Street battles, Krakowskie Przedmieście, Warsaw 1968

1968 was not just a year of protest in the West or in Prague - in March in Poland a protest over a banned play would unleash baton-wielding militia against students and a communist inspired anti-Semitic purge.

Representatives of university authorities and students placed flowers today at the plaque commemorating the student revolt which led to the arrest of 1, 200 students in Warsaw alone.

Forty two years ago, a wave of student demonstrations began in Poland with a mass rally at Warsaw University. The students were attacked by police reservists and street rioting broke out, spreading to most Polish universities in the coming weeks.

The Warsaw demonstration was in protest against the communist authorities’ decision to close down a production of the patriotic poetic drama Forefathers Eve by the Romantic-era writer Adam Mickiewicz at the National Theatre because of the audience’s passionate applause at passages taunting Russian power.

The March student revolt was a catalyst for an internal struggle for power within the communist party, one faction of which launched an anti-Semitic campaign under the slogan of “anti-Zionism”, following the Six Day War between Israel and Soviet-backed Arab forces the year before.

Over 15, 000 people of Jewish origin were forced out of the country. Just 5,000 Jews were left inside Poland.

The Shalom Foundation organized a gathering, Monday, at the Gdański Railway Station in Warsaw, from which most were departed abroad, with Vienna being their first destination point.

Many of the leaders of the student protests of 1968, such as the late Jacek Kuron, went on to become prominent in the Solidarity trade union of 12 years later. (pg/mk)