Anti-Semitic purge in the Polish Army

The anti-Semitic purge in the Polish Army was the removal from the Polish People's Army of soldiers of Jewish origin, carried out during the People's Republic of Poland as one of the anti-Semitic actions of the state authorities, in 1967-1968; these were known as the Zionist purges, and culminated in the so-called March events[1].

General Wojciech Jaruzelski, a member of the top management of the Ministry of Defence, and, from April 11, 1968, Minister of Defence, who headed a special committee, was to be responsible for the anti-Semitic purge in the army. General Teodor Kufel, the head of the Military Internal Service was also co-responsible.

There is no unanimous agreement on the number of officers removed as part of the purge. Peter Raina indicated the number of several dozen[2], Anka Grupińska - 150[3]. Lech Kowalski reported that six orders containing 1348 names (both officers and petty officers) had survived, and added that soldiers of Jewish origin were being removed from the army by General Jaruzelski in 1980[4].

The people affected by the purge were deprived of the officer rank "because of the lack of moral values" and degraded (e. g. Mieczysław Krzemiński[5]).