Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis is taking a side in the international incident over the proposed relocation of a memorial to the victims of a series Polish mass executions that took place in 1940.
“I’ve been following the controversy around the Katyn Memorial Statue in Jersey City, and it’s surprising to see the city take this action without consulting the community that statue is meant to honor,” Davis said in a statement Thursday. “If Jersey City doesn’t want the memorial any more, as Mayor I would be proud to have it at one of our many of our wonderful parks.”
The Katyn memorial statue commemorates the deaths of more than 22,000 Polish civilians and military officers. The statue will be moved so it will not be damaged while the plaza in which it sits is renovated, but Michael DeMarco, the chair of the special improvement district responsible for the renovations, has told NJ.com that he would prefer it not return.
Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop has said the statue will only be away from the plaza where it was erected temporarily, but that hasn’t stopped Polish officials from feeling slighted.
Polish Ambassador Piotr Wilczek said that the announcement concerned him, as did the lack of dialogue that surrounded it, while Stanislaw Karczewski, the speaker of Poland’s Senate, called the move “really scandalous and very unpleasant.”
But Fulop doesn’t seem to care much for the latter dignitary, at least not by Twitter standards.
“All I can say is this guy is a joke. The fact is that a known anti-Semite, white nationalist + holocaust denier like him has zero credibility,” Fulop said in a tweet Wednesday. “The only unpleasant thing is Senator Stanislaw. Period. I’ve always wanted to tell him that.”
The strike by Davis is an opportunistic one likely aimed at undermining an opponent of Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise. Fulop and other mayors in the county, including Union City Mayor Brian Stack, Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla and West New York Mayor Felix Roque, have aligned against DeGise’s reelection in 2019.
Davis, a DeGise ally, will have to beat former Assemblyman Jason O’Donnell on May 8 if he wants to keep his seat.
View Comments (15)
Thank you Mr. Davis. I am not sure what are Jersey City Mayor’s motives but using provocative unsubstantiated slurs toward to a foreign government official demonstrates his lack of maturity and his inappropriateness for current office.
I would say it is even dangerous!
NJ Major dosnt know that in 1940 in Katyn rusians executed few hundred Polish Jews? Maybe he dosnt want to know ? Same like during the WWII American Jews didnt want to know about holocoust.
The Soviets executed in Katyn the chief rabbi of Polish Army Baruch Steinberg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_Steinberg as well as members of other ethnic/national groups because prewar Poland was a multinational country with 17 officially recognized ethnic minorities. Americans knew about holocaust since 1942, but did nothing to stop it. Jan Karski presented his report to president Roosevelt in 1942. FDR did not care to lift his finger in defense of Jews.USA refused to allow to the country almost a 1000.00 European Jews who sailed on a ship St. Loius. A Polish Jew named Szmul Zygielbojm committed suicide in London in protest of inactivity of free world. Forward to 2018 and the only country in the world who helped the Jews (only in Poland there was a death penalty for helping Jews: giving them food, clothing, hiding or anything else that involved Jews) is being named anti-semite and an aggressor. Poland lost 11 millions citizens in WWII, 86% of infrastructure, 68% of industry, its capitol was leveled by the Germans to the ground, and Americans in Yalta put a yolk of communism on Polish people. Poland was the biggest victim in WWII. Poland did not receive it any help to rebuild itself like a Nazi Germany got from USA. Poland destroyed the communism (months before Berlin Wall fell down) and freed the world. Mayor Fulop , shame on you!
How true. Maybe his family helped Stalin execute the Poles and that is why he wants to get rid of this memorial. Such a shame.
Can we remove the mayor instead?
Seems like you dont know much either, as majority of NKVD officers in Katyń weren't Russian but Jewish!
This Mayor acts like a child, not a mature politician.
Any accusation of Poles in Holocaust are groundless monstrosity. This subject is for those who want to know nothing but the truth. In USA it is essential that any discussion in this matter begins with the reading of the book of Edwin Black "The Transfer Agreement". Leaders of the Jews in USA went into the agreement with the Hitler himself to struck the deal to transfer 530 thousand German Jews to Palestine. That was in 1933. In 1939 Poland was a first country that responded to german agression with its military. At that time in Poland lived more than 3 million Jews. Unlike German Jews, they were poor mostly hassidic Jews and nobody cared about them in USA then and during the Holocaust. Even though polish underground sent a emissary, Jan Karski, who eye-witnessed the atrocities in Warsaw Ghetto. He even met with FDR. It was all for nothing. The only remainder of memory from the holocaust is a lie broadcasted on each occasion, especially by American Jewry, accusations of supposedly active role of Poles in Holocaust. It's impossible to express entire opinion on this matter in one internet comment. Anybody who is really interested should go to the public library and ask for Edwin Black's "Transfer agreement".
How can such a prominent person like city Mayor speak with so much predjuce and antagonism? His remarks could be classified as hate speech. I've visited Jersey City last year, I thought of it as a nice city.
My earlier opinion was censored. American Jews did nothing to help poor helpless Jews of Eastern Europe.Instead today they accuse Central Eurpe's nations for collaboration with Germany as a way to justify its own passivness and even cooperation w Nazi Germany in resettlement of German Jews to Palestine. Read book of Edwin Black under the title: The Transfer Agreement.
Let's imagine someone tries to remove Holocaust Memorial from Washington D.C? It is really troubling that Steven Fulop has so much hatred and prejudice towards Poles and Polish-Americans. In two years. Steven Fulop will be running reelection, voters will remember Fulop's achievements.
Save the Polish Holocaust Memorial. 6 million Poles lost their lives during WW2
Mr. Fullop ignores the memory of the people who first opposed the Nazi and Communist attack on Europe.
22, 000 Polish officers, murdered by Stalin in tke Katyn forest, deserves our memory and the highest respect.
The Katyn monument is an important reminder of the dangers that totalitarian regimes present to free world and cannot be be ignored either in 1939 nor today.
Mr Fullop is just uneducated
Steps to follow
Get educated
Use your brain
Than act
He is only acting with out of first two steps
Regards Jerry