Polish NGO From The Depths plans to prosecute the owner of a guest house in Cesarzowice, Poland, that banned Jews from the property.
A giant banner, which has now been removed by police, was attached to the front gate of the hostel reading in national colors red and white: “Entry forbidden to Jews, Commies, and all thieves and traitors of Poland.”
According to Polish media reports, the guest house belongs to Piotr Ryback, who is currently in prison for burning a Jew in effigy in a major square in the nearby city of Wroclaw during an anti-immigration rally in 2015.
From The Depths seeks to prosecute Ryback in light of this latest incident.
“This is a deplorable act that has no space in a modern democracy country like Poland,” From The Depths founder Jonny Daniels told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. “It is the same small group of losers that continue to push these racist, antisemitic and xenophobic acts. At From The Depths we are working with leading lawyers in Poland to ensure we bring a swift end to this kind of behavior and hate speech.”
The regional prosecutor’s office is looking into charging Rybak with another indictment for racist hate speech in connection with the banner, Małgorzata Kalus, the prosecutor department’s spokeswoman, told TVP.
Rybak had been under house arrest until last week, when a District Court judge in Wrocław sent him to jail for violating the terms of his detention. Rybak violated those terms by participating in a nationalist march in Wroclaw on Nov. 11 that featured antisemitic rhetoric.
The same day, 60,000 people attended a larger march in Warsaw, where some participants waived anti-Muslim banners and shouted antisemitic slogans.
News of the hostel’s ban on Jews drew condemnation from major Jewish groups.
A press release from the World Jewish Congress on Sunday stated that its CEO, Robert Singer, said the sign “conjures up memories of ghetto benches and other chilling manifestations of antisemitism in Poland in the late 1930s. Given Poland’s history, we would have expected authorities to act forcefully and swiftly to put a stop to such activity, which is illegal and utterly contravenes the democratic norms Warsaw is committed to upholding.”
The Anti-Defamation League, which also called for Polish authorities to act against the guest house, noted on Friday that the remainder of Rybak’s sentence was reduced last month to three months of partial house arrest with required good behavior.
JTA contributed to this report