A Polish-language weekly sold in several countries has been accused of anti-semitism after a cover depicted two Orthodox Jews surveying Warsaw, accompanied by the provocative speech bubble: “Son, one day all of this will be yours.”

The article, entitled “What more do we have to give back to the Jews?”, was published in the Angora weekly to tie in with the re-emergence of the debate about compensation to families – of all religious denominations – that lost property under the Nazi and Communist regimes.

Noted human rights group The Association of the Open Republic, which counts former minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski on its board, has lodged an official complaint in the prosecutor's office in Lodz, central Poland, declaring that the publication incites racial hatred.

“It is an outrageous cover,” says Stefan Ciesla, a member of the board of the association, who adds that “it recalls the lowest stereotypes applied by Germany's Nazi Party during the early stages of its existence.”

However, Angora itself is retaining a calm front. Editor-in-chief Pawel Woldan insists that the cover is a “satirical sketch” and is thus “governed by its own rules.”

“I do not understand where this hyper-sensitivity comes from,” he says. “It’s an absurdity.”

“Everyone is accusing us of anti-semitism now,” Woldan continues, “but no one has commented that we have published material in defence of Jews on several occasions.”

However, Pauline Babinski, a noted US lawyer of Polish descent, believes that Angora is not seeing the full picture. “Showing something like this in a country like Poland, where millions of people were killed by Hitler’s men during the Second World War, is simply unbelievable,” she says. (nh/jb)

Source: Gazeta Wyborcza