Doctor injured while attempting to stop anti-Semitic Polish MP from extinguishing Hanukkah menorah shares experience

The woman who was struck by the extinguisher can’t speak, only communicating through texting.

By Ben Cohen, The Algemeiner

A woman assaulted by the antisemitic Polish MP who wrecked a menorah lighting display at the Polish parliament this week has spoken out about her ordeal.

Magdalena Gudzińska-Adamczyk, a doctor, told the Rzeczpospolita news outlet on Friday that she had suffered from health problems after being hit in the face with the same fire extinguisher used by the MP — Grzegorz Braun of the far right Confederation Party — to extinguish the candles of a menorah lit in a corridor of the parliament building in celebration of the annual Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Dozens of people who attended the candle-lighting ceremony, including several children, were immediately evacuated by security officers.

Gudzińska-Adamczyk was struck as she tried to prevent Braun from setting off the fire extinguisher. After she left the parliament building, she fell unconscious and was rushed to the hospital.

“I feel better today, but I still can’t speak,” she told the newspaper in a text message. “I communicate via SMS.”

Gudzińska-Adamczyk said she was considering taking legal action against Braun, but that she would focus on her health first, as she suffers from a long-term illness.

She added that Braun had told her that “people like me are shameful and that I am not a woman.”

Asked about an online fundraiser for Braun that raised nearly $20,000 in less than 24 hours, Gudzińska-Adamczyk gave a gloomy response.

“It’s very bad how people accept and support violence. Because it was violence, not only against me, not only against Polish Jews, but against the entire Sejm [Polish parliament] community and towards Poland,” she said.

Braun’s antics were widely condemned by Polish politicians, but he appears to be achieving folk hero status among sections of Polish society. Researchers from the Polish anti-racist organization “Never Again” identified several items of merchandise being sold online in support of Braun throughout the week.

One t-shirt shows a graphic representation of a fire extinguisher aimed at a menorah. Other items include coffee mugs showing Braun dressed in a firefighter’s uniform.

Braun was suspended from parliament immediately after the incident. On Wednesday, the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw announced that it was initiating legal proceedings against the MP.

For his part, Braun has shown no remorse, telling those who berated him on Tuesday that they were the ones who should feel “ashamed to participate in the acts of a Satanic Talmudic cult.” He then doubled down with a post on X/Twitter that declared, “There can be no place for acts of racist, wild, Talmudic worship on the premises of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland!”

anti-SemitismChanukahfire-extinguisherGrzegorz BraunGudzińska-AdamczykPoland