“Death to Jews” chanted at torchlit far-right march in Polish city

Hundreds of people joined a far-right march in the city of Kalisz yesterday at which participants chanted “Death to Jews” and burned a copy of a famous historical document that granted Jews the right to settle in Poland.

Their actions have been criticised by the mayor, who has notified prosecutors of a potential crime and passed on police recordings of the event. The organiser of the march – an extremist figure with pro-Russian views – is already under investigated by the authorities over his provocative behaviour.

The event took place on Poland’s Independence Day, but was unrelated to the much larger nationalist march that passed through Warsaw.

In Kalisz, a city of 100,000 people in central Poland, participants marched to the historic market square chanting “death to enemies of the fatherland”, reported local news website Nasze Miasto.

Then, in front of the town hall, members of the crowd shouted “death to Jews” while a copy of the Statute of Kalisz was burned. The latter document, issued in the 13th century, granted Jews legal protection and rights in Poland at a time when they were facing persecution elsewhere in Europe.

The crowd then chanted “this is Poland, not Polin”, referring to the Hebrew name for Poland. The slogan is often used by Polish nationalists to suggest that alleged Jewish influence over Poland must be removed.

“LGBT, pederasts and Zionists are the enemies of Poland,” declared the organiser of the march, Aleksander Jabłoński, quoted by Onet. During his speech he also criticised Covid vaccines.

“Polish-speaking people from Israel are working against the Polish nation under hidden names,” said another speaker, Piotr Rybak, a far-right figure who was previously convicted for burning a Jewish effigy in public. “We will chase off this mob to Israel, just like in 1968.”

The latter remark was a reference to purges in communist Poland that saw thousands of Jews driven out of the country in the late 1960s.

Local historian Maciej Błachowicz condemned the march, and in particular the burning of the Statute of Kalisz, which he likened to the burning of books during the Nazis’ Kristallnacht pogroms of 1938. He blamed the city’s mayor, Krystian Kinastowski, for not ordering the march to be dissolved, reports TVP.

This morning, Kinastowski issued a statement condemning the march and expressing his pride in Kalisz’s “multicultural and tolerant” history. This afternoon, he confirmed that he had issued a notification to prosecutors regarding the possible committing of crimes by the organisers.

The local branch of far-right party Confederation (Konfederacja), whose members and supporters have often appeared alongside Jabłonowski, also distanced themselves from the march, pointing out that they did not organise or participate in it, notes TVP.

Jabłonowski – whose real name is Wojciech Olszański – is a far-right activist who became known for YouTube videos and other media appearances spreading hateful and violent rhetoric and conspiracy theories, many of which are antisemitic.

He has also expressed support for Vladimir Putin’s Russia and Alexander Lukashenko’s Belarus, as well as opposition to Poland’s alliance with America.

Earlier this year, Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) reportedly launched an investigation into his activities. In June, he and his associates verbally confronted people protesting in Poland against the Belarusian regime and allegedly attacked one of them with tear gas, reported Gazeta Wyborcza.

Main image credit: Kalisz24 Info/Facebook (screenshot)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.