The man who could be Poland’s next PM has said refugees could bring “cholera” and “parasites” to Europe prompting accusations of “Nazi”-type rhetoric Poland’s former leader and the head of the right-wing Law and Justice party made the controversial remarks at a rally in Makow Mazowiecki “We have to find out if information about some kind of [EU] deal to bring 100,000 Muslims to Poland is true” “It’s also a question for the health minister\" “There are already signs of the emergence of very dangerous diseases which haven’t been seen in Europe for a long time: cholera on Greek islands; dysentery in Vienna; various types of parasites which aren’t dangerous in the organisms of these people [Middle East refugees] It doesn’t mean to discriminate against anyone The statement prompted a stinging reaction by Andrzej Celinski the head of Poland's liberal Democratic Party He told the TVN24 broadcaster on Tuesday that Kaczynski is “no longer just using the language of hate but language which is emblematic of the Holocaust” “It used to be said that Jewish women carry typhus Scaremongering about parasites is the language of Nazism previously led by EU Council president Donald Tusk which is running on an electoral reform ticket looks like the only other party to pass the 5 percent threshold to enter parliament which says refugees will impose sharia law in Warsaw The numbers have prompted speculation on a potential Law and Justice-Kukiz15 coalition Kaczynski’s big role in the campaign has also prompted thinking he might take the PM post from his party's official candidate - Beata Szydlo - if they win an outright majority “At one point their candidate for PM was Piotr Glinski referring to Kaczynski's brief time as Polish leader in 2006 and 2007 There is no EU deal for Poland to take in \"100,000 Muslims\" who initially criticised EU refugee quotas then made a U-turn to accept 11,946 people “We can’t afford to take in economic migrants But we have to show solidarity with people who are looking for a safe place to live” said Kaczynski is trying to present Law and Justice as a centrist party “I’m afraid that Poland [under Kaczynski] would turn away from Europe Polish society is 87.5 percent Roman Catholic The ugly nature of the migrant debate was also on show in rallies in Warsaw and Gdansk in mid-September A pro-refugee event at Warsaw University attracted some 1,000 people But a rival protest in the city centre was five times bigger with people chanting “Fuck the EU” and with one protester calling Muslim refugees a “Trojan pig” The Gdansk rally saw people chant: “We will do to you [refugees] what Hitler did to the Jews” Law and Justice already unseated the Civic Platform's candidate in presidential elections in May “I won’t agree to a dictate of the strong,” he said at a seminar in Krynica “I won’t back a Europe where the economic advantage of the size of a population will be a reason to force solutions [relocations] on other countries regardless of their national interests” Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor writing about foreign and security issues since 2005 log in or subscribeEnjoy access to all articles and 25 years of archives Become a member for as low as €1,75 per week EU PoliticalAuthor BioAndrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker the German academic publishing house WBG Theiss published the book “Letters from Hell” (Briefe aus der Hölle) about Jews who served in the Sonderkommando at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp The volume also includes a new translation from the Yiddish memoirs of Rabbi Leib Langfus The book includes all available memoirs of Jews who served in the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz-Birkenau – the camp detail forced by the Nazis to help prepare inmates for the gas chambers and dispose of their corpses A quite expansive introduction and detailed commentary accompanies the book author and literature scholar who has been preoccupied for quite some time with this theme In 2011 he published a Russian-language edition of Zalman Gradovsky’s memoirs translated from Yiddish in 2007-2008 by Alexandra Polian a well-known Yiddish instructor and researcher from Moscow Because of his extraordinary piety—a rarity in such a terrible place particularly among the Sonderkammando—the Kapo had pity on the rabbi and gave him the “easy” task if one may use such a word in this context: to wash and dry the shorn hair of the women Pavel Polian asked me to prepare a fresh translation of Langfus’s memoirs we still know relatively little about this person which historians have pursued since the 1950s seems like a captivating yet tragic detective novel researchers believed that his original Yiddish-language memoir was unreadable because of the severely damaged state of the ruined pages on which it was written Langfus was sent to Birkenau in December 1942 Together with Gradovsky he participated in the Sonderkammando uprising in which 451 of the resisters were killed on October 7 1944; they nevertheless succeeded in destroying one of the crematoria and in this way delayed by a little the killing process In the camp he felt compelled to write two works Dina Terletskaya translated it from Yiddish into Russian; Roman Richter’s German version of her translation appears in the new collection my Russian translation of Langfus’s memoirs appears in the volume which in Yiddish was titled “Geyrush” (“Expulsion”) a Pole named Gustaw Borowczyk found the memoir in the ruins of Auschwitz crematorium number 3 and hid the manuscript in the attic of his house; his brother discovered them there in 1970 translated it into Polish; in the same year it was also published in German Although Pytel’s translation helped me greatly it is nonetheless littered with errors and fantastic interpolations When the translator couldn’t understand the Yiddish text often with extraordinarily awkward turns of phrase in one place he changes the word “Jewish,” for who knows what reason according to the racist terminology of the Nazis The word “shul” which in context clearly means “synagogue” he translated as “school” and so forth the manuscript during the 1970s was in much better condition than today The Polish translator therefore could make out parts of it that were now obscured with age Without the help of contemporary technology the manuscript would remain indecipherable Russian computer expert Alexander Nikitjaev examined the pages separating out the color of the faded blue ink proved insufficient; I had to analyze every fragment from various perspectives with the help of a computer Langfus had scratched some of the pages with some sort of sharp instrument It gives the tragic impression that the author is losing his sanity and even the physical ability to write further then whole paragraphs that the previous researchers were unable to decipher just a portion of the original notes remain But precisely this fragile character gives the text its own dark character: “bodies…remaining graves…death…” Only these words remain legible on page 114 What Langfus may have written further—and if he wrote further at all—remains a mystery thanks to the development of computer technology An additional important step and an honor for the murdered authors would be to publish these “megillahs of Auschwitz” in the original Yiddish I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward American Jews need independent news they can trust At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S rising antisemitism and polarized discourse This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up Copyright © 2025 The Forward Association who became Hyman George Rickover after immigrating to America was the first Jewish navy officer to reach the rank of admiral and the architect of the U.S.'s nuclear navy 2013Get email notification for articles from David B naval officer who was responsible for the creation of the American nuclear navy He was the first Jew to reach the senior rank of admiral This article was published more than 9 years ago Bernice – these were all the names that Bernice was known by over the years to her relatives and friends Although born into a humble environment in a small Polish town of 7,000 residents Bronka Domb was educated in the manner befitting the daughter of a Torah scholar the changes sweeping across Europe were swift and treacherous Shortly after the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939 her parents decided that Bronka and her brother Bronka was spotted by a handsome young man Abe wanted to meet her and bribed her brother with a pair of pants to get an introduction Stalin's government moved many of the Polish Jews to the eastern part of the Soviet Union Abe and Bronka were sent to a refugee settlement in Kazakhstan where their son Ben was born in 1945 (their first two children died in infancy) Abe was imprisoned twice in labour camps in Siberia the couple left Kazakhstan to make their way back to Poland Abe attached "out of order" signs on the doors of the train washrooms so Bernice and baby Ben could hide within When they learned that their families had perished in the Holocaust Bernice and Abe felt they must continue on Eventually they wound up in a refugee camp in Germany where their second son Anti-communist sentiment was pervasive at the time so they were told to destroy papers showing they had lived and married in Russia They remarried in Germany and then made their way to Israel where Abe found work as a carpenter and their third son Later Abe started a home repair service; aided by Bernice's business acumen – and the fact that she spoke six languages – the business grew into a construction company Their home was always open to friends and family including her brother Yossel and his family whom Bernice and Abe brought to Canada from Israel Bernice would cook and bake up a storm for every holiday Her traditional Shabbat meal started with chicken soup and ended with her sponge cake and a cup of tea Bernice also focused on raising their three sons She was also a dedicated volunteer at Baycrest hospital she was devoted to her many grandchildren and a great-grandchild "What's a Bubie for?" or "It's a Bubie's pleasure." after realizing that not all of her friends could afford such a luxury but her small stature belied her big heart Report an editorial error Report a technical issue Editorial code of conduct Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s comment community. 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