In 1968, Poland's communist government shut down a patriotic play at Warsaw University. The play had been written by Poland's national poet, Adam Mickiewicz.That decision led to a student protest at the university which soon evolved into protests nationwide. The communists, with much violence, crushed these protests.
And they blamed the Jews.
There were only 30,000 Jews left in Poland at that time, many of which were Holocaust survivors. The communist government ordered 15,000 Jews to leave the country; the "were given a one-way ticket out of the country and stripped of their citizenship."
One of the Jews involved said, "But with our suitcases we took a little bit of Poland with us ..."
Now, Poland's president, Lech Kaczynski, has invited the expelled Jews to return to Poland and promised to restore their citizenship.
A "welcoming back" ceremony of sorts was held a few days ago at one of the Warsaw train stations from which some of the Jews were forced to leave the country, and Mr. Kaczynski said his citizenship restoration promise was his "personal contribution to reversing the consequences of those sad, shameful events."
The president also noted this expulsion was a huge loss for Poland ... "thousands of often very talented, ambitious, and entrepreneurial people had to leave our country."
Can you imagine how much better off the world would be if the gifts of the millions of Jews killed by the anti-Semites had been allowed to grow and flourish and replenish the earth?
1 comment:
Who knows and who cares? 6 million Jews live in Israel. That is almost half the remaining Jews of the world. Israel is a leader in medical research and technology, yet is threatened with extinction by Iran and others. It has been under attack since its birth. It is unrecognized by many members of the UN. It is surrounded on all sides by [people sworn to destroy it. No Jew can live or own property or a business in Jordan. The peace with Egypt is a cold one with government sponsored periodicals pouring out anti Semitic verbiage daily. In the event of war, there is not a single border a Jew could cross seeking refuge from the promised annihilation. Most of the world’s nations have NO JEWS living in them! Outside Israel and the US, there are approximately 1 million Jews alive today. Rockets fall inside Israel every day from Gaza, which gave up land for peace five years ago.
Poland had the largest Jewish population in the world pre Hitler. It is a land where Jews are not really welcome, yet some will return. I wish them luck, but doubt if many will remain.
Bob Poris
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