OZON

OZON, Obóz Zjednoczenia Narodowego (Pol. "Camp of National Unity"), a paramilitary, antisemitic organization created in Poland on Oct. 2, 1937 by Colonel Adam Koc, under the auspices of President Moscicki and the minister of defense, Rydz-Smigly. Its program called for the protection of peasant ownership, the improvement of smallholdings, and the control of population by encouraging peasants to migrate to the cities. By camouflaging its antisemitism with problems of national self-defense, ozon hoped to compete with other rightist Fascist organizations such as onr and win over the masses. Based on nationalism, Catholicism, and antisemitism, ozon hoped to divert the attention of workers and peasants from the real issues of the day, such as unemployment and poverty. It encouraged disorder and lawlessness, advocated segregation in the universities, and made assaults on Jewish rights. No Jew – not even one who had fought for Poland's independence in *Pilsudski's Legion – was eligible to join ozon. Many arbitrary and even brutal anti-Jewish policies and acts, such as restricting the right of *sheḥitah, insisting that "Aryan" principles should prevail in professional organizations, establishing economic boycotts, destroying Jewish property, and encouraging pogroms in *Radom, *Czestochowa, *Brest-Litovsk, and *Vilna, were carried out under the aegis of ozon. In December 1938 Koc, whose totalitarian tendencies were becoming too apparent, was forced to give up his leadership of ozon and was replaced by General Skwarczynski. The antisemitic activities of ozon continued, however, under new leadership, and Skwarczynski asked the Polish *Sejm to take energetic measures to reduce the number of Jews in Poland, for national defense reasons. As a result the Polish government opposed the British mandatory restrictions on the admission of Jews to Palestine and sent a delegation to *Madagascar to study the possibilities of Jewish immigration there. ozon continued its activities until the defeat of Poland in September 1939.

bibliography:

S. Segal, The New Poland and the Jews (1938), 68–75; R.L. Buell, Poland: Key to Europe (1939), index; I. Gruenbaum, in: eg, 1 (1953), 113–6; Wielka Encyklopedia Powszechna, 8 (1966), 90. add. bibliography: E. Melzer, No Way Out, The Politics of Polish Jewry 1935–1939 (1997), index; idem, "Mifleget ha-Shilton ozon veh a Yehudim be-Polin 1937–1939," in: Galed (1978), 397–426.

[Dov Rabin]