziÅ„ski. ...

Antisemitism in the Peoples Republic of Poland soviet-backed government

The relationship between the two groups had a long and complex history.^[1] Most Jewish Poles were killed during the Holocaust, also a pogrom took place in Kielce in 1946,^[2] after World War II had ended and Poland stayed under Soviet rule. For other uses, see Holocaust (disambiguation) and Shoah (disambiguation). ... Pogrom (from Russian: ; from громить IPA: - to wreak havoc, to demolish violently) is a form of riot directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious or other, and characterized by destruction of their homes, businesses and religious centres. ... Kielce pogrom refers to the events on July 4, 1946, in the Polish town of Kielce, when forty Polish Jews were massacred and eighty wounded out of about two hundred Holocaust survivors who returned home after World War II. Among victims were also two Gentile Poles. ...

During the 1967 Six-Day War between Israel and Egypt and the majority of the Arab nations, Israel occupied the Sinai peninsula, Gaza Strip, West Bank, and the Golan Heights. Israel's relations with the communist block drastically deteriorated. Members of the international community, including the Soviet Union, condemned Israel for "aggression" and occupation. This continued a Soviet party line which attacked Zionism and Israel and backed the Arab states. Władysław Gomułka, the Poland based Soviet puppet-government saw an opportunity to both please Moscow by taking an anti-Israel stance, and to introduce terror among the people. Among the Polish nation Roman Catholic and Jewish were largest religions before the holocaust, so it is hard for anyone to deny having Jewish links and predecessors, for that reason Anti-semitism became a terror tool—any Pole could be accused of Zionism.^{[citation needed]} Combatants Israel Egypt Syria Jordan Iraq Commanders Yitzhak Rabin, Moshe Dayan, Uzi Narkiss, Israel Tal, Mordechai Hod, Ariel Sharon Abdel Hakim Amer, Abdul Munim Riad, Zaid ibn Shaker, Hafez al-Assad Strength 264,000 (incl. ... Sinai Peninsula, Gulf of Suez (west), Gulf of Aqaba (east) from Space Shuttle STS-40 For other uses of the word Sinai, please see: Sinai (disambiguation). ... The Golan Heights (‎ Ramat HaGolan, Arabic: Habat al-Å«lān) or Golan is a mountainous area in northeastern Israel[1] on the border of Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. ... During the Cold War, the Eastern Bloc (or Soviet Bloc) comprised the following Central and Eastern European countries: Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Albania (until the early 1960s, see below), the Soviet Union, and Czechoslovakia. ... Belligerent military occupation, occurs when one nations military garrisons occupy all or part of a foreign nation during an invasion (during or after a war). ... This article is about Zionism as a movement, not the History of Israel. ... For other uses, see Arab (disambiguation). ... WÅ‚adysÅ‚aw GomuÅ‚ka (February 6, 1905, Krosno – September 1, 1982) was a Polish Communist leader. ... For other uses, see Holocaust (disambiguation) and Shoah (disambiguation). ... The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ... This article is about Zionism as a movement, not the History of Israel. ...

In 1965, the Soviet Politburo had decided to ease Jews out of executive positions and other jobs by 1970, and the puppet government in Poland had taken action through making Tadeusz Walichnowski, an "anti-Zionist expert," the head of the minorities branch of the government, and by moving that department from social services to counter-intelligence. In the words of Polish scholar Wlodzimierz Rozenbaum:

The Six-Day War in the Middle East started at the right time in view of the domestic developments in Communist Poland. It provided Gomułka with an opportunity 'to kill several birds with one stone': he could use an "anti-Zionist" policy to undercut the appeal of the liberal wing of the PUWP; he could bring forward the Jewish issue to weaken the support for the nationalist faction and make his own position even stronger; he could through this policy participate in a larger effort by the Warsaw Pact countries; and the Jewish question could be solved once and for all. To Gomułka's nationalist challengers, the war in the Middle East and its international and domestic implications provided - what seemed at the time - a very tempting opportunity to test his strength and to build a meaningful power base for the future. National Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies in Atlanta, Ga., 8-11 October 1975.

Faced by an underground opposition movement, the government ordered that anti-Israel and anti-Zionist propaganda be increased, and on June 19th, 1967 PM gave a speech calling the Jews a "fifth column,"^[3] suggesting they should be transferred to Israel. The Polish Communist party began a process to purge "Zionist" (Jewish) elements, primarily aimes at liberal opposition movement. Many Poles (irrespective of actual faith) were accused of being Zionists and expelled from the party. A fifth column is a group of people which clandestinely undermines a larger group to which it is expected to be loyal, such as a nation. ...

Polish Student and intellectual protest

In January, the communist government banned the performance of a play by Adam Mickiewicz, (Dziady, written in 1824) and directed by Kazimierz Dejmek at the Polish Theatre in Warsaw, on the grounds that it contained Russophobic and "anti-socialist" references. The play had been performed 14 times, the last on January 30. Dejmek was expelled from the Communist Party and later fired from the National Theatre.[1] Adam Mickiewicz. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Dziady. ... 1824 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Polish Theatre in Warsaw Polish Theatre in Warsaw (Polish: is one of the theatres in Warsaw, Poland. ... A typical manifestattion of the modern Russophobia. ...

The Warsaw Writers' Union condemned the ban on March 2, followed by the Actors' Union. A crowd of some 1,500 students protesting at Warsaw University on March 8 was met by attacks. Within four days, protests spread to Kraków, Lublin, Gliwice, Wrocław, Gdańsk, Poznań, and Łódź. Bands of Communist party "worker-squads" attacked the students, followed by police in Warsaw and Lublin. Mass student strikes took place in Wrocław on March 14-16, Kraków on March 14-20, and Opole. A call for a general strike was issued from Warsaw on March 13. A hardline speech by Władysław Gomułka on March 19 cut off the possibility of negotiation. Further student protests, strikes and occupations were met with the mass expulsion of thousands of participants. National coordination by the students was attempted through a March 25 meeting in Wrocław; most of its attendees were jailed by the end of April. At least 2,725 people were arrested for participating. According to internal government reports, the suppression was generally effective, although students were able to disrupt May Day ceremonies is Wroclaw.^[4] Warsaw University (Polish: ) is one of the largest universities in Poland. ... is the 67th day of the year (68th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Krakow (disambiguation). ... Panorama of Lublin form Trynitarska Tower Coordinates: , Country Voivodeship Powiat city county Gmina Lublin Established before 12th century City Rights 1317 Government  - Mayor Adam Wasilewski Area  - City 147. ... Gliwice (pronounce: [gliviʦε]; German: ), is an industrial city in southern Poland with 200,361 inhabitants (2004) over the KÅ‚odnica River, about 20 km to the west from Katowice. ... Motto: Miasto spotkaÅ„ (the meeting place) Coordinates: , Country Poland Voivodeship Lower Silesian Powiat city county Gmina WrocÅ‚aw Established 10th century City Rights 1262 Government  - Mayor RafaÅ‚ Dutkiewicz Area  - City 292. ... For alternative meanings of GdaÅ„sk and Danzig, see GdaÅ„sk (disambiguation) and Danzig (disambiguation) Motto: Nec temere, nec timide (No rashness, no timidness) Coordinates: , Country Voivodeship Powiat city county Gmina GdaÅ„sk Established 10th century City Rights 1263 Government  - Mayor PaweÅ‚ Adamowicz Area  - City 262 km²  (101. ... Coordinates: , Country Voivodeship Powiat city county Gmina PoznaÅ„ Established 8th century City Rights 1253 Government  - Mayor Ryszard Grobelny Area  - City 261. ... Motto: Ex navicula navis (From a boat, a ship) Coordinates: , Country Voivodeship Powiat city county Gmina Łódź City Rights 1423 Government  - Mayor Jerzy Kropiwnicki Area  - City 293. ... A general strike is a strike action by an entire labour force in a city, region or country. ... WÅ‚adysÅ‚aw GomuÅ‚ka (February 6, 1905, Krosno – September 1, 1982) was a Polish Communist leader. ... An occupation, as an act of protest, is the entry into and holding of a building, space or symbolic site. ... This article is about the holidays celebrated on May 1. ...

To stir the attention of general public from the Student movement, which had a liberal backgroud and was centred around freedom of speech for intellectuals and artists, the communist party came up with the idea of Nazi provenance. A leader of the hardline faction inside the Party, blamed the student riot on "Zionists" and used this affair as a pretext to launch a larger anti-Semitic campaign (although the expression "anti-Zionist" was officially used) to target the Jews, following on the earlier anti-Zionist movements. In fact, despite the participation of a mix of Christian and Jewish Polish student activists in the protests, the relation of the protesting to Zionism was mixed if not negative. The national strike call from Warsaw opposed both anti-Semitism and Zionism.^[5] A banner hung at a Rzeszow high school on April 27 read: "We hail our Zionist comrades."^[4] Anti-Zionism is a term that has been used to describe several very different political and religious points of view, both historically and in current debates. ... This article is about Zionism as a movement, not the History of Israel. ...

Anti-Semitic persecution and the March 1968 events

Dariusz Stola of the Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, called the events that followed in 1967 and 1968 as an anti-Semitic "massive hate campaign," clearly aimed at Polish Jews, despite the use of the word Zionists:

The term “anti-Zionist campaign” is misleading in two ways, since the campaign began as an anti-Israeli policy but quickly turned into an anti-Jewish campaign, and this evident anti-Jewish character remained its distinctive feature. Firstly, the words Zionism and Zionist, were a substitute and code-name for “Jew” and “Jewish.” Secondly, “Zionist” signified Jew even if the person called Zionist was not Jewish. PDF Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism, an international political movement that supports a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine[1][2] Anti-Zionism takes many forms, ranging from political or religious opposition to the idea of a Jewish state, to rejecting Israels right to exist and the legitimacy...

More intense official government persecution followed, in the words of The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe (Yale University Press): "The Interior Ministry compiled a card index of all Polish citizens of Jewish origin, even those who had been detached from organized Jewish life for generations. Jews were removed from jobs in public service, including from teaching positions in schools and universities. Pressure was placed upon them to leave the country by bureaucratic actions aimed at undermining their sources of livelihood and sometimes even by physical brutality."(PDF)

The communist government faced by massive anti-soviet opposition of Poles, used propaganda of hate to divide the nation. The campaign equated Jewish origins with Zionist sympathies and thus disloyalty to Poland. Jewish organizations were shut down, Yiddish was banned and anti-Semitic slogans were used in rallies. Yiddish (ייִדיש, Jiddisch) is a Germanic language spoken by about four million Jews throughout the world. ...

By 1968, most of Poland's 40,000 remaining Jews were assimilated into Polish society, but over the next year, they became the center of an organized campaign to equate Jewish origins with Zionist sympathies and thus disloyalty to Poland. Approximately 20,000 Jews lost their jobs and had to emigrate. The campaign, despite being ostensibly directed at Jews who had held office during the Stalin era and their families, affected most of the remaining Polish Jews, regardless of background.

Aftermath

There were several results of these March 1968 events.

The communist government reacted in several ways to the March events. One was an official approval for demonstrating Polish national feelings, including the scaling down of official criticism of the prewar Polish regime, and of Poles who had fought in the anti-Communist wartime partisan movement, the Armia Krajowa. The second was the complete alienation of the regime from the leftist intelligentsia, who were disgusted at the official promotion of anti-Semitism. Many Polish intellectuals opposed the campaign, some openly, and Moczar's security apparatus became as hated as Berman's had been. The third was the founding by Polish Emigrants to the West of organizations that encouraged opposition within Poland. Armia Krajowa (the Home Army), abbreviated AK, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. ...

The campaign damaged Poland's reputation abroad, particularly in the United States. Despite worldwide condemnation of the March 1968 events, for many years the Communist government did not admit the anti-Semitic nature of the anti-Zionist campaign, though some newspapers were allowed to publish critical articles. Finally, in 1988, the Polish Communist government officially acknowledged that the events were anti-Semitic, although they avoided taking full responsibility, calling them "political mistakes". After the fall of the Communist government, the Sejm issued an official condemnation of the anti-Semitism of the March 1968 events in 1998. In 2000, President Aleksander Kwaśniewski gave his own apology for the event in front of a group of Jewish students "as the president of Poland and as a Pole." The Sejm building in Warsaw. ... Aleksander KwaÅ›niewski ( ; born November 15, 1954) is a Polish politician who served as the President of Poland from 1995 to 2005. ...

References

• Andrzej Friszke, "The March 1968 Protest Movement in Light of Ministry of Interior Reports to the Party Leadership," Intermarium 1:1 (1997 [translated from Polish; original 1994]).

References

Mascot: Beaver Affiliations: University of London Russell Group EUA ACU CEMS APSIA Universities UK U8 Golden Triangle G5 Group Website: http://www. ... Look up time in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... is the 230th day of the year (231st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

• Prague Trials
• Doctors' plot
• History of the Jews in Poland

The Prague Trials were a series of Stalinist and largely anti-Semitic show trials in Czechoslovakia. ... The Doctors plot (Russian language: дело врачей (doctors affair), врачи-вредители (doctors-saboteurs) or врачи-убийцы (doctors-killers)) was an alleged conspiracy to eliminate the leadership of the Soviet Union by means of Jewish doctors poisoning top leadership. ... The history of the Jews in Poland reaches back over a millennium. ...

External links

• Article on events in 1967
• [http://www.march68.info