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Over the years in Legnica sometimes I have run into some anti-Semitism. There was a fireman where I worked – I even worked with him for a year. He’d watch me doing something and ask why I was doing it Jewish-style. It was a sort of joke, but with a sting. Normally he was as nice as could be, but sometimes he’d burst out with something like that without meaning to. But then, he’s dead now, and one mustn’t speak ill of the dead.
I remember during the Gomulka era [see Gomulka Campaign] [9] when they’d hold those 1st May rallies, some people would dress up as the prime minister, Golda Meir [10], going around in these long gowns making fun of her. In those days there was a lot of anti-Semitism here. Some distant relatives of mine had a shop here, and they had a sign in Polish on the shop saying it belonged to someone else, to some Pole, because the man’s name was Chaim or something like that, and he had to keep it secret.
I changed my first name too, because I was always being harassed. Once I was in a sanatorium in Krynica [a spa town in south-east Poland], and when I arrived I went to register. They write everything down, and I tell the woman I’m named Icek Warzager, and she laughs and mutters something. That made me angry, so I filed a petition and had my name legally changed to Michal. But I remember my real name! Later on there was another guy at work who made nasty remarks about how I got a new apartment. He claimed the Communist Party [see Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR)] [11] had given it to me, just because I’m a Jew.
And I remember 1968, when Gomulka was trying to get rid of us [the anti-Semitic events of March 1968]. I remember what he said as if it were yesterday: ‘I’m not driving the Jews out, but I’m not going to stop them from leaving.’ Where I worked things were pretty calm at that time – that fireman would sometimes make his jokes, but no one did anything in particular against me. The very fact that I worked there so long shows that it wasn’t so bad. If it had been I would have left that job – there was plenty of work to be had in those days; it wasn’t like it is now.
I remember during the Gomulka era [see Gomulka Campaign] [9] when they’d hold those 1st May rallies, some people would dress up as the prime minister, Golda Meir [10], going around in these long gowns making fun of her. In those days there was a lot of anti-Semitism here. Some distant relatives of mine had a shop here, and they had a sign in Polish on the shop saying it belonged to someone else, to some Pole, because the man’s name was Chaim or something like that, and he had to keep it secret.
I changed my first name too, because I was always being harassed. Once I was in a sanatorium in Krynica [a spa town in south-east Poland], and when I arrived I went to register. They write everything down, and I tell the woman I’m named Icek Warzager, and she laughs and mutters something. That made me angry, so I filed a petition and had my name legally changed to Michal. But I remember my real name! Later on there was another guy at work who made nasty remarks about how I got a new apartment. He claimed the Communist Party [see Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR)] [11] had given it to me, just because I’m a Jew.
And I remember 1968, when Gomulka was trying to get rid of us [the anti-Semitic events of March 1968]. I remember what he said as if it were yesterday: ‘I’m not driving the Jews out, but I’m not going to stop them from leaving.’ Where I worked things were pretty calm at that time – that fireman would sometimes make his jokes, but no one did anything in particular against me. The very fact that I worked there so long shows that it wasn’t so bad. If it had been I would have left that job – there was plenty of work to be had in those days; it wasn’t like it is now.
Period
Location
Legnica
Poland
Interview
Michal Warzager