Warsaw Book Fair Features Anti-Semitic Titles

Warsaw Book Fair Features Anti-Semitic Titles

Crudely anti-Semitic books promoting Holocaust denial and depicting Jews as usurers have been showcased at a prestigious book fair in Poland which enjoys the backing of the Polish president.

Titles published by the far-right Polish imprint 3DOM–a play on the word freedom–were on display at the Historical Book Fair in Warsaw, an event officially supported by the office of Polish president Andzrej Duda.

Describing itself as a patriotic, Catholic and “the most politically incorrect” publishing house in Poland, 3DOM advertises more than 80 blatantly anti-Semitic works on its website, according to research carried out by the Never Again Association, a Polish NGO.

Book titles includes words and phrases such as freemasonry, ritual murder and other historical anti-Semitic canards leveled against Jews. One book by father Józef Kruszyński on the subject of the Talmud asserts: “Jews living in Christian countries and next to Christian nations are a highly undesirable element. They are like an alien element in the body.” Its authors include Dariusz Ratajczak, convicted in 2002 of Holocaust denial, and Mira Modelska-Creech, a University of Warsaw academic whose book on the COVID-19 pandemic featured an anti-Semitic caricature of a Jew holding a bag filled with dollars on its cover. The accompanying blurb promises readers will realize that “Jews play an important role in the practice of usury–it is this nation which pulls the strings in the most crucial spheres of the economy.”

In an interview with local news outlet WP, NGO Never Again’s executive director Rafal Pankowski expressed frustration at 3DOM’s presence at the fair, which ended Sunday.

“This fair was held under the patronage of president Duda and was co-organized by the Institute of National Remembrance,” Pankowski said. “This is a prestigious event taking place in the Kubicki Arcades at the Royal Castle.” A government-backed institution, the Institute of National Remembrance has played a key role in pushing legislation criminalizing discussion of Polish collaboration with the Nazis during World War II.

Full story here.