Healing the wounds of history

One man's mission to overcome centuries of hate
Y 1945, POI1SH Jews did not wish "to continue residence in what is for them . one huge cemetery," announced the British Ambassador to Poland at the time.
` Last week Ambassador • Krzysztof Sliwinski said, in a talk he gave in London,that in ▪ "Poland we need a feeling of • deep solidarity with Jews and with the Jewish past?' Polish-Jewish relations have not been of the best since the Second World War. But Ambassador Krzysztof Sliwinski is determined that the recent improvement should continue, as Felix Corley heard.
No-one is more frank about the problems between Poles and Jews than Krzysztof Sliwinski, an educated, articulate man who now occupies the unusual-sounding office of Plenipotentiary of the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Poland for contacts with the Jewish Diaspora. His job as a civil servant is to try to improve the climate between the government and the people of Poland and the survivors of the enormous pre-war Jewish population, now scattered around the world. Many of these remain bitter about the land of their ancestors, on whose soil the Nazis exterminated many of their Jewish victims.
One myth Sliwinski is determined to overcome is that Jewish life in today's Poland is dead. "It is a tiny community, especially compared to what it was in • the past," he admits. "But it is a community which is very
"much alive and growing. It
• is no longer possible to say today as it was ten years ago • that it is a community in terminal decline."
Sliwinski puts the number of those who identify themselves as Jewish as some 10,000, compared with the 30,000 who survived the Nazi • • occupation. He reports that • ' there are nine religious • ' congregations and two
• Rabbis, and numerous religious and cultural societies.
• " The Jewish Cultural Festival • in Krakow attracts people from all over Poland as well as from neighbouring Slovakia and Ukraine. A Museum of Polish Jewish Life, sponsored by the Jewish Historical Institute with money from the United States, is being built in Warsaw.
As A PRACTISING Catholic himself, Ambassador Sliwinski is proud to mention the festival of the Holy Torah and the Holy Bible, held in Gdansk last month, with events in churches and synagogues
attended by the Archbishop. "This was the same Gdansk where Fr Henryk Jankowski gave his infamous sermon in the presence of the -thenPresident, Lech Walesa". Fr Jankowski's anti-Sernitic remarks caused a storm of protest among the Jews and some Catholics.
While many foreign Jews complain that Poland's newlygained democracy has allowed greater expression of some anti-Semitic views, Sliwinski retorts that democracy for all its faults is far superior to the artificial, censored society that existed under communism.
And he is quick to recall that ten years ago there was "official silence" about Jewish life, with one or two exceptions "and, what's worse, official lies". He believes there are still some Jews abroad who have not taken this on hoard and tend to blame the post-communist governments for many of the problems which should rightly be blamed on their communist predecessors.
Trained as a biologist, Sliwinski gained prominence in the Solidarity movement, helping it retain its foreign links. In the wake of martial law imposed by General Jaruzelski in December 1981 he Was interned for a year. Since the fall of the communist regime he was appointed Ambassador to Morocco before being transferred to his new post just over a year ago. He has long been involved on a personal level in Catholic-Jewish reconciliation.
IN THE POLISH context, reconciliation has been sorely needed in recent years. Among current areas of tension Sliwinski highlights the continuing disputes over Auschwitz (the Polish town of Oswiecim), where Jewish anger was directed at plans to build a
supermarket opposite the camp, the restitution of confiscated Jewish communal property and continuing accusatory statements on both sides.
The plans for the supermarket near the Auschwitz camp have been squashed, and parliament is currently completing work on the draft law on the restitution of property. Sliwinski reckons this will be ready to be voted on by the full parliament in January. If passed, it will allow the return of more than 1,000 Jewish cemeteries, 228
surviving synagogues, 70 prayer houses and more than 100 other buildings. Another hopeful sign is joint PolishIsraeli cooperation to present a balanced account of history in school textbooks.
"When I started this work just over a year ago, people told me the job would be so difficult," Sliwinski admits. "Rut it is not like that. I discovered enormous support."
It is clear this support comes from those on both sides of what has been a sharp divide. But what of the Catholic Church, a still powerful force in Poland? "The Number two, the Number three and many others in the Catholic Church support me. I won't give names, and won't speak of the others," he says, clearly not fully happy that some sections of the Church are less than enthusiastic.
THIS IS ALSO apparent from the media. While 90 per cent of the general press support his work, Sliwinski notes with regret the lack of support from the rest, singling out "the only Catholic daily in Warsaw," which accuses him of philo-Semitism. "From a Christian point of view, this is ridiculous. How can you love too much? 1 looked in the Bible and couldn't find anything against this." He laughs, but his laugh is tinged with a weary sadness.
Sliwinski views his work as a moral imperative. "The time has come for some degree of philo-Semitism. This is not just to counter anti-Semitism, but a kind of duty for us, a moral, spiritual and cultural obligation". Poland's government has an eloquent advocate in Ambassador Sliwinski.