Poland to welcome expelled Jews

I didn't know about this expulsion but I can't say I'm that surprised.

Poland to welcome expelled Jews
Saturday, 8 March 2008,
BBC News

Poland's president has promised to restore citizenship to thousands of Jews who were expelled from the country by the communists in 1968. Lech Kaczynski described the decision to kick out about 15,000 Jews - many Holocaust survivors - as "shameful".

The purge followed nationwide student protests that began after a decision to close down a patriotic play. People of Jewish origin were blamed, stripped of Polish citizenship and ordered out of the country.

Police violently broke up a student demonstration at Warsaw University 40 years ago. It had been caused by the communist authorities' decision to close down a patriotic play by Poland's national poet, Adam Mickiewicz. The protests quickly spread across the country before being crushed with considerable violence.

Many of the students and professors were of Jewish origin and the communist party used that fact to purge Jews from public life. An estimated 15,000 people - half the country's Jewish population - were given a one-way ticket out of the country and stripped of their citizenship.

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