VZCZCXRO6526
RR RUEHKW
DE RUEHWR #2653/01 3631156
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 291156Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY WARSAW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2753
INFO RUEHKW/AMCONSUL KRAKOW 1476

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 WARSAW 002653 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DRL/SEAS FOR RICKMAN 
EUR/OHI FOR BECKER 
DRL/AE FOR SAWCHYN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREL ELAB PL
SUBJECT: SPOT REPORT: SLUBICE, POLISH BORDER TOWN 
STRADDLING MORE THAN THE ODER RIVER 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY.  Poloff went to Slubice, which sits on the 
Polish-German border, to investigate labor disputes and a 
longstanding issue concerning the town's Jewish cemetery. 
Despite its location in a special economic zone, unemployment 
hovers near 30%, higher than the surrounding province.  One 
local employer, Impel-Tom, fired an employee for attempting 
to organize a union.  The employee successfully sued the 
employer, but organized labor is struggling to find a 
foothold.  Slubice's 600 year-old Jewish cemetery has 
undergone some renovation in recent years, but much remains 
to be done.  City officials are keen to see the removal of 
the ruins of a former motel/brothel on the site.  The 
Foundation for the Protection of Jewish Heritage in Poland 
and the cemetery's owner, the Jewish Community of Szczecin 
plan to clear rubble and improve the site once funds from a 
private source are secured. END SUMMARY. 
 
 
A TALE OF TWO CITIES 
-------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) From 1250 through the end of World War II, what is 
today the city of Slubice comprised the eastern section of 
the German city of Frankfurt (Oder).  In 1945, the communist 
governments fixed the Polish-German border on the Oder River 
thus creating the separate city.  The Frankfurt-Slubice 
connection is still strong, with a half-mile bridge across 
the river as well as the Frankfurt-based Viadrina University, 
which has a campus (Collegium Polonicum) in Slubice.  There 
is still passport control, but foot and auto traffic 
constantly move across the bridge and many Germans cross the 
border into Slubice to shop and eat. 
 
 
LABOR SITUATION IN THE 
KOSTRZYN-SLUBICE SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (U) The business climate in Slubice is mixed.  Due to 
location the area is somewhat of a transport hub with lots of 
truck traffic and some accompanying services.  But 
unemployment is high: nearly 30% in the Kostrzyn-Slubice 
Special Economic Zone (KSSEZ) as compared with 20% in the 
entire Lubuskie Province.  As it lies just 40 miles from 
Berlin, Slubice promotes itself as being Berlin's "Polish 
suburb," but this and the establishment of the KSSEZ have had 
little effect on the local and regional economy. 
 
¶4. (U) In 1997 the GOP established the KSSEZ.  Firms that 
invest in the zone receive real estate and employment tax 
breaks.  Approximately 100 firms (primarily Polish but some 
German, Scandinavian, and Italian) have operations in the 
KSSEZ, most of these small operations with under 50 
employees.  According to government statistics the KSSEZ has 
created approximately 1,750 new jobs since its inception. 
 
¶5. (SBU) On December 13 Poloff met Jacek Rosolowski, a worker 
fired from his job as a janitor in March after he attempted 
to organize a labor union at Impel-Tom, which provides 
contracted cleaning and kitchen services at hospitals. 
Rosolowski started work in September 2005 for the minimum 
wage ($220 or 650 PLN per month).  The company promised its 
50 workers a pay raise in January 2006 but did not deliver, 
so Rosolowski and eleven others signed a letter to form a 
union.  The next day he was fired without cause.  He sued the 
firm for unlawful termination and damages, and in October won 
a settlement for $2,400 (7,000 PLN).  Impel-Tom has since 
dismissed without cause three more of the twelve individuals 
in November who attempted to form a union. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Since his dismissal, Rosolowski has become active in 
the local labor movement and has organized a local chapter of 
the Committee for the Protection and Defense of Oppressed 
Workers (KPORP).  Not a proper labor union, this small group 
works on the fringes to assist workers with legal issues. 
Rosolowski remains unemployed, and believes that local 
employers are blacklisting.  He feels no physical danger, but 
many friends and former co-workers now ignore him or will not 
be seen in public with him. 
 
¶7. (U) The majority of manual laborers in the KSSEZ are hired 
on short-term contracts and therefore not sufficiently able 
to organize unions.  In addition to high unemployment in the 
area, the KPORP claims wages have trended steadily downward 
over the last several years.  There are no active labor 
unions in local employers, and even the national Solidarity 
union was unable to organize a local chapter at area shops in 
 
WARSAW 00002653  002 OF 002 
 
 
the German supermarket chain Lidl. 
 
 
CLEAN-UP NEEDED AT 14TH CENTURY JEWISH CEMETERY 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶8. (U)  Slubice is home to a large Jewish cemetery that 
existed from the year 1399 through December 1944.  Three of 
those at rest on the grounds were a revered rabbi/teacher and 
his family from the eighteenth century.  Following World War 
II and the division of the city the local government treated 
the cemetery as abandoned property and constructed 
intersecting rural highways along two sides of the grounds. 
 
¶9. (SBU) In the early 1970s the Slubice government built the 
Staropolski Motel and an accompanying parking lot on the 
grounds of the abandoned cemetery.  The motel became a 
favored site of local prostitutes.  Slubice resident Edward 
Fedyszyn told Poloff on December 13 that he remembers when 
builders dug up the marble gravestones for resale and removed 
the human remains.  In 1985 the regional Public Office for 
the Protection of Relics designated the area a heritage site. 
 They closed down the motel, cleaned, and planted trees on 
much of the land with the financial support of international 
Jewish organizations.  In 1999 Frankfurt and Slubice jointly 
dedicated and erected four memorial tablets in the former 
cemetery:  a twelve foot-high brick and marble memorial 
tablet at the entrance and, on the other side of the plot 
approximately 100 yards away, three smaller brick and marble 
tablets on the former site of the revered rabbi and his 
family's graves. 
 
¶10. (SBU) In 2002 Rabbi B. Polatsek of Brooklyn, NY attempted 
to further rehabilitate the cemetery site.  The Slubice 
government cooperated and transferred the land free of charge 
to the Jewish Community of Szczecin (Gmina) in early 2004, 
whose first act was to destroy the motel, which since its 
closure in 1985 had served as an ersatz brothel, down to the 
foundations.  The foundation and neatly stacked piles of 
bricks remain to this day.  In October 2006 the County 
Building Inspector declared the ruins a public hazard and 
ordered their removal. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Rabbi Polatsek contacted the Embassy in late 
October very concerned over the lack of progress on cleaning 
of the cemetery site.  On December 14 Slubice Vice Mayor 
Marcin Jablonski told Poloff that while he is very keen to 
see the motel site cleaned up, since the land is private 
property any expense is the Gmina's responsibility.  Polatsek 
claims to have anywhere between $20,000 and $300,000 (the 
amount varies) to contribute for this project and proposes a 
three-stage plan:  removal of the motel ruins, the erection 
of a fence, and the formation of an international committee 
to oversee the maintenance of the cemetery.  The Warsaw-based 
Foundation for the Protection of Jewish Heritage in Poland 
(FPJHP) is in contact with both Polatsek and Slubice 
officials, and at this time the town has proposed plans to 
work through the FPJHP.  Only funds are lacking; Poloff and 
the FPJHP have communicated this to Polatsek. (COMMENT: 
Rabbi Polatsek's interest in forming an international 
committee for this project strikes us as unnecessary.  The 
FPJHP has managed several successful cemetery renovation 
projects throughout Poland, and the Embassy has urged Rabbi 
Polatsek and Slubice to work through it to accomplish his 
aims. END COMMENT) 
HILLAS