November 13, 2012

WARSAW, Poland (JTA) — Young Polish nationalists and anti-Semitic extreme rightists called for the overthrow of Poland at the republic’s Independence Day march.

At Sunday’s event, the groups established a new nationalist organization called the National Movement.

Many of the participants in the march waved green flags with Celtic crosses and phalanx. Green flags in prewar Poland were a symbol of anti-Semites.

The marchers earlier had laid flowers at the monument of Roman Dmowski, who along with Jozef Pilsudski contributed to regaining Poland’s independence in 1918. Dmowski was known, however, for his anti-Semitism and considered the Jews to be one of the greatest enemies of Poland.

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski also laid flowers at Dmowski’s grave and held his own march on Sunday under the slogan “Together for Independence.”

Earlier in the day Komorowski presented the state medal to Anne Applebaum-Sikorski, an American Jewish writer and journalist and the wife of Poland’s foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, for her dissemination of knowledge about the recent history of Central and Eastern Europe.

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