WARSAW: Israeli soccer fans held up a banner reading “Murderers since 1939” during a match against a Polish team on Thursday, causing outrage in Poland as the president said it insulted the memory of Poles, including Jews, killed in World War Two.

Poland was occupied by Germany in World War II. The country’s 3.2 million Jewish population was the largest in Europe at the start of the war.

Historical disputes over World War II and the Holocaust have strained relations between Poland and Israel in the past.

Studies have spoken of complicity by some Poles in the killing of Jews, but many Poles reject such findings, saying they are an attempt to dishonour a country that suffered immensely during the war.

The “Murderers since 1939” banner was displayed prominently across a row of seats by fans of Israeli club Maccabi Haifa during their Europa Conference League match against Rakow Czestochowa, which was played in Debrecen, Hungary, for security reasons.

“The scandalous banner displayed by Maccabi Haifa fans insults the memory of Polish citizens — victims of World War II, including three million Jews,” Polish President Karol Nawrocki, a former head of the country’s Institute of National Remembrance, wrote on X. “Stupidity that no words can justify.”

Polish Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said “anti-Polonism and the scandalous distortion of Polish history by Israeli hooligans demand strong condemnation”.

The Israeli embassy in Warsaw also condemned the banner.

“There is no place for such words and actions, from any side, neither at the stadium nor anywhere else. Never!” the embassy wrote on X.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2025