Poles discover their Jewish roots
By Samuel Donkin,WNS Poland Correspondent
WARSAW - Under Nazi and communist persecution, the few Jews who remained in Poland sometimes hid their identity, leaving a surprise in store for their descendants. Pawel works in the kitchen of a kosher restaurant in the heart of Warsaw's growing Jewish community, near the 19th Century Nozyk synagogue, a Jewish theatre and cultural centre. When he was younger, he used to be a skinhead. "I am from a Catholic family. I was baptised. My parents are still Catholics," he told me. "When I was a skinhead, I used to go around saying: oh, those Jews, look at what they've done. It was madness because we didn't know anything about Jews or Jewish culture. It was just slogans - like Jews Rule the World, Jews are Bad. "When there was a black person in the street, we used to chase him. If we caught him, we did what we did. "A young person always needs to find an enemy and we found this enemy in Jews, blacks and Gypsies."
Six years ago, Pawel made a discovery that turned his life upside down - he found out that he was Jewish. His parents had turned their back on Jewish life and they had never told him about his background. "When I looked into the mirror I asked myself: why should I be a Jew? It was the biggest shock of my life. It was really a huge blow. For most of my life I hated them. It was too much to take in at once."
Warsaw was once home to the largest Jewish community in the world after New York. But 90% of Poland's Jews were murdered by the Nazis during World War II. The majority of those who survived decided to emigrate after suffering repression under the new communist authorities. But since the collapse of communism in 1989 people have felt free to talk about Jewish life and the country's Jewish community is undergoing a revival. Many Poles were brought up as Catholics and only later discovered they were really Jewish or had Jewish ancestors.
posted by wnsworld @ 9:40 AM
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