Arnon Grunberg

Thrown out

1968

Ofer Aderet on Poland, the Jews and 1968 in Ha'aretz:

'Polish President Andrzej Duda apologized on Thursday to the victims of the Communist regime in Poland, including Polish Jews, who were persecuted by the regime and were forced to leave the country in 1968.
"I want to ask forgiveness of those who were expelled," Duda said. "To those who were thrown out, I say, forgive us," Duda said. "Through my lips Poland is asking forgiveness, asking them to be willing to forget, to be willing to accept that Poland regrets very much that they are not in Poland today."'

(...)

'Duda spoke at the Warsaw University campus that was the site of the 1968 protests. A group of the current government's opponents, many holding white roses — a symbol of their protest — chanted "disgrace," ''hypocrite," and "go away from the campus."
Other guests in the ceremonies included Poland's Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich and former Israeli Ambassador Shevach Weiss.
Polish Jews, numbering tens of thousands, were stripped of their jobs, and about 20,000 were expelled, or forced to leave and forgo their citizenship. Many of them immigrated to Israel. The Communist regime remained in power until 1989. The present Polish Jewish community amounts to some thousands.
On Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that Poland had not been an independent country at the time of the purge, but had been subject to a "foreign power, Moscow." The events of March 1968, he said, should be a source of pride for the Poles because of their fight against the Communist regime and for freedom.'

Read the article here.

The claim that the country had not been independent at the time when the crimes were committed is a great excuse. Austria had been the master of this kind of apology.
But having said that, it appears that some people in the Polish establishment are trying to limit the damage that the governing party has done already to Poland.

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