Explore the roots of antisemitism and antigypsyism in Central Europe.
This interactive timeline is divided into four historical periods and allows you to move through time by scrolling or by jumping to a specific period, filter events by country, and view short descriptions by hovering over each event, with selected entries offering more detailed historical context.
EXPLORE THE PAST
2004 – 2024
The European Union
Across 2004–2024, antisemitism and antigypsyism in Central Europe persisted and adapted despite EU accession, shifting from overt violence toward politicised discourse, institutional discrimination, and digitally mediated hate. While legal frameworks and inclusion strategies expanded, weak enforcement enabled far-right actors, populist narratives, and online networks to normalise conspiracy theories, historical revisionism, and collective blame. Jewish and Roma communities continued to face symbolic attacks on memory sites, segregation in housing and education, police abuse, and renewed scapegoating during crises such as migration, COVID-19, and military conflicts—revealing a persistent gap between formal commitments to equality and lived experience.
2024
2023
Threat to Bomb the Sejm
Attack on Hanukkah Menorah in Parliament
Anti-Israel Demonstration in Warsaw
2021
Burning of the Statute of Kalisz
Antisemitism at Anti-Vaccine March
2019
2016
2015
2014
2012
2008
2007
2006
1991 – 2004
The Time of Democratization
The collapse of state socialism brought democratic freedoms but also enabled the re-emergence of antisemitism and antigypsyism across Central Europe. As economies and national identities were rebuilt, far-right subcultures, nationalist rhetoric, and historical revisionism gained ground, leading to street violence, symbolic attacks, and hostile public discourse. Jewish communities faced vandalism and Holocaust denial, while Roma communities experienced severe violence, segregation, and police abuse amid economic upheaval. Although minority-rights frameworks expanded, inconsistent enforcement allowed racialised exclusion to persist, revealing the fragility of new democracies in protecting vulnerable groups.
2004
2001
Vandalism of Dzierżoniów Synagogue Ruins
Harassment of Holocaust Survivor Rudolf de Pellier
2000
Antisemitic Abuse During March of the Living
Vandalism at the ‘Under the Eagle’ Pharmacy
Swastika on the house of Marek Edelman, Ghetto Fighter
1999
1998
Conspiracy Posters in Bielsko-Biała
Antisemitic Graffiti Campaign
1997
Neo-Nazi Parade in Szczecin
Antisemitic Demonstration in Warsaw
Fire in the Nożyk Synagogue
Legal Case Against Father Jankowski
1996
1945 – 1991
The Time of Authoritarianism
After 1945, antisemitism and antigypsyism in Central Europe did not disappear but were reshaped under communist rule through surveillance, repression, and ideological control. Jewish communities faced postwar hostility, obstructed restitution, and later state-led “anti-Zionism” that marginalised Jewish identity, censored Holocaust memory, detroyed careers and forced to emigration[JW1.1]. Roma communities experienced systematic discrimination through forced settlement, cultural erasure, segregated education, and racialised policing, justified as socialist “assimilation.” While regimes proclaimed equality and antifascism, both forms of racism were embedded in state institutions and everyday governance, leaving Jewish and Roma communities silenced, controlled, and vulnerable on the eve of democratic transition.
1991
1981
Martial Law and Antisemitic Propaganda
Albin Siwak speaks in Plenum
Founding of Patriotic Union “Grunwald”
1968
Ryszard Gontarz hate campaign
Władysław Gomułka speech
Władysław Gomułka Speech in 1968
1967
1956
New leadership in the Party
Beginning of October ‘56
Speech of Hilary Chełchowski
Anti-Jewish hostility in Lower Silesia
1952
1948
1946
1939 – 1945
Times of War and Genocide
Between 1939 and 1945, antisemitism and antigypsyism across Central Europe were transformed into state-organised systems of persecution and genocide under Nazi occupation and collaborationist regimes. Jews were systematically stripped of rights, property, and livelihoods before being ghettoised, deported, and murdered in extermination camps, while Roma and Sinti were subjected to forced settlement, labour, internment, mass executions, and deportation as part of the Porajmos. These crimes were enabled not only by Nazi policy but also by local administrations, police forces, and societal participation, embedding racial violence into everyday governance. By the war’s end, Jewish life had been almost entirely destroyed and Roma communities devastated, leaving legacies of loss and trauma that would shape post-war marginalisation and memory across the region.
1945
Murders in Bolesławiec
Kraków Pogrom
Pogrom in Przedbórz
Murder in Czyżew
Murder in Sokoły
Palmnicken Massacre
1944
1943
Aktion Erntefest
Treblinka Death Camp Uprising
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Liquidation of the Ghettos
1942
1941
First Use of Gas for Mass Killing at Chełmno
Jedwabne Pogrom
Radziłów Pogrom
Szczuczyn Pogrom
1940
1939
Establishment of the General Government
Annexation of the Warthegau
Creation of the First Ghettos
“Action Nisko” Deportations
Heydrich’s Order for Racial Segregation
German Invasion of Poland
First Executions of Polish Jews
FROM MEMORY
TO MONITORING
You’ve explored the past – now see how history is connected to the present. View recent incidents of antisemitism and antigypsyism across Central Europe.