Open letter of scholars, institutions, Jewish communities and organisations in response to the National Bank of Poland issuing “They Did Right” coin

Open letter of scholars, institutions, Jewish communities and organisations in response to the National Bank of Poland issuing “They Did Right” coin with an image of Józef Kuraś “Ogień”.

Dear All,

as historians and scholars, representatives of Jewish milieus and social organisations engaged in fostering tolerance and mutual respect, as well as Jewish veterans, we cannot remain silent when the National Bank of Poland issues and promotes a coin in honour of Józef Kuraś—an individual whose actions, even in a very unique historical context, were far from the image of a hero worthy of national remembrance. Particularly striking is the fact that the coin is being issued a month before the launch of official state celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Podhale after the Second World War was a region where anti-Jewish violence took drastic forms. Fighters from the “Błyskawica” [Lightning] partisan unit commanded by Major Józef Kuraś “Ogień” [Fire] were responsible for some of the crimes committed there. While describing one of them, perpetrated on 2 May, Jan Batkiewicz “Śmigły” [Fast and Agile], a subordinate of “Ogień”, testified:

“After I gave the order, they all shot at the selected citizens of Jewish nationality. [...]. We did not take their documents, we only took food stacked in the car, and some of the clothing.”

The murder of the detained Jews was, besides robbing them, one of the soldiers’ main objectives. This was by no means the only crime against Jews committed by the “Błyskawica” unit commanded by Kuraś. Among the group’s other victims were not only men, but also women and children, often people who had tried to escape from the growing antisemitism of postwar Poland to Czechoslovakia.

The term ‘Indomitable Soldiers’ encompasses the actions of both those who, not willing to accept the tyranny of the Soviet Union, did not lay down their arms and continued to fight the representatives of the communist authorities, and those who—in name of nationalistic slogans—murdered members of all national minorities living in Poland for centuries. They are guilty of the death of innocent civilians. Bringing these two groups together is indeed falsifying history and manipulating collective memory.

Thousands of Poles “did right” both during the war and after the war had ended. Alas, Józef Kuraś “Ogień” is not one of them. Let us all remember that his name went down in history for his infamous deeds.

Anna Bakuła, treasurer, Jewish Community of Warsaw

Wit Derkowski, Member of the Board, B'nai B'rith Polin Lodge

Patrycja Dołowy, JCC Warsaw

Anna Dodziuk, Member of the Board, B'nai B'rith Polin Lodge, Member of the Board, Jewish Community of Warsaw

Prof. Barbara Engelking, Centre for Holocaust Research, Polish Academy of Sciences

Andrzej Friedman, Chairman of the Board, B'nai B'rith Polin Lodge

Andrzej Folwarczny, Chairman of Forum for Dialogue

Jan Grabowski, PhD; Fellow, Royal Society of Canada

Jewish Community Center

Konstanty Gebert

Krzysztof Hegemejer, Member of the Board, B'nai B'rith Polin Lodge

Artur Hofman, Head of the Social-Cultural Association of Jews in Poland

Zofia Jankiewicz, Member of the Board, B'nai B'rith Polin Lodge

Marian Kalwary, Chairman of the Board, Jewish Veterans Association

Sylwia Kędzierska-Jasik, Head of the Board, Jewish Community of Warsaw

Sergiusz Kowalski, B'nai B'rith Polin Lodge

Elżbieta Magenheim, member of the Jewish Religious Community of Warsaw

Grażyna Majer, Member of the Board, Jewish Community of Warsaw

Michał Majewski, Operational Director of the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland

Katarzyna Markusz, Jewish.pl

Piotr Nawrocki, Member of the Board, B'nai B'rith Polin Lodge

Dr Karolina Panz

Eliza Panek, Member of the Board, Jewish Community of Warsaw

Krzysztof Persak, historian, POLIN Museum

Elżbieta Petrajtis-O’Neill

Piotr Puchta, Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland

Dr Sebastian Rejak, Head of the American Jewish Committee Central Europe

Anda Rottenberg

Sebastian Rudol, JCC Kraków

Marta Saracyn, JCC Warsaw

Paula Sawicka, Head of the Program Board, Open Republic Association

Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland

Magdalena Smoczyńska

Remigiusz Sosnowski, Member of the Board, Jewish Community of Warsaw

Albert Stankowski, Member of the Board, Social-Cultural Association of Jews in Poland

Zygmunt Stępiński, POLIN Museum Director

Prof. Dariusz Stola, historian, Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences

Alina Świdowska

Gołda Tencer, Shalom Foundation

Prof. Joanna Tokarska-Bakir, Polish Academy of Sciences

Michał Trębacz, historian, POLIN Museum

Marian Turski, Chair of the POLIN Museum Council

Tomasz Ulatowski

Katarzyna Winiarska

Piotr Wiślicki, Chairman of the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland

Natalia Woroszylska, member, Open Republic Association

Witold Wrzosiński, Member of the Board, Jewish Community of Warsaw

Ludwika Wujec, Open Republic Association

Damian Wutke, Open Republic Association