Racism in Poland

Ethnic Poles

When part of Poland was under the rule of the German Empire, the Polish population was discriminated against by racist policies. These policies gained popularity among German nationalists, some of whom were members of the Völkisch movement, leading to the expulsion of Poles by Germany. This was fueled by Anti-Polish sentiment, especially during the age of partitions.

Poland was under German and Soviet occupation during World War II. At this period Polish people were harshly discriminated against in their own occupied country. The Nazi German regime saw the Poles as "subhumans" (untermenschen) and were fit only for slavery and extermination. Most of the Nazis considered the Poles, like the majority of other Slavs, to be non-Aryan and non-European "masses from the East" which should be either totally annihilated along with the Jews and Gypsies, or entirely expelled from the European continent. Poles were the victims of Nazi crimes against humanity and they were also the main non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Approximately 2.5 million ethnic Poles were exterminated during World War II. Polish slaves in Nazi Germany were forced to wear identifying red tags with the letter P that were sewn to their clothing. Sexual relations with Germans (rassenschande or "racial defilement") were punishable by death. During the war, thousands of Polish men were executed for their relations with German women.

Also, during World War II, Polish people became the primary targets of ethnicity-based massacres by Ukrainian Insurgent Army, then in the territory of occupied Poland.

Jews

King Casimir III the Great brought Jews to Poland during the crusades at a time when Jewish communities were being persecuted and expelled from all over Europe. As a result, by the mid-16th century, 80% of the world's Jews lived in Poland.

The Jewish community in Poland consisted of about 10% of the general population by 1939, but was all but eradicated during the Holocaust following the German invasion of Poland in 1939 at the onset of World War II.

Notable incidents of antisemitism in Poland included Jedwabne pogrom of 1941 in the presence of German Ordnungspolizei (police officers). Anti-Jewish violence in Poland, 1944–46 attributed to postwar lawlessness as well as an anti-communist insurrection against the new pro-Soviet government immediately after the end of World War II in Europe, and the concept of "Żydokomuna" (Jewish communism).

Black Africans

The most common word in Polish for a black person is "murzyn". It is generally seen as a neutral word which was used for centuries to describe a person of Black African ancestry, but nowadays some Black Africans consider it to be pejorative or degrading.

One of the high-profile events regarding Blacks in Poland was the death of Maxwell Itoya in 2010. He was a Nigerian street vendor from a mixed marriage who was selling counterfeit goods to care for his children. He was shot in the upper leg by a policeman during a street brawl that followed a screening check at a market in Warsaw and died of a severed artery. The event led to a media debate regarding policing and racism.

There have been other cases of violence against Blacks in recent years. In Strzelce Opolskie, Black soccer players from LZS Piotrówka club were attacked in a bar by fans of the opposing team in 2015 and two young men were arrested. In a Łódź dance-club, a Black student was attacked in a men's washroom.

Roma

The Mława riot was a series of violent incidents against Polish Romani people in June 1991 when a Polish man was killed and another one permanently harmed in a hit-and-run accident. The driver was a Romani man that fled the scene and hid, causing a rioting mob to attack Romani residents of the Polish town of Mława where hundreds fled out of fear. The violence was described as motivated by racism and jealousy.

Among coverage of the riot, a change of ethnic stereotypes about Roma in Poland was mentioned: A Roma is no longer poor, dirty, or cheerful. They also do not beg or pretend to be lowly. Nowadays a Roma drives a high status car, lives in a fancy mansion, flaunts his wealth, brags that the local authorities and the police are on his pay and thus he is not afraid of anybody. At the same time he is, as before, a swindler, a thief, a hustler, a dodger of military service and of a legal, decent job. Negative "metastereotypes" – or the Romas' own perceptions regarding the stereotypes that members of the dominant groups hold about their own group – were described by the Polish Roma Society in an attempt to intensify the dialogue about exclusionism.

Attitudes towards minorities in modern times

An analysis based on the European Values Survey (EVS), which took place in 2008, compares Poland to other European nations. Poland had very high levels of political tolerance (lack of extremist political attitudes), relatively high levels of ethnic tolerance (based on attitudes towards Muslims, immigrants, Romas, and Jews) and at the same time low levels of personal tolerance (based on attitudes towards people considered "deviant" or "threatening"). From 1998 to 2008, there was a marked increase in political and ethnic tolerance, but a decrease in personal tolerance.

In the early 1990s, due partly to the political euphoria accompanying the fall of Communism, Poland was the most tolerant nation in Central and Eastern Europe. However, over the course of the '90s, tolerance decreased. By 1999, EVS recorded Poland as having one of the highest rates of xenophobia in Europe, while antisemitism also increased during this time. The factors behind these decreases in tolerance and the radicalization in attitudes towards other ethnic groups during this time likely included the country's economic problems associated with a costly transition from Communism (for example, high unemployment), ineffectual government and possibly an increase in immigration from outside.

These attitudes began to change after 2000, possibly due to Poland's entry into the European Union, increased travel abroad and more frequent encounters with people of other races. By 2008, the EVS showed Poland as one of the least xenophobic countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The negative attitudes towards Jews have likewise returned to their lower 1990s level, although they do remain somewhat above the European average. During the same time period, ethnic tolerance and political tolerance increased in Southern Europe (Spain, Greece) and decreased in other parts of Northern Europe (Netherlands).

While the Roma group was listed as most rejected, the level of exclusion was still lower than elsewhere in Europe, most likely due the long history of Roma (see Polska Roma) and their relatively low numbers in the country.

According to the European Jewish Congress, as of 2012, the number of antisemitic attacks and incidents of vandalism in Western Europe has increased; however, there has been a dramatic decrease in Poland. Israeli professor Gerald Steinberg attributes this to the small number of radical Muslims and leftist pro-Palestinians, who commit the majority of anti-Semitic attacks in the West.

State and racism

In 2004, the government took some initiatives in order to tackle the problem of racism. They adopted the "National Programme to Prevent Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance 2004-2009" ("Krajowy Program Przeciwdziałania Dyskryminacji Rasowej, Ksenofobii i Związanej z Nimi Nietolerancji 2004 – 2009") and also established the Monitoring Team on Racism and Xenophobia within the Ministry of Interior and Administration. The Implementation Report (2010) stated that the programme suffered from various obstacles, including lacking and unclear funding, and eventually some planned tasks were completed, while others were not.