Three organisers of antisemitic march in Polish city arrested amid widespread condemnation

Three organisers of an extremist march in the city of Kalisz, whose participants chanted “Death to Jews”, have been arrested for inciting hatred and crimes. The event has also been publically condemned by Poland’s president, ministers and the Catholic church.

On Sunday, hundreds of people attended a second rally in the same city – under the slogan “Kalisz free from antisemitism” – to express their opposition to Thursday’s far-right march.

Following widespread condemnation of Thursday’s march in Kalisz, on Monday morning the three organisers of the march – Wojciech O., Marcin O. and Piotr R., whose full names are withheld under Polish law – were arrested.

The three men stand accused of inciting hatred, insult on the basis of ethnicity and public incitement to commit crimes against others based on nationality and religion, reports TVN24.

“We do not accept antisemitism and hatred based on nationality, religion or ethnicity,” wrote Polish interior minister Mariusz Kamiński on Twitter. He had previously also condemned the march as “shameful”.

The rally on Sunday was organised by members of opposition parties and civic groups. Banners at the event carried slogans including “Stop hate” and “My homeland is humanity”, as well as a crossed-out symbol of the National Radical Camp (ONR), a far-right group that is one of the organisers of the separate Independence March that took place on the same day in Warsaw.

One of the organisers of Sunday’s rally, the Committee for the Defence of Democracy (KOD), is best known for holding protests in response to the Polish constitutional crisis in November 2015. A letter from an association of former residents of the city and their descendants in Israel was read out:

“We are proud of our country of origin and its culture. We know that the recent demonstration of extremists in Kalisz does not represent the majority of Poles and Polish culture. We are pleased that the majority of society condemns it.”

“What happened in our city on 11 November is a shameful episode that should never have taken place,” said Mariusz Witczak, a Civic Platform (PO) MP. He criticised the city’s mayor, Krystian Kinastowski, for not acting sooner to prevent the march, saying that he “shamefully failed” the test of wise government.

Kinastowski, who criticised the march on Thursday, also notified prosecutors of a potential crime and passed on police recordings of the event. He denied that permission had been granted for it to take place.

He explained that the march had not been dissolved for fear that it would “get out of control, blood could be spilt and the city destroyed.”

President Andrzej Duda also condemned the original march as “barbarism,” which he said was “at odds with Polish values”, as well as “an act of betrayal” in the light of the situation on the border and the “propaganda operation against Poland”.

The spokesman of Poland’s foreign ministry said that the event, which took place on Poland’s national holiday of Independence Day, had “exploited” the date to “spread hatred, antisemitism, xenophobia and religious intolerance”.

Representatives of Christian churches and communities in Kalisz, including Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox figures, issued a joint statement condemning the antisemitic march, noting the city’s history as a meeting place of religions and cultures.

“This heritage is important for us residents of Kalisz today and provides a foundation on which we build good relations,” they wrote, quoted by Interia. “The events of 11 November in our city are painful as they undermine basic human and Christian values like mutual respect, dialogue and cooperation.”

The Conference of Polish Bishops (KEP) criticised the “antisemitic behaviour in Kalisz” as at odds with “patriotism” and “in clear contradiction with the gospel and church teaching”.

Main image credit: Twitter/Forum Polskich Żydów

Ben Koschalka

Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.