A far-right Polish politician has sparked outrage after delivering an inflammatory speech about Jewish people outside Auschwitz.
Grzegorz Braun, a member of the European Parliament, compared Jewish people to the fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter and claimed “Poland is for the Poles” in remarks condemned as antisemitic.
Braun was speaking to reporters outside the former concentration camp – where over one million people were killed in the Holocaust – to criticise a bill to tackle antisemitism in Poland.
“Jews want to be super-humans in Poland, entitled to a better status, and the Polish police dance to their tune,” the chairman of the Confederation of the Polish Crown said. “They take pleasure in trampling on us, the Poles. Poland is for the Poles. Other nations have their own states, the Jews have theirs.”
Braun said the plan “singles out one particular group… [for] special privileges… [and] is tantamount to discrimination against all Polish citizens of non-Jewish descent.”
The five-year proposal to tackle growing antisemitism and support Jewish life in Poland is expected to be approved by the Polish cabinet in December. According to a 2021 Polish census, there are around 17,000 Jewish people in the country out of a total population of 38 million.
Braun described the bill as like “inviting Hannibal Lecter to move in next door” in his speech on Saturday, which has been branded “shameful”.
Poland’s justice minister Waldemar Zurek condemned Braun’s comments and vowed to launch an investigation into the speech.
“We will not allow anyone to express such views with impunity,” Zurek said. “It is truly shameful for Poles that someone like this, in the 21st century, after what happened in Poland during World War II, is turning this place into some hideous political game.”
The European Jewish Association said Braun’s remarks were “scandalous and unacceptable”.
“‘Poland belongs to Poles, not to Jews.’ Once again, Grzegorz Braun, Polish member of the European Parliament has chosen to repeat antisemitic rhetoric, this time standing outside the gates of Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, the place where more than one million Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazis simply for being Jewish,” the EJA said in a statement.
“For more than two years he has used his public platform to fuel hatred against Jews, and this week he did so at the very site where that hatred reached its most horrifying expression. We condemn his actions and words!!!”
EJA chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin added: “Sadly we have reached a point where we cannot call out every antisemite who chooses to publically express their hatred towards us as Jewish people. But we absolutely can and must demand accountability when such a person holds public office in Europe.”
Braun has been accused of antisemitism on multiple previous occasions. In July alleged the Nazi gas chambers at Auschwitz were “fake” while claiming conspiracies about murdered Christians used for ritual purposes were “fact”. Poland’s hate speech laws prohibit Holocaust denial.
