To mark the International Human Rights Day, the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association has published a new edition of the ‘BROWN BOOK’, which constitutes documentation of hate crimes, racist and xenophobic incidents. This report collects acts of violence and examples of extremist hate speech in Poland in 2019.
- ‘Memory of the tragic past obligates us to take responsibility
for words, especially in the age of the internet and its unlimited
range’ – said Dr. Anna Tatar from the ‘NEVER AGAIN’
Association, the main author of the ‘Brown Book’. She added, ‘In
this monitoring project we note numerous cases of language used in
order to incite hatred against entire groups. This propaganda is
conducive to physical aggression’.
In the ‘Brown Book’, during the last few months the ‘NEVER
AGAIN’ Association noted numerous acts of violence against people
belonging to sexual minorities in particular. Contempt for these
people manifests itself in public announcements of politicians and
journalists, as well as members of the clergy. In recent elections to
the Sejm (the Polish Parliament), seats were won by extreme-right
activists under the banner of the Confederation (Konfederacja) group,
which demands punishments such as ‘flogging’ for homosexuality
(Grzegorz Braun), announces ‘kicking out of LGBT from Polish public
space’ (Robert Winnicki), or ‘slaughtering of those elite groups
which promote deviancy’ (Janusz Korwin-Mikke).
The ‘Brown Book’ documents selected incidents from 2019, such as:
beatings, damage to cemeteries and monuments dedicated to minorities,
extreme nationalist demonstrations, racist and homophobic insults,
cases of hate speech in the media, and acts of discrimination, as
well as ideologically motivated signs of hostility towards minority
groups. The list also includes examples of incidents in which
football fans took part, amongst other acts, the unfurling of racist
and xenophobic flags in stadiums, or shouting offensive slogans
during football games.
Some of the many incidents documented in the ‘Brown Book’
include:
On a Warsaw municipal public transport bus, two men attacked a
sixteen-year-old high school student for homophobic reasons. (Zabki
near Warsaw, 3rd January).
A group of assailants shouted xenophobic abuse and assaulted a
citizen of Ukraine who was an employee of a transport company. During
a taxi ride, they demanded that the driver change the music to 'disco
polo'. When he refused, they stated that he ‘does not respect the
country, to which he came’, abused him verbally, and shouted ‘You
f...ing Ukrainian, go back to where you came from,’ (Warsaw, the
night of 8th March).
One resident of a housing complex attacked his neighbour for
homophobic reasons. He shouted, ‘You faggot!’, and punched him in
the face with his fist (Warsaw, 14th March).
Unknown perpetrators damaged a plaque commemorating Jews murdered by
the Nazi Germans during World War Two. Two swastikas were painted on
the stone plaque (Otwock, 6th April).
Residents of the town of Pruchnik took part in a rite known as the
‘hanging of Judas’ which has antisemitic undertones. They dragged
an effigy through the streets, flogged it with sticks, and finally
set fire to the huge straw doll, which resembled a stereotypical
Orthodox Jew (Pruchnik, April 19).
On the wall of a Jewish cemetery, someone painted a set of gallows
with the word ‘Jude’ (Jew in German) hung from them (Oswiecim,
21st April).
Two men attacked a black student from the United States who was
participating in a Holocaust research tour (Warsaw, 30th May).
In an elementary school, an eleven-year-old pupil with Asperger’s
Syndrome, was harassed. The school principal as well as one teacher
reportedly humiliated her, derided her, called her names, and
threatened her (Szynkielow, 11th June).
An unidentified man used racist name-calling and brutally attacked a
citizen of India (Aleksandrow Lodzki, 21st June).
A man attacked a woman wearing a hijab and her three-month-old baby.
He shouted: ‘Get the f...ck out, you dirty people,’ and made the
gesture of the fascist ‘Heil Hitler’ salute, shouting ‘White
power!’ (Rzeszow, 2nd August).
Four assailants mugged and verbally abused an employee of a kebab bar
who was a citizen of Bangladesh (Lodz, night of 21st September).
A parking attendant attacked a citizen of Egypt for racist reasons.
He shouted at him, ‘F...k off from our country’ (Lodz, 15th
October).
The initiator and creator of the ‘Brown Book’ for many years was
the late Marcin Kornak (1968-2014), the founder of the ‘NEVER
AGAIN’ Association. Its title was inspired by the history of
anti-Nazi resistance. This documentation has continued for over
twenty years, and has earned international recognition as the most
reliable and independent source of information related to xenophobic
violence in Poland.
In 2019, the ‘Brown Book’ has won the support of the Citizens
Fund, governed by the Fund for Poland under the honorary patronage of
Adam Bodnar, the Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsman). In 2018 he
received the Norwegian Thorolf Rafto Prize, awarded for championing
human rights and independent judiciary in Poland. In accordance with
the wishes of Adam Bodnar, this prize was donated to the Citizens
Fund to promote human rights activism in Poland.
The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is an independent organisation
established in Warsaw in 1996. ‘NEVER AGAIN’ has campaigned
against racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia, both in Poland and
internationally.
The selection of racist and xenophobic incidents for 2019, documented
in the ‘Brown Book’ can be found in: PDF
More information:
