‘Polish governmental inaction against neonazis’

This video says about itself:

22 January 2018

A television report shot with a hidden camera showing members of a Polish far-right group celebrating Adolf Hitler’s birthday sparked uproar on Monday, in a country still grappling with the memory of Nazi occupation.

The alarming footage, filmed in southwestern Poland and aired on news channel TVN24, shows a group of men wearing Nazi-inspired uniforms and performing Nazi salutes.

Among those caught on camera was a man identified as Mateusz S., the leader of neo-Nazi group Pride and Modernity (DN).
He appears to have been speaking at an event marking 128 years since the birth of Nazi dictator Adolf Hilter, held on a hill near the southwestern Polish village of Wodzislaw on an undisclosed date.

Undercover journalists also filmed large red flags with Nazi swastikas hanging on the trees and an altar with a portrait of Hitler.

Participants in the event set fire to a large wooden swastika soaked in flammable liquid that was fixed to a tree as they played a soundtrack of Nazi military marches.

The footage was broadcast on TVN24’s “Superwizjer” current affairs programme which also included clips from an ultranationalist rock festival in March 2017 involving both Poles and Germans, with swastikas or the initials SS tattooed on their bodies.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Saturday, January 27, 2018

Polish Jewish leader denounces government’s inaction against neonazis

THE leader of Poland’s federation of Jewish communities has denounced the government for allowing the growth of the country’s neonazi movement.

Union of Jewish Communities in Poland president Leslaw Piszewski spoke out following a shocking documentary broadcast on Polish TV that showed fascists celebrating Hitler’s birthday in a forest.

The fascists, some wearing SS uniforms, raised a toast to Hitler, whose portrait hung from a tree, ate a swastika-iced cake and sieg-heiled a large wooden swastika as it burned.

“What else has to happen for us to look, to open our eyes, for the authorities to say that fascism and nazism are not tolerated in Poland?” stormed Mr Piszewski.

Attorney General Zbigniew Ziobro vowed to act against the fascists, but still drew a distinction in his statement between Jewish and non-Jewish Poles murdered by nazi Germany’s forces.

The nazi ceremony took place just 30 miles from the Auschwitz death camp, where tomorrow there will be an event to mark the 73rd anniversary of its liberation by the Soviet army.

Israel criticises Poland over proposed Holocaust law: here.

The lower house of the Polish Parliament (Sejm) approved a bill January 26 which provides for severe penalties for both Polish and foreign citizens who use the term “Polish concentration camps” and who refer to the participation of Poles in the crimes of the Holocaust. The bill still needs to be approved by the Senate and the president, but is expected to pass these hurdles: here.

World War II-Era Envelopes Suggest Polish Knowledge of Holocaust. By Aviya Kushner, February 1, 2018.

Israel minister says Poland cancelled his visit amid Holocaust law dispute. Education minister Naftali Bennett says ‘I am honored’. Bill would outlaw blaming Poles for historical crimes against Jews: here.

Polish President Andrzej Duda signed into law Tuesday a bill censoring free speech about the Holocaust, after it has been passed by the lower and upper houses of the Polish parliament: here.