The anti-Zionist purge in the Polish Army was the removal of soldiers of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

origin from the

Polish People's Army The Polish People's Army ( pl, Ludowe Wojsko Polskie , LWP) constituted the second formation of the Polish Armed Forces in the East in 1943–1945, and in 1945–1989 the armed forces of the Polish communist state ( from 1952, the Polish Pe ...

, carried out in 1968 following

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 Ju ...

between Israel and Arab countries.

Background

The

was a successor of the Polish armies formed in the Soviet Union during WW2. Due to the mass execution of Polish officers in the

Katyn Massacre The Katyn massacre, "Katyń crime"; russian: link=yes, Катынская резня ''Katynskaya reznya'', "Katyn massacre", or russian: link=no, Катынский расстрел, ''Katynsky rasstrel'', "Katyn execution" was a series of m ...

, most of the officers were people who were educated in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, with a large proportion having Jewish roots. Some Jewish officers were also promoted due to their suspected loyalty towards the

. Following the establishment of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

in 1948,

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

, disappointed by the pro-American stance of

, oriented the Soviet police against people with Jewish roots. However, this policy did not propagate to the

, where many officers sympathized with

. Following the

, the Soviet Union considered military action against Israel and pressed on Eastern Bloc countries to break diplomatic ties with Israel.

March crisis

Following a meeting of Eastern European countries in Moscow, Polish leadership realized that Poland and Israel are now firmly in two opposite blocs, and in the case of armed conflict, there could be a loyalty conflict for officers with Jewish roots. As a result, in 1967-1968, Anti-

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

purge In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another organization, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertak ...

s were performed, and culminated in the so-called

March events The March Days or March Events () was a period of inter-ethnic strife and clashes which led to the death of about 12,000 Azerbaijani people, Azerbaijani: "The results of the March events were immediate and total for the Musavat. Several hundred ...

. General

Wojciech Jaruzelski Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski (; 6 July 1923 – 25 May 2014) was a Polish military officer, politician and ''de facto'' leader of the Polish People's Republic from 1981 until 1989. He was the First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party b ...

, a member of the top management of the

Ministry of Defense {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

, and, from April 11, 1968, Minister of Defense, who headed a special committee, was to be responsible for the purge in the army. General Teodor Kufel, the head of the Military Internal Service was also co-responsible. There is no unanimous agreement on the number of officers removed as part of the purge. indicated the number of several dozen, Anka Grupińska - 150. reported that six orders containing 1348 names (both

officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," f ...

s and

petty officer A petty officer (PO) is a non-commissioned officer in many navies and is given the NATO rank denotation OR-5 or OR-6. In many nations, they are typically equal to a sergeant in comparison to other military branches. Often they may be super ...

s) had survived, and added that soldiers of Jewish origin were being removed from the army by General Jaruzelski in 1980. The people affected by the purge were deprived of the officer rank "because of the lack of moral values" and demoted (e. g. ).

Anti-Semitic character of purges

During the purge, a number of officers were dismissed only because of their Jewish roots and without proof of their loyalty towards Israel. This lends the purge an Anti-Semitic character.

References

Polish Land Forces Antisemitism in Poland Political and cultural purges Polish People's Republic 1960s in Poland {{Poland-hist-stub