Jewish groups in Poland have criticised plans by Jersey City in the United States to remove a statue honouring Poles massacred by the Soviets in World War II.

“The city's handling of this issue is surprising & the Mayor's offensive words to Speaker of the [Polish Senate] are unacceptable,” AJC Central Europe, a Jewish advocacy organisation, said in a statement posted on Twitter.

Meanwhile, the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland said it had learned “with real sadness and disbelief” about the plans to remove the statue.

Keeping the memory of this massacre alive "is the moral duty of everyone", the union said in a statement.

It added that among those murdered with a shot to the back of the head were at least several hundred Jewish soldiers and rabbis. “That many have been identified, but the number is probably much higher.”

The #Jewish Community of #Poland issued a statement voicing concern over #JerseyCity Mayor's decision re the #KatynMemorial. The city's handling of this issue is surprising & the Mayor's offensive words to Speaker of the @PolskiSenat are unacceptable. https://t.co/17fIQYI9xu pic.twitter.com/954dOjwkml — AJC Central Europe (@AJC_CE) May 7, 2018

The comments came amid a trans-Atlantic spat over plans to remove a statue in Jersey City in the US state of New Jersey which honours the victims of a 1940 Soviet massacre of some 22,000 of Poles, including in the Katyn Forest, western Russia.

Members of the Polish community in the United States and officials in Warsaw protested after Jersey City last month announced that the statue would be removed in order to redevelop a public square that has been the monument's home for 27 years.

Mayor Steven Fulop said the monument - at Exchange Place in Jersey City, just across the Hudson River from New York City - would be put in storage while the space is converted into a park.

'Scandalous' plan

Polish Senate Speaker Stanisław Karczewski called the plan "really scandalous" and "very unpleasant".

Fulop responded on Twitter that Karczewski “is a joke.”

“The fact is that a known anti-Semite, white nationalist + Holocaust denier like him has zero credibility,” Fulop said on Thursday.

Here is truth to power outside of a monument. All I can say is this guy is a joke. The fact is that a known anti-Semite, white nationalist + holocaust denier like him has zero credibility. The only unpleasant thing is Senator Stanislaw. Period. I’ve always wanted to tell him that https://t.co/xG0MUHiaIJ — Steven Fulop (@StevenFulop) 3 maja 2018

The Polish ambassador to the United States has called for an apology from Fulop.

Karczewski said he had taken legal steps over the mayor’s accusations.

The monument at the centre of the row features a 10-metre-tall bronze figure of a soldier - who has been gagged and bound and impaled by a bayonetted rifle - mounted on top of a granite base containing soil from the Katyn Forest in western Russia where thousands of Poles were murdered by Soviet secret police during World War II. (pk/vb)