Jerusalem, Heshvan 4, 5754
October 19, 1993
Re: Manifestations of Antisemitism Around the World
Follow-up Report No. 5
EASTERN EUROPE
All the countries that once belonged to the Soviet-led Communist Bloc have
elected governments today, and the rules of parliamentary democracy are
usually honored in one fashion or another. Few of these new regimes,
however, came into being as a consequence of internal development resting on
prior tradition; rather, they were byproducts of the downfall of Communism
and, for this reason, still sometimes find it hard to exercise their
authority. Furthermore, the travails of the process of liberation from the
Soviet Union caused bygone nationalist emotions to surface. Much of this
region is a mosaic of nationalities and conflicting ethnic and territorial
claims. Wars have broken out in the area that was once Yugoslavia; in other
locations there are conflicts that are liable to give rise to serious
upheavals. In several respects, Eastern Europe has turned back to the
problems of the 1930s. This statement, however, is not valid with regard to
relations between these governments and Jewish communities. Today, none of
these countries has a policy of state antisemitism. On the contrary: the
governments publicly condemn antisemitism, and antisemitic acts are classed
as criminal offenses. One partial reason for this is the fact that the
Eastern European countries need Western assistance and value their image in
world public opinion. Even a country such as Croatia, headed by President
Franjo Tudjman, the author of an antisemitic book, makes efforts to ensure
the well-being of the Jewish community and strives to marshall Jewish
support in its struggles.
However, antisemitism still throbs at the grass-roots level and is nourished
by emotions of ancient religious hatred and ethnic enmity. There is no
clear-cut correlation between this phenomenon and the economic situation or
any other substantive problem. On the contrary: antisemitic manifestations
have occurred in countries such as Poland or Slovakia, where almost no Jews
remain. It is worth noting that a new layer of antisemitism has taken shape
because of the role that persons of Jewish origin played in the post-world
War II Communist regimes; this is used as a pretext for blaming the Jews for
the Communist takeover.
Public opinion polls held among population groups that are not used to
polling techniques do not seem capable of probing the depth of antisemitic
sentiments. Evidence of their intensity and their possible use as a
political factor surfaces in election campaigns, when individuals and
parties fight for popularity and candidates are more strongly inclined to
invoke antisemitic stereotypes in their struggle for public opinion. This
happened, for example, in Poland and Hungary. It explains the difference
between the attitude in principle and the true state of affairs. At times,
too, the authorities turn a blind eye to the existence of focal points of
active antisemitism and even appoint known antisemites to public positions
(in Romania, for example, a blatant antisemite was named the director of
television).
Another troubling development is the rehabilitation of nationalist leaders
who collaborated with Nazi Germany in the war against the Soviet Union. In
Romania, the parliament devoted a moment of silence to the memory of
Marshall Jean Antonescu, who had been responsible for the slaughter of
250,000 Jews in Bessarabia and Bukovina. Material on the Holocaust period,
sent by the Government of Romania to the Museum of the Holocaust in
Washington, happened to include documents attesting to Antonescu's
responsibility for killings perpetrated by the Romanian army on his order.
This discovery reignited the polemics on the subject of his persona. His
defenders claim that he had prevented the annihilation of Jews who lived in
Romania proper, Moldavia, and Valachia (even though he subjected them to
confiscation of property and merciless extortion), and accuse the Jews of
libel and ingratitude. In Slovakia, there is a group seeking the
rehabilitation of Father Josef Tiso, who in 1938 was a leader of the
fascist "Hlinka Guard", established an independent state under the
patronage of Nazi Germany, and sent all the Jews in his country
(approximately 80,000) to Auschwitz.
In Hungary, the Government decided to bring back the remains of Admiral
Horty, ruler of Hungary during the war years. Horty is a complex figure,
who, at the end of the war, attempted to extricate his country from the yoke
of the German alliance, but who during the war drafted young Jews for
"compulsory service" in labor brigades that were dispatched to perform
forced labor under dangerous conditions on the Russian front, where 42,000
of them perished.
Attitudes and developments in several countries are described below.
Poland
(1) A brand of antisemitism composed of religious fanaticism and economic
interests has played a role in Polish history since the seventeenth
century. At the time of the first Polish Republic (between the two world
wars), a cruel antisemitic campaign was waged by initiative of the
National-Democratic Party (the Endeks). Three and a half million Jews
lived in Poland at that time, and constituted a factor of importance in
the country's economic and cultural life. Today, although the Jewish
population of the country is 10,000 at most, the Endek tradition is
still alive, and several parties on the far right regard themselves as
successors of the Endek heritage.
(2) Furthermore, Poland was the epicenter of the Holocaust, and two crucial
questions still remain: the responses of Poles who witnessed the
atrocity, and the role of many Poles in the annihilation of the Jews.
Lech Walesa, President of Poland, was the first leader of his stature to
request in public addressing the Knesset in 1991 forgiveness of the
Jewish people for the crimes of Poles who assisted the Nazis in their
work. He also mentioned acts of heroism by Poles. Indeed, 2,500 Poles
were executed by the Nazis for having helped Jews, and 4,000 Poles have
been recognized as Righteous Gentiles.
(3) The Polish media addressed themselves to the subject of the Holocaust
this year because of the memorial ceremonies for the Warsaw Ghetto
uprising. A survey by the newspaper Rzecz on attitudes toward the
Holocaust found that among the Polish public the prevailing feeling is
one of indifference. Seventy percent of the respondents believed that
Poles should not beset themselves with guilt feelings toward the Jews;
17 percent believed that they should have such feelings. According to
the poll, only 40 percent of the public took interest in the memorial
ceremonies for the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
(4) The political force with the strongest antisemitic predisposition is the
Polish National Community Party, headed by Boleslaw Tejkowski. This
party, which carries out its operations with the help of skinheads, is
responsible for a series of incidents and attacks, including an assault
on the Jewish theater in Warsaw, harassment of an Israeli youth group,
burglarizing of a Jewish club in Warsaw, and a demonstration in Cracow
in which the central slogan was "Jews to the incinerator." Tejkowski is
a fanatic, violent antisemite who speaks of the Jews as a Nazi would.
However, he also exhibits a seething hatred of Germans and lumps Israel
and Germany together in his demonstrations. It should be noted that
fewer attacks have been recorded in Poland over the past few months than
in previous years.
(5) Although Polish public opinion has an antisemitic component, Tejkowski's
party and other antisemitic groupings have failed to land a seat in
parliament. Antisemitic statements, however, have also been made by
three deputies of Party X, which was founded by Canadian Polish
millionaire Stanislaw Timinski (who, in 1990, declared himself a
candidate for the presidency as an alternative to Lech Walesa).
(6) Antisemitic journals and literature, including the Protocols of the
Elders of Zion, abound in Poland. Legal action meant to prevent
publication of the Protocols has not succeeded. However, the press has
published articles criticizing antisemitic manifestations, as well as
studies that present Jewish history sympathetically.
(7) The Auschwitz convent affair, which had obstructed the development of
relations between Jews and Catholics and harmed Poland's image, came to
an end in July 1993. The nuns left the convent after the Pope had made a
special appeal to this effect. The Government of Poland made overt use
of its influence to speed up the exit of the nuns, deliberately taking a
stance that was unpopular in the eyes of many Poles, who regarded the
convent's choice of location as an internal Polish affair. The
Government's efforts to organize an impressive ceremony marking the
fiftieth anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising are also noteworthy.
Romania
(1) Antisemitism that lends itself to political exploitation is also evident
in Romania. Unlike other Eastern European countries, the nationalist and
antisemitic parties in Romania are important players in the
parliamentary arena and affect government policy. Three parties of this
type, known collectively as the "national camp", were among supporters
of the reelection of President Iliescu in October 1992. The largest of
the three is the Romanian National Unity Party, which, in elections for
the legislature and the Senate in 1992, received 8 percent of the vote
on average. This is the political arm of the highly visible grass-roots
association "Vatra Romaneasca" ("Romanian Cradle"), which was created
with the aim of protecting the Romanian character of Transylvania, where
roughly two million Hungarians live. The honorary president of the
association, which is both anti-Hungarian and antisemitic, is the
millionaire Josif Constantin Dragan, who, in his youth, had served in
the Iron Guard, the notorious murderous and antisemitic organization.
Dragan is the owner of the company that publishes the radical
antisemitic journal Europe; he also heads the Antonescu Foundation,
which glorifies the dictator's memory. The most prominent personality in
the National Camp is author Corneliu Vadim Tudor, formerly known as the
court poet of the dictator Ceaucescu, and now chairman of the Romania
Mare (Greater Romania) Party and editor of a journal of the same name,
which runs venomously antisemitic articles with regularity. Romania Mare
received about 4 percent of the vote in the legislature and Senate
elections. The third party is the Socialist Labor Party, a direct
descendent of Ceaucescu's Communist Party. Its share of support in the
elections came to 3 percent.
(2) These three parties presently hold the balance of power in the Romanian
parliament, and the coalition needs their votes. This dependency
explains the Government's tentative and inconsistent behavior. The
Government is aware of the damage that the antisemitic manifestations
cause to Romania's image around the world, and tends to contain the
damage by taking declarative positions. In 1992, President Iliescu
issued a pronouncement condemning antisemitism, and the parliamentary
faction of the ruling party, the National Salvation Front, took a
resolution on the matter. However, despite international protests, the
two wide-circulation weeklies Romania Mare and Europa continue to
appear. President Iliescu has often brought the matter to the attention
of the Prosecutor-General, to no avail. Under the Romanian constitution,
the Prosecutor-General is an independent institution that has the right
to avoid taking action against the weeklies and the other abundant
antisemitic journals and publications.
In November 1992, President Iliescu was given an award by the editorial
board of Europa and sent a personal representative to the festivities
held by the weekly on the publication of its 100th issue. However, in
April 1993, Iliescu participated in the inauguration of the Museum of
the Holocaust in Washington. He used the occasion to stress Romania's
commitment to struggle, within the constitution, against antisemitism
and xenophobia, and promised to bolster the efforts made in these
contexts. The president of Romania Mare, Tudor, issued an open letter
accusing the Iliescu of surrendering and selling out to the Jews.
Europa, too, attacked Iliescu, alleging that he had grown up among Jews
and was their "captive". Notably, however, the press and the public have
also voiced other opinions. In November 1992, a discussion on the
struggle against other opinions. In November 1992, a discussion on the
struggle against antisemitism was held in a Bucharest synagogue, with
the participation of representatives of eight opposition parties.
Renowned historians have published articles critical of Antonescu.
(3) A typical case was the handling of the publication of a Romanian edition
of Mein Kampf. On July 10, President Iliescu publicized a letter
addressed to the Prosecutor-General, instructing this official to find
ways to prohibit the circulation of the book and to outlaw extremist and
neo-Fascist parties. The specific group that Iliescu had in mind was the
pro-Romanian movement headed by Marian Manteanu, a reincarnation of the
Iron Guard. On August 9, the Prosecutor-General replied that he was
studying the issue. In April, the cemetery in Slatina was desecrated.
Hungary
The Jewish population of Hungary, at 80,000-100,000, is the largest Jewish
community in the region. Hungarian Jewry is immersed in national life. The
president of Parliament, Georgy Szabad of the ruling Democratic Forum Party,
is Jewish. However, violent neo-Nazi and skinhead groups are active in
Hungary. There is no overtly antisemitic party. The antisemitic views of
author Istvan Csurka, who served as vice-president of the Democratic Forum,
attracted attention. Another member of Parliament, Isabel Kirali of the
Democratic Forum, caused a scandal by receiving a delegation of skinheads
and telling them that they are "honest, patriotic guys who deserve to be
talked with and not condemned." The party split in June 1993; Csurka,
Kirali, and others quit. Two antisemitic weeklies, Szent Korona and Hunnia,
continued to appear, although legal action against them commenced long ago.
The book "A Plot: An Empire According to Nietzsche", by Aron Monus, is still
available for sale even though it was banned and confiscated in 1991.