(JTA) – Far-right marchers shouted “Jews out” and other racist slogans at independence day events. At the March of Independence in Warsaw Saturday, participants held signs that read “Seig Heil,” “Remove Jewry from power,” and “White Europe, Europe must be white.” Police estimated that 60,000 people participated in the Nov. 11 march marking 99 years of Polish independence. Poland’s Interior Minister expressed pride in the event. “It was a beautiful sight,” Mariusz Błaszczak said. “We are proud that so many Poles have decided to take part in a celebration connected to the Independence Day holiday.” Culture Minister Piotr Gliński condemned the slogans and banners that mentioned race without referring to antisemitism. “We do not support such slogans,” he said, referencing what he termed, “Use of ethnic and racist terminology to describe the concept of the Polish nation.”

In response to the march, Agnieszka Markiewicz, the director of the American Jewish Committee’s Warsaw-based Central Europe office, said that “xenophobic nationalism in Poland is becoming more dangerous” and warned against complacency. “The apparent tolerance shown for these purveyors of hate – and, let’s be clear, that’s exactly what they are – by some Polish government officials is particularly troubling,” said Markiewicz, referring to Błaszczak’s comments.

Racist rhetoric was also documented also at Nov. 11 events outside the capital.

In the western city of Wroclaw, an Independence Day march of approximately 2,000 participants was led by Piotr Rybak, who was convicted this year for burning an effigy of a Jew two years ago at a demonstration against immigration.

Jacek Międlar, a former priest who also led the Wroclaw march, called on the crowd to “Be ruthless, be radical in the fight against evil, lies, injustice, lawlessness, the destruction of the Polish judiciary, and Talmudism.” Only then, he said, “this war will be won, and no Jewish Marxist horde will take away our flag or the cross of Christ.” He also said that in Polish synagogues, “Jews are drunk with Talmudic hatred.”