1946 Massacre of Polish Jews Told

A Polish official, in the first formal public acknowledgment of a pogrom that occurred 41 years ago, said Sunday that 42 Jews were killed by Poles in this city in 1946.

Kazimierz Kakol, chairman of the commission investigating Nazi crimes in Poland, officially condemned the slayings during a ceremony marking the anniversary of the Nazis’ massacre of 30,000 Kielce Jews on Aug. 23, 1943.

But in an unexpected admission, Kakol told 130 Jewish visitors from abroad and several hundred Jews still living in Poland that in the July 4, 1946, massacre it was Poles who killed 42 Jews, including many women and children.

“We deeply deplore it,” Kakol said. “We deplore it because the Cain-like excesses did not reflect the true feelings and stands of the people of Kielce” toward Jews.

Kakol did not give details of the 1946 pogrom, which never has been officially explained.

One Kielce resident said the pogrom erupted after rumors spread through the city that a Polish child had been killed by Jews. Hundreds of Poles gathered near the child’s home, in an area where Jewish families lived, to massacre the Jews in revenge.