The documentary Towarzysz General (Comrade General), shown on public television this week, accuses Wojciech Jaruzelski of participating in the anti-Semitic purges of late 1960s communist Poland.

The documentary by Robert Kaczmarek and Grzegorz Braun accuses General Wojciech Jaruzelski - who eventually ruled Poland throughout the 1980s and ordered the martial law Solidarity-clampdown in 1981 - of being a Soviet agent. The film also accuses him of organizing the anti-Semite witch-hunt in 1967-68 which led to the exodus of what was left of most of the Jewish population in Poland to Austria and then to Israel and elsewhere.

The documentary says that Jaruzelski, who was Chief-of-General Staff in the 1960s, purged up to 1000 officers out of the forces simply because they were Jewish.

Uncontested is the fact that a wave of anti-Semitism went through communist eastern Europe after Israel beat Soviet-armed Egypt in the 1967 war in the Middle East. Inspired by Moscow, the communist authorities stirred up anti-Semitic hatred in Poland, aimed at many of the Jewish intellectuals who had turned against communism and would eventually become central figures in the Solidarity movement.

The film makes the new accusation, however, that Jaruzelski played a central role in stirring up anti-Jewish hatred.

In the documentary, Russian dissident Vladimir Bukovski, calls Jaruzelski a “Russian lackey”.

Right-wing politicians in Poland argue that the documentary - watched by four million viewers when it premiered last Monday - say the programme presented unknown facts from General Wojciech Jaruzelski’s life, which ought to be revealed to the public.

“There were a lot of films which praised the alleged merits of Wojciech Jaruzelski and tried to make a hero of him. It’s time to present the general in a less favourable light,” says Mariusz Blaszczak from the Law and Justice party (PiS). The MP claims that the evidence shown in the documentary is “indisputable” and Poles have the right to form an opinion on Jaruzelski and the times when Poland was “not an independent country, but a country under the strong influence of Moscow”.

Wojciech Jaruzelski told Polskie Radio, however, that the makers of the documentary misrepresented the facts and were evidently politically motivated, not objective journalists. The general added that the film makers did “not manage to offend him but insulted people who followed the same path as him.”

He also said that only around 100 officers left the force in the late 1960s, not the 1000 claimed in the film. Only 17 were fired, he told Polskie Radio, though he acknowledged that he did retire several officers of Jewish origin - but not because they were Jewish.

The Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) - formerly the communist party PZPR - sent a letter of complaint to the president of TVP, fiercely criticizing the documentary for being “one-sided, lacking objective and way below the standards that a public broadcaster should meet”.

A spokesman for TVP refused to comment on the accusations.

Law and Justice MP Blaszczak says that the TV debate which followed the documentary proves that TVP - a public service broadcaster owned by the state - was being objective.

But in a protest letter sent to TVP, the SLD writes that the documentary was based on the premise that Jaruzelski served only the USSR and betrayed the Polish nation. In order to prove the thesis, claims SLD, the film makers presented only the views of the general’s opponents: the Institute of National Remembrance’s (IPN) employees, right-wing commentators and former members of the Polish communist party who joined the opposition.

“The film shows a deceitful, black and white version of Poland’s history, which is in accordance with the propaganda line presented by the IPN,” says SLD deputy Tadeusz Iwinski.

Meanwhile, Maria-Zmarz-Koczanowicz and Teresa Toranska accused authors of the documentary of violating the copyright. They claim that Braun and Kaczmarek used a fragment of their documentary Noc z generalem (Night with the General), also about Wojciech Jaruzelski, merely changing the soundtrack. (pg/mg)

sources: IAR/PAP/Rzeczpospolita