Poles Unveil Monument to Jews Massacred in ’46
Sirens wailed and a rabbi led prayers in a Jewish cemetery Tuesday as Poland unveiled a monument to dozens of people killed by angry mobs in a rampage 60 years ago known as Europe’s last pogrom.
President Lech Kaczynski marked the anniversary of the Kielce massacre, which left 42 dead, by declaring in a statement that in Poland there is “no room for racism and anti-Semitism.”
Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, led the Hebrew prayers. A little more than a month ago, he was attacked, though not injured, by a man linked to neo-Nazi groups who punched his chest and released pepper spray. Police arrested the attacker last week.
“As the president of Poland, I want to say it loud and clear: What happened in Kielce 60 years ago was a crime,” the president said in his statement. “This is a great shame and tragedy for the Poles and the Jews, so few of whom survived Hitler’s Holocaust.”
An aide read Kaczynski’s remarks at the monument’s unveiling, saying the president was ill and could not attend.
The massacre in Kielce came July 4, 1946, when townspeople and police attacked the Jews of Kielce with guns and clubs little more than a year after the defeat of Nazi Germany.
The mob killed 42 people, mostly Jews. About 30 others died in the ensuing frenzy.
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