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Polanski faces questions over incorrect claims that his ancestors ‘faced the Nazis’
Despite repeated claims by the Green leader that his great grandparents had 'fled Poland from the Nazis', he recently said his great grandparents came to the UK 'way before the Second World War'
Zack Polanski has faced questions regarding claims that his “ancestors” faced Nazi persecution in Poland before coming to England, after it was revealed that all four of his grandparents were born in the UK before Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.
In his 2025 conference speech, the Green party leader told the crowd that his Jewish ancestry was “confusing and muddling” because we were “constantly on the run”, but that from what he could gather, “my ancestors started in Latvia in a Jewish town, but they fled because of pogroms. They fled to Ukraine where they faced more pogroms. Then they ended up in Poland where they faced the Nazis. Then they arrived in England and met antisemitism here too.”
As reported by The Mail, all of Polanski’s grandparents were born in Northern England over a period ranging from 1916-1934, meaning that his great grandparents were in Britain by that time. In the wake of his 2025 conference speech, Polanski regularly repeated the line that his family had fled from Poland in the wake of the Nazis. Appearing on a panel for a BBC Question Time immigration special in December last year, he said that “My great-grandparents lived in Latvia. They’re Jewish and we fled because of Pogroms.
“We ended up in Ukraine. We fled again; more Pogroms. Then in Nazi-occupied Poland. Then fled again. And this is what people have done throughout history.”
However, in a September podcast interview, he said that “My great-grandparents actually came here way before the Second World War”.
A Green party spokesman told The Mail: ‘Jewish family history is often confusing and muddled, as Zack has acknowledged.
‘It’s astonishing that the only current Jewish leader of a British political party is having his family history raked over by the press in an attempt to discredit him”.
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