Holocaust survivor Malkah Gorka holds a picture from her school days in Poland during a protest in front of Polish embassy in Tel Aviv on February 8, 2018, against a controversial bill passed by the eastern European country’s senate. The legislation sets fines or a maximum three-year jail term for anyone describing Nazi German death camps in Poland, like Auschwitz-Birkenau, as Polish. Image by GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP/Getty Images

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Dozens of Israeli Holocaust survivors demonstrated outside the Polish Embassy in Tel Aviv to protest a new law in Poland that outlaws blaming the country for Nazi crimes.

On Thursday, the survivors entered the embassy compound and surrounded a diplomat’s vehicle waving signs and shouting slogans.

They carried signs in Hebrew and Polish saying “No law will erase history,” “The Polish law spits in the Israeli people’s face” and “I still have nightmares because of what the Poles did,” Ynet reported. The demonstrators also shouted “Nobody will forget what you did.”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Several of the survivors, who were accompanied by younger Israelis, stood in front of the embassy and told their personal stories of suffering caused by the Poles during the Holocaust, according to reports.

Polish President Andrzej Duda signed the controversial legislation on Tuesday after both houses of parliament passed the measure. He also announced that he would send the law to Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal for review. Ukraine, Lithuania and Latvia have passed similar laws since 2010.

Critics of the law include Israeli leaders, the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, the U.S. State Department and Jewish groups.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount