Marek Jurek, a senior Polish politician and former speaker in the Polish Parliament, has called for the Polish Government to take legal action against London-based Polish Film Director Aro Korol for his planned film – “Hitler’s Daughter” – which exposes the worrying levels of anti-Semitism in Poland, and Europe, today.
Mr. Jurek – a former member of the Law and Justice party – called on the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Radosław Sikorski, to intervene, claiming that:
“Such behaviour [i.e. producing such a film] should not only be met with severe political reaction, but also legal steps, to prevent unpunished insults addressed at Polish institutions at an international audience”.
In the opinion of Mr Jurek and his political allies, Mr. Korol should be prosecuted for his activity, which – in their view – is of criminal nature.
In July 2009, a promo reel of “Hitler’s Daughter” was presented at the Galway Film Fair and subsequently posted on the film’s website. The film – currently in production – explores the rise in anti-Semitic movements in Poland and across Europe. The promo reel created a media frenzy in Poland, making the headlines of major Polish press titles and remained one of the hottest topics on numerous internet portals. Articles were also published in Hungary, Germany, Spain and the Czech Republic. Mr. Korol became the object of numerous attacks (some of them anti-Semitic). One person even went so far as to say he wished Mr. Korol would die, while another said: “Leave Poland alone, you Jew, or we’ll cut your hands off.”
Watch the promo reel:
Our guest writer is Lidia Wieczorek
UPDATE 22.09
After a commenter pointed out that there is only one MP featured in the article above we changed the headline to the singular. There is a second politician implicated in this story and Left Foot Forward will be following up.
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14 Responses to “Polish politician attempts to suppress film exposing country’s anti-Semitic issues”
Gordon
So Jurek is a FORMER member of Law and Justice. And Law and Justice sit with the Tories in the European Parliament. So what?
That’s as tenuous as expecting the Polish Socialists to be embarrassed bcause George Galloway, a former member of the British Labour Party, made an outrageous statement in the House of Commons.
Is that the sound of barrels being scraped?
willstraw
Gordon,
Lidia was drawing our attention to a disgraceful episode in Poland. It doesn’t make any references at all to the British Conservative party, ECR or Michal Kaminski and is just a straight piece of reporting.
But you’re clearly a bit testy on the issue. Care to tell us why? You don’t work for CCHQ do you?
Will
FYI
Hang on a minute, the headline of this piece says “Senior Polish MPs attempt to suppress film exposing country’s anti-Semitic issues”
But this is a request by ONE politician who according to Wikipedia (for what its worth) doesn’t even have a parliamentary seat and has quit Law and Justice for ideological reasons.
The headline is wrong. Its not MPs in the plural but one man, he is not senior, he is not even an MP, he is not even a member of a parliamentary party. He has asked for the film to be stopped just like some random nutter. He has a past in senior politics, but that’s about it.
And why does this individual have an issue with the film? Perhaps he has an issue with its lack of fairness and accuracy? Isn’t it his right to complain about – or even stop – what he thinks is bad journalism?
This article seems to be another example of the sensationalist “Polish antisemitism” stereotype. We know there is antisemitism in Poland as there is everywhere, but prejudice is wrong in all its forms. Radio Maryja represent the bigoted fringe in Poland, a bit like the Daily Mail crowd in Britain.
So this article is dodgy, prejudiced journalism. Or was this article simply PR for the film? Because that is what it looks like.
willstraw
FYI (no idea why you couldn’t even leave a proper email address but there we are).
1) I’m no expert on Polish politics but Marek Jurek (according to the wikipedia page) is the Speaker of the Polish parliament. That makes him a pretty senior MP.
2) You make a fair point on the headline but there is a second MP Anna Sobecka who is implicated. Since she wasn’t mentioned in the article, the headline was unfair and I am happy to amend it.
But we will be updating later in the week since this is a disgraceful story and I don’t see why a progressive website needs a reason to cover interesting articles about anti-semitism. After all, racism and extremism is one of the four things that we are explicitly fighting against.
Best wishes,
Will
FYI
Are we looking at the same Wikipedia page? I have http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marek_Jurek
It says:
“On October 26, 2005 he was elected a Sejm marshal (parliament speaker)”
“On April 13, 2007 he resigned from the post”
“In the parliamentary election in 2007 his party did not win any seats in the Parliament as it found itself below the election threshold.”
“Marek Jurek remains outside the Parliament.”