Anti-Semitic Purge in the Polish Army 1967-1968
Anti-Semitic Purge in the Polish Army 1967-1968 – as a result of the Six-Day War in June 1967 the Soviet Union and its satellite states, including Poland, broke off diplomatic relations with Israel. These events made the background for the Anti-Semitic Purge in the Polish Army. It seems that the purge was largely inspired by Soviets although it was used for political infightings in the party. On 6 July 1967 there were the first dismissals: the commanders of the Polish Air Defence Forces Gen. Czesław Mankiewicz, Gen. Tadeusz Dąbkowski and Gen. Jan Stamieszkin were dismissed on a charge of pro-Israeli likings. The atmosphere of Anti-Semitic witch hunt was fuelled in the army and rumours were spread that the Polish Jews finance the Israeli Army, they co-operate with Israeli Intelligence and that there is a Jewish plot in the military and civil authorities. On meetings and rallies the soldiers demanded the Jews be dismissed from the army. In the summer of 1967 dismissals of officers of a Jewish origin and people connected to them began. The criteria were strictly racist. The charge was: “having political views at variance with the official stance of the government of the People’s Republic of Poland and the line of the Party and losing the moral and political values indispensable for an officer of the People’s Army of Poland”. 150 officers of Jewish origin, almost all from the active service, were dismissed from the army then. The purge ended in the spring of 1968. The soldiers who were then forced to emigrate were demoted to private.
