A recent survey, carried out to mark the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, reveals shocking and worrying levels of ignorance and antisemitism amongst Poland’s schoolchildren. A quarter thought the uprising of 1943 had been successful and, whereas a third of Warsaw’s population was Jewish before the war, nearly all the students guessed the proportion to be just 18%. More concerning still are their attitudes.
The study, carried out at schools across the capital Warsaw, showed more than 60 per cent of those asked would be ‘unhappy’ if they discovered their boyfriend or girlfriend was Jewish.
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Researchers also found that 45 per cent of the city’s students would be ‘unhappy’ if a family member turned out to be Jewish, with 44 per cent saying they wouldn’t want a Jewish neighbour and another 40 per cent saying they wouldn’t want to go to school with a Jew.
It is estimated that over 300,000 Jews from the Ghetto died – many in death camps, some in the Uprising itself. Whatever one thinks of its director, The Pianist is a memorable depiction of these events. It opens with scenes of domesticity, normality and (comparative) modernity, and then charts a descent into almost unbelievable horror.
A survey referenced in a Wikipedia entry on Poland and antisemitism notes that Poland’s adults seem no more enlightened than the schoolchildren targeted by this latest report, with 54% of Poles agreeing that Jews have too much power in the business world.
Alan A adds
via the Elder of Ziyon, Tablet has a photo essay showing the ‘recycling‘ of Jewish gravestones – from Poland’s near-eliminated Jewish citizens – for a grindstone, a sandbox in a playground, and as ‘recycled’ gravestones for later Catholic burials.
