ABSTRACT
The year 1968 holds a special place in Polish history. Ordinary people who had little to do with not only the system, but also with all things Jewish, were also among those who fell victim to the purges. A mechanism was at work whereby the term “Jew” was used as an insult, triggering the process of a person’s exclusion from society. As emotions escalated participants in a meeting in the courtyard of the University of Warsaw—convened in March in defense of Adam Michnik and Henryk Szlajfer, two students expelled from the university—demanded the abolition of censorship, greater autonomy, and democratization of the system. The March events were accompanied by a power play between a group of communist party apparatchiks led by Mieczyslaw Moczar and the head of the party, Wladyslaw Gomulka. A “spontaneous” show of support for Gomulka—also known as Comrade Wiestaw—was staged, along with a firm condemnation of the “troublemakers and Zionists.”
