“To Hitler and our homeland, beloved Poland”. Reporters infiltrated the neo-Nazi community

ovember 2017. In the centre of Katowice the National Movement (Ruch Narodowy) activists organize a demonstration where they hang portraits of Polish parliament members at gallows. Earlier on, politicians featured on portraits protested against including racist and Nazi slogans in the independence march of November 11. Nationalists accused them of vilifying Poland both at home and abroad.

The demonstration was led by Jacek Lanuszny, assistant to the chairman of the National Movement, MP Robert Winnicki. Lanuszny also represents the Association “Pride and Modernity” (Duma i Nowoczesność) and the Foundation “Eagle’s Nest” (Orle Gniazdo).

Pride and Modernity was established in 2011 in Wodzisław Śląski, and the major event organised by it is the survival championship under the slogan “Survive to win”.

This is also the title of an album of a neo-Nazi rock band Honor featuring songs about national socialism and Rudolf Hess – Adolf Hitler’s deputy in the party in the years 1933–1941.

In the months leading up to these events, journalists of “Superwizjer” TVN managed to infiltrate the Polish neo-Nazi community with hidden cameras. In March 2017 they got to a concert of neo-Nazi’s favourite music in a village of Grodziszcze in the Lower Silesia.

The exact time and location of the event was kept secret until last moment. At the venue, full of Nazi symbols, the participants – Poles and Germans – raised arms together in the so-called Roman salute and shouted “Sieg Heil!”. Some did not conceal swastikas and SS symbols tattooed on their bodies. Journalists of “Superwizjer” asked Jacek Lanuszny whether the Association “Pride and Modernity” is founded and headed by national socialists. – No – he replied. – A friend of mine was once sued, but these were his juvenile days. The friend, the main founder, has quite radical views but I would in no way link this to the Third Reich-style Nazism – he assured.

The current chairman of the association, Mateusz S., a.k.a. “Sitas”, was convicted for racist crimes in 2009. The Internal Security Agency officers found materials with the Third Reich symbols at his flat. The file also includes 77 photos with people raising arms in the Nazi salute. In two of them, a young man looking like Mateusz S. makes this gesture at the gate of the German camp, Auschwitz and in one of its barracks.

When asked about Mateusz S. and like-minded members of the association, Jacek Lanuszny maintained that all of this related to their “juvenile” years.

The journalists of “Superwizjer”, without disclosing their identity, made contacts, among others, with members of Pride and Modernity. In May 2017, Mateusz S. invited them to an event – celebrations of the 128th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s birth. The invitation was signed by Polish National Socialists from Wodzisław Śląski.

The event was held on a hill in a forest near Wodzisław Śląski. Red flags with swastikas on them could be seen hanging on trees from afar, with Nazi military marches coming from loudspeakers. On site, a sort of “altar” in honour of Adolf Hitler was built, with his black and white portrait. At the central spot, a huge wooden swastika was hanging, infused with barbecue lighter fluid. After dark, it was set on fire, people would have their photos taken with it and flares were fired.

Some meeting participants sported Wehrmacht uniforms and Mateusz S., SS officer uniform. They praised Hitler’s alleged achievements, never mentioning that he was responsible for starting the most horrible war in the history and the death of millions of people. At the end, toasts were made “to Adolf Hitler and our homeland, beloved Poland”. A cake in the colours of the Third Reich flag was served.

In July, journalists came, also with a hidden camera, to the Eagle’s Nest festival advertised as the most important event of the national music scene in Poland. The regular event is supported by Pride and Modernity, and Jacek Lanuszny is one of the organisers.

“I do not tolerate those and that’s why I believe that for the Eagle’s Nest I have specially appointed services to react,” he said, asked about the Roman salutes and raising “Sieg Heil” shouts. “If somebody does something inappropriate, they are reprimanded,” he assured.

However, journalists saw and recorded, during the festival, that the security did not react to these types of behaviour. “But now it needs to be proved that this is, for example, a Nazi gesture,” Lanuszny explained. “I can say that this is a wave,” he added calmly.

Members of the Association “Pride and Modernity” make no secret about their fascination with arms. It cannot be ruled out that machine guns from military stocks can soon find their way to its members. As a matter of fact, work is underway at the parliament to amend the Law on arms and ammunition, to make it possible to share such arms with pro-defence organisations.

“I believe there’s nothing wrong with the society at large being familiar with how to use guns,” Jacek Lanuszny explained. “Of course we’ve been a couple of times to a shooting range, but that was for leisure,” he ensured.

In 2008, the Internal Security Agency established as part of their operations that the current chairman of Pride and Modernity, Mateusz S. and Adam B. may be planning an attack using explosives. Both men’s flats were raided by officers but, during the search, no bomb-making materials were found and no charges were filed.

“It was about the contents of text messages,” explains Lanuszny, who, as he claims, once talked about this to Mateusz S. “And I know it caused problems,” he says.

After the intervention of the chairman of the National Movement, Robert Winnicki, the National Public Prosecutor’s Office inspected Mateusz S.’s case file. As a result of the inspection, the case was withdrawn from the court. Several days later the prosecutor’s office dismissed the investigation against the leader of Pride and Modernity.

The official who notified the police of the suspicious activities of Mateusz S. had to justify herself to her superiors. She no longer works at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration’s Task Force for Human Rights. In 2016 it was disbanded.

Źródło: Superwizjer TVN, tvn24.pl/tłumaczenie Intertext.com.pl