Racism in Poland

Racism in Poland is present even though a race-based worldview has had little chance to develop. Racism has persisted alongside the fact that ethnic minorities have made up a significant proportion of the population since the founding of the Polish state. Throughout most of its one thousand-year history, Poland has experienced very limited immigration; apart from the immigration of the Jews while they were having been expelled from other parts of the Europe. Poland has never had overseas colonies. For a lengthy period the country was regarded as having a very tolerant society vowing to "constant evidence for numerous varieties of religious nonconformity, sectarians, schism, and heterodoxy."

Poland experienced an extreme racism under the Nazi German occupation during World War II, when the Jews,pPoles]] and Romani people were exterminated, and other Slavic peoples were classified as subhuman by Nazis and were to be enslaved and subject to genocide.

Jews

The Second Polish Republic, from the 1920s the Polish government excluded Jews from receiving government bank credits, public sector employment, and obtaining business licenses. From the 1930s limits were placed on Jewish enrollment in university education, Jewish shops, Jewish export firms, Shechita, Jewish admission to the medical and legal professions, Jews in business associations, etc. While in 1921-22 25% of students were Jews, by 1938-9 the proportion went down to 8%. The far-right National Democracy (Endeks) organized anti-Jewish boycotts. Following the death of Poland's ruler Józef Piłsudski in 1935, the Endeks intensified their efforts which lead to violence in a few cases pogroms in smaller towns. In 1937 the Endeks passed resolutions that "its main aim and duty must be to remove the Jews from all spheres of social, economic, and cultural life in Poland". The government in response organized the Camp of National Unity (OZON), which in 1938 took control of the Polish parliament. The Polish parliament then drafted anti-Jewish legislation similar to Anti-Jewish laws in Germany, Hungary, and Romania. OZON advocated mass emigration of Jews from Poland, boycott of Jews, numerus clausus (see also Ghetto benches), and other limitation on Jewish rights. According to William W. Hagen by 1939, prior to the war, Polish Jews were threatened with conditions similar to those in Nazi Germany.

In the mid-20th century, notable incidents of antisemitism in Poland included Jedwabne pogrom of 1941 in the presence of German Ordnungspolizei (police officers). Anti-Jewish violence in Poland, 1944–46 attributed to postwar lawlessness as well as an anti-communist insurrection against the new pro-Soviet government immediately after the end of World War II in Europe, and the concept of "Żydokomuna" (Jewish communism). Another major event took place during the 1968 Polish political crisis.

The Jewish community in Poland consisted of about 10% of the general population by 1939, but was all but eradicated during the Holocaust following the German invasion of Poland in 1939 at the onset of World War II.. During the Polish census of 2011, 7,353 persons declared Jewish ethnicity (including the second one).

In 2017, the University of Warsaw’s Center for Research on Prejudice found an increase in antisemitic views in Poland, possibly due to growing Islamophobia and anti-migrant sentiment. Later that year, the European Jewish Congress accused the Polish government of "normalizing" the phenomenon in the country.

Sub-Saharan Africans

The most common word in Polish for a black person is "murzyn". It is generally regarded as a neutral word which was used for centuries to describe a person of black (Sub-Saharan African) ancestry, but nowadays some black Africans consider it to be pejorative, though the majority of people in Poland see it as a neutral term regardless.

One of the high-profile events regarding blacks in Poland was the death of Maxwell Itoya in 2010, a Nigerian street vendor from a mixed marriage who was selling counterfeit goods. He was shot in the upper leg by a policeman during a street brawl that followed a screening check at a market in Warsaw and died of a severed artery. The event led to a media debate regarding policing and racism.

There have been other cases of violence against blacks in recent years. In Strzelce Opolskie, Black soccer players from LZS Piotrówka club were attacked in a bar by fans of the opposing team in 2015 and two young men were arrested. In a Łódź dance-club, a black student was attacked in a men's washroom.

Roma

The Mława riot was a series of violent incidents against Polish Romani people in June 1991 when a Polish man was killed and another one permanently harmed in a hit-and-run accident. The driver was a Romani man that fled the scene and hid, causing a rioting mob to attack Romani residents of the Polish town of Mława where hundreds fled out of fear. The violence was described as motivated by racism and jealousy.

Among coverage of the riot, a change of ethnic stereotypes about Roma in Poland was mentioned: A Roma is no longer poor, dirty, or cheerful. They also do not beg or pretend to be lowly. Nowadays a Roma drives a high status car, lives in a fancy mansion, flaunts his wealth, brags that the local authorities and the police are on his pay and thus he is not afraid of anybody. At the same time he is, as before, a swindler, a thief, a hustler, a dodger of military service and of a legal, decent job. Negative "metastereotypes" – or the Romas' own perceptions regarding the stereotypes that members of the dominant groups hold about their own group – were described by the Polish Roma Society in an attempt to intensify the dialogue about exclusionism.

Ethnic Poles

German warning in Nazi-occupied Poland 1939 - "No entrance for Poles!"

See also: Racial policy of Nazi Germany, Nazi crimes against the Polish nation, and Polish decrees

When part of Poland was under the rule of the German Empire, the Polish population was discriminated against by racist policies. These policies gained popularity among German nationalists, some of whom were members of the Völkisch movement, leading to the expulsion of Poles by Germany. This was fueled by Anti-Polish sentiment, especially during the age of partitions.

Poland was under German and Soviet occupation during World War II. At this period Polish people were harshly discriminated against in their own occupied country. The Nazi German regime saw the Poles as "subhumans" (untermenschen). Unlike the Nazi policy for the Jews which involved complete destruction, Nazi policy towards Polish Catholics was cultural genocide, which involved Germanisation, as well as the suppression or murder of religious, cultural, intellectual, and political leadership. The Nazi goal in this policy was to prevent effective Polish resistance and to exploit Polish people as unskilled laborers. Polish forced laborers in Nazi Germany were forced to wear identifying red tags with the letter P that were sewn to their clothing. Sexual relations with Germans (rassenschande or "racial defilement") were punishable by death. During the war, thousands of Polish men were executed for their relations with German women.

Other than that, during World War II, Polish people became the primary targets of ethnicity-based massacres by Ukrainian Insurgent Army, then in the territory of occupied Poland. A considerable element of cultural genocide of Poles were Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (1939–1946) and especially the Katyn massacre in 1940 by the Soviet Union.

See also: Polish operation of the NKVD, a systematic political repression of the Poles in the Soviet Union in 1937-1938, including even the Communist Party of Poland refugees from Poland.

Modern Poland

2008 EVS survey

An analysis based on the European Values Survey (EVS), which took place in 2008, compares Poland to other European nations. Poland had very high levels of political tolerance (lack of extremist political attitudes), relatively high levels of ethnic tolerance (based on attitudes towards Muslims, immigrants, Romas, and Jews) and at the same time low levels of personal tolerance (based on attitudes towards people considered "deviant" or "threatening"). From 1998 to 2008, there was a marked increase in political and ethnic tolerance, but a decrease in personal tolerance.

In 1990, due partly to the political euphoria accompanying the fall of communism, Poland was the most tolerant nation in Central Europe. However, over the course of the '90s, tolerance decreased. By 1999, EVS recorded Poland as having one of the highest rates of xenophobia in Europe, while antisemitism also increased during this time. The factors behind these decreases in tolerance and the radicalization in attitudes towards other ethnic groups during this time likely included the country's economic problems associated with a costly transition from Communism (for example, high unemployment), ineffectual government and possibly an increase in immigration from outside.

These attitudes began to change after 2000, possibly due to Poland's entry into the European Union, increased travel abroad and more frequent encounters with people of other races. By 2008, the EVS showed Poland as one of the least xenophobic countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The negative attitudes towards Jews have likewise returned to their lower 1990s level, although they do remain somewhat above the European average. During the same time period, ethnic tolerance and political tolerance increased in Southern Europe (Spain, Greece) and decreased in other parts of Northern Europe (Netherlands).

While the Roma group was listed as most rejected, the level of exclusion was still lower than elsewhere in Europe, most likely due the long history of Roma (see Polska Roma) and their relatively low numbers in the country.

State and racism

In 2004, the government took some initiatives in order to tackle the problem of racism. They adopted the "National Programme to Prevent Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance 2004-2009" ("Krajowy Program Przeciwdziałania Dyskryminacji Rasowej, Ksenofobii i Związanej z Nimi Nietolerancji 2004 – 2009") and also established the Monitoring Team on Racism and Xenophobia within the Ministry of Interior and Administration. The Implementation Report (2010) stated that the programme suffered from various obstacles, including lacking and unclear funding, and eventually some planned tasks were completed, while others were not.

Islamophobia

Initially Poland's small Muslim community, some 0.1% of the population, were treated equally unlike other minorities, Jews in particular, that have faced hostility and suspicion. During communist rule the censorship office barred unfavorable portrayals of Muslims due to Poland's geopolitical alignment with Arab countries during this period. Following the European migrant crisis, Islamophobia has been on the rise in Poland according to Dr. Konrad Pedziwiatr. In 2016, the wSieci magazine ran a cover with a white women assaulted by dark males under the title "The Islamic rape of Europe" which evoked outrage, and has been compared to WWII propaganda with the same imagery. While the moderate wing of the Catholic Church has espoused toleration, conservative voices, associated with the conservative wing of the Church, expressed in Fronda.pl and Polonia Christiana (PCh24.pl) have been significant in their contribution to the stereotyping of refugees and Muslims. Whereas the normal age distribution of prejudice is tilted towards older people, the opposite is true in Poland: A 2015 opinion poll showed 59 percent of 18 to 24 years associated Islam with dangers contrasted with 37 percent of those older than 65.

Countering racism

"Never Again" Association

Main article: "Never Again" Association

The "Never Again" Association is an a-political anti-racist organization, based in Warsaw. The organization has its roots in an in-formal anti-Nazi youth group that was active since 1992, and was formally founded in 1996 at Bydgoszcz by Marcin Kornak. As of 2010, there were several hundred members in the organization, of which some 80% were in Poland and 20% were in other European countries. "Never Again" publishes, since 1994, the "Never Again" magazine. The magazine is focused on countering intolerance, fascism, racism and xenophobia. "Never Again" publishes the Brown Book (Polish: „Brunatna Księga”), which compiles xenophobic, racist, and anti-gay incidents.