The anti-Semitic campaign had resulted in many victims, he said, and he ended with a request that the City Council lead Lodz’ population to peace. “The municipality must teach the people the ways of peace and call on all its citizens to live in peace.”
Another rabid anti-Semite, by the name of Schweidler, then called out, “In Palestine you can speak of peace.”
My father replied: “We are proud of Palestine and you have no right to tell us what to do in Palestine.”
At this point, Casimierz Kowalski yelled: “Go to Palestine!” The transcript then reflects disturbance on the floor, and the mayor again ringing his bell.
My father followed with a request for justice, interrupted by a call from the floor, “What justice? Maybe Talmudic justice!”
He responded, “I am proud of Talmudic justice. The Talmud is the source of righteousness and justice.”
In a footnote to this summary of a stormy Lodz City Council debate, my father notes that because their remarks appeared to endorse the murder of Klemner, Kowalski and Czernick were criminally prosecuted. They swore that the council’s transcript was inaccurate and that they had not said what was reported.
They were acquitted in a trial held in Lodz in October 1937. The prosecution appealed and a Warsaw appellate court reversed the lower-court decision in January 1938. The defendants were sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, with execution of the sentence deferred for three years. Poland was invaded by Hitler in September 1939.