Poland Protests to U.S. Over Radio Free Europe Broadcast Comparing Premier to Hitler

In a setback for U.S.-Polish relations that had begun to thaw, the Polish government has strongly protested a broadcast by Radio Free Europe earlier this month that drew a parallel between Premier Wojciech Jaruzelski and Adolf Hitler.

Western diplomats familiar with the broadcast said it was probably intended as ironic humor but that it showed poor editorial judgment on the part of Radio Free Europe. They said the radio’s often strident programming has not yet fallen into line with the Reagan Administration’s new, more conciliatory policy toward Poland.

Radio Free Europe, which broadcasts in six languages to huge audiences in five East European countries, is especially popular in Poland, where more than half the adult population tunes in regularly to the almost 20 hours a day of programming despite government jamming efforts.

U.S. Official Summoned U.S. officials confirmed that the American Embassy’s deputy chief of mission, David H. Swartz, was summoned to the Polish Foreign Ministry last Friday to hear a formal protest of the broadcast beamed to Poland on Jan. 7 by the U.S.-operated station in Munich, West Germany.

Polish government spokesman Jerzy Urban opened his weekly news conference Tuesday by reading a statement that called the broadcast “propaganda gangsterism” and said Washington’s avowed interest in re-establishing normal relations could not be taken seriously until Radio Free Europe is restrained.

Radio Free Europe opened a youth program Jan. 7, Urban said, by announcing that it was broadcasting a speech Adolf Hitler gave to a Nazi party rally in Nuremberg in September, 1939, “dedicated to Gen. Jaruzelski.”

‘Resembles Hitler’ “The intention was to suggest that in his speeches, Gen. Jaruzelski says the same things Hitler did, and that he resembles Hitler as a politician,” Urban said.

Taken out of its original context, the speech resembles the upbeat New Year’s statements of several senior Polish officials, who predicted a gradual end to hard economic times and a return to normalcy in foreign relations.

“Comrades,” the speech begins, according to a text provided by Urban’s office. “Contrary to the claims of British and American propaganda . . . we have managed to raise our country from ruins in just a few years.

“Individuals with alien attitudes toward our system,” it continues, in wording many Poles would find applicable to the outlawed but still popular Solidarity trade union, “have been isolated in our country. . . . There is no place here for the enemies of socialism and those detrimental to the national ideals.

“Gestapo units, devoted to the ideals of the party . . . stand guard over the internal peace. Under their protection, we will conduct a program of reforms and the elimination of the rationing system.” It adds that “friendly relations with the Soviet Union are one of the pillars of our foreign policy.”

Effective as Propaganda Western diplomats said that as propaganda, the broadcast probably played effectively on the anti-government feelings of many Poles. With a background of recent martial law, four secret police officers on trial for murdering a pro-Solidarity priest and government promises to implement economic reforms and phase out food rationing, the parallels--while coincidental--would be clear to the millions of Polish listeners.

Diplomats said the broadcast was nevertheless insensitive to Poland’s suffering under six years of Nazi occupation, during which 6 million Poles--one-fifth of the prewar population--perished.

Urban added that “it is an insult against a Polish army officer who spilled his blood fighting against Nazism,” a reference to Jaruzelski, who served in a Soviet-sponsored Polish army that helped liberate the country from the Nazis and then aided in installing a Communist government under Moscow’s supervision.

Editorial Policy According to Radio Free Europe’s code of editorial policy, broadcasts are to avoid “emotionalism, vituperation, vindictiveness, stridency, belligerency, arrogance, pomposity, pretentiousness or condescension,” as well as material that could be considered as slander or spiteful reference to the personal lives of government or party leaders.

The organization is largely independent of the State Department. It operates under the Board for International Broadcasting in Washington, whose members are appointed by the President with congressional approval.