Former Polish Priest Indicted For Hate Speech And Holocaust Denial
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
WARSAW, Poland (JTA) — A former priest involved in Poland’s nationalist movement has been indicted on hate speech and Holocaust denial charges.
The District Prosecutor’s Office in the city of Wrocław, in western Poland, brought three indictments against Jacek Miedlar. Another claims that he insulted the late prime minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki.
Miedlar, who pleaded not guilty, could face up to three years in prison if convicted on the charges.
“Dear ladies and gentlemen, that synagogues can stand here on our Polish soil in Wroclaw, and that Dutkiewicz [mayor of Wroclaw] and Jews can get drunk in them with Talmudic hatred, this is only the result of our tolerance,” Miedlar said at a nationalist march in Wroclaw on Nov. 11, 2017. The prosecutor’s office said the speech incited hatred.
About 3,000 people clapped and chanted slogans such as “Great Independent Poland” in response.
The prosecution also highlighted other statements inciting hatred against Jews and Holocaust denial from 2018.That year, on Dec. 13 in Wroclaw, Miedlar publicly set fire to the portrait of Mazowiecki, calling him a “communist scab” who “never concealed his Jewish-communist Bolshevik inclinations.” Mazowiecki’s son filed a complaint to the prosecutor’s office.
Mazowiecki, who died in 2013, was an anti-communist activist and the first Polish prime minister after the fall of communism. Although he was a Catholic, with no Jewish roots, his political opponents often accused him of Jewish descent to discourage people from voting for him.
The post Former Polish priest indicted for hate speech and Holocaust denial appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
