A number of Jews who are Polish citizens are reported to have been injured in the anti-Jewish outbreak which occurred in Berlin on Rosh Hashanah, and the Polish Consulate in Berlin has been instructed to make representations to the German Government and demand compensation for the victims and an assurance that Polish citizens will be adequately protected against attack on their lives and property.
At the time of the 1923 pogrom in Berlin, the Polish Government similarly made energetic representations to the German. Government in the interests of Polish Jews who had suffered as a result of the excesses. The Polish Government demanded immediate satisfaction and compensation for all Polish citizens who had suffered loss or injury, and the Polish representative in Berlin was instructed to demand satisfaction and security for the lives and property of all Polish citizens.
The Polish Ambassador in Berlin handed a Note on behalf of his Government to the late Dr. Stresemann, who was then Acting Chancellor, protesting against the ill-treatment of Jews who were Polish citizens during the excesses, declaring that the Polish authorities were in possession of over 100 depositions filed by Jews of Polish citizenship resident in Berlin, which made it clear that the police took no action to defend the victims and even encouraged the looters in their work.
Seeing that the intervention of the Polish Consul-General in the matter has proved without result, the Note proceeded, the question has now become acute, whether the Government of Germany intends to punish the officials who are responsible for this state of affairs. The Note concluded with a demand for compensation for the victims.
At that time, wholesale expulsions of Polish Jews were in progress in Bavaria, and the Polish Government simultaneously took up this matter, instructing its representative in Munich to demand the immediate withdrawal of all expulsion orders against Polish Jews, adding that should the replies fail to give complete satisfaction, the Polish Government would commence reprisals against German subjects resident in Poland.
Even the antisemitic “Gazeta Warszwska” protested against the expulsions, declaring that if they were not immediately stopped the Polish Government would have to resort to measures of retaliation against German citizens in Poland.
The German Nationalist press was furious at the threat, and the “Muenchener-Augsburger Abendzeitung”, for instance, wrote: the Germans living in Poland are people whom the operations of the Versailles Treaty have compelled to leave Germany, engineers, technicians, artisans and agriculturists, whose work is beneficial to Poland, while the Polish Jews who are being expelled from Bavaria are the off-scourings of the country, most of whom would be put behind lock and key if they ventured to re-enter Poland The Polish Government, it added, has no right to dictate to us in this matter.
The matter was taken up also by the British Government, and Mr. Clive, who was then Consul-General in Munich, acting on instructions, communicated to the Bavarian Government that Great Britain was viewing the expulsions with grave concern and disfavour. Since no British subjects had been affected, the representations were not in the nature of a formal and official intervention. A report from the Joint Foreign Committee to the Jewish Board of Deputies at the time stated that the British Consul in Munich had on instructions from the Government made friendly representations to the Bavarian Government as to the painful impression made by the expulsions on British public opinion.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
