Polish Group Wears Nazi Uniforms, Burns Swastika; Government Will Investigate

Image by Twitter

By Sam Kestenbaum January 22, 2018

A television report in Poland that exposed neo-Nazis celebrating Adolf Hitler’s birthday and burning a swastika has lead to an official investigation and a government denunciation.

The original report was broadcast by the station TVN24 over the weekend and focused on a neo-Nazi group named Pride and Modernity. This is the same group that held a November protest in the city of Katowice.

The prosecutor general launched an investigation into the “public propagation of fascism,” the Associated Press reported. The charge could lead to a prison sentence of up to two years.

The report featured a group wearing Nazi uniforms, performing the Nazi salute in front of a flaming swastika and singing while presenting a cake with a swastika on it, according to the AP.

Kim są członkowie “Dumy i Nowoczesności”?Wstrząsające efekty dziennikarskiego śledztwa DZIŚ w @SUPERWIZJER_TVN na antenie @tvn24 o godzinie 20:00.Reportaż Bertolda Kittla, Anny Sobolewskiej i Piotra Wacowskiego.➡️ https://t.co/QliVdG0Uua pic.twitter.com/3V3NJcaggE

— tvn24 (@tvn24) January 20, 2018

Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum

Sam Kestenbaum is a contributing editor and former staff writer for the Forward. Before this, he worked for The New York Times and newsrooms in Sana, Ramallah and Beijing. Contact him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum and on Instagram at @skestenbaum.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO