Threats against Polish officials cite ‘Jewish mafia’
A supporter of an embattled Catholic TV channel claims the country’s president and prime minister are part of a Jewish plot
KRAKOW — Two members of Poland’s National Broadcasting Council received death threats of an anti-Semitic nature last week following their decision not to renew the license of Trwam, an ultra-Catholic TV station.
According to the Polish Press Agency, council chairman Jan Dworak and senior board member Krzysztof Luft received handwritten letters sent from a Warsaw post office on Thursday. The messages warned, “If you continue to carry out the orders of the anti-Polish and anti-Catholic Jewish mafia of [Prime Minister Donald ]Tusk and [President Bronislaw] Komorowski by not granting TV Trwam a license, the Freedom and Independence Court will issue a death sentence against you.”
Neither Tusk nor Komorowski is Jewish.
The original Freedom and Independence Court was an underground anti-Communist organization founded after WWII.
Trwam, established in 2003, is an ultra-conservative Catholic channel headquartered in Torun, Poland. The channel is closely associated with Tadeusz Rydzyk, a controversial priest who owns the conservative radio station Radio Maryja, which has been accused on several occasions of broadcasting anti-Semitic content. Trwam has studios in Warsaw and Torun and is largely funded by donations.
Dworak and Luft filed complaints with Warsaw police on Friday, and the local prosecutor has launched an investigation.
