The Polish government was asked flatly by Deputy Henryk Rosmarin, speaking in the budget commission of the Sejm, to tell what it intends to do about the pauperization of the Jews.
“We have already apprised you of the grave situation in which the Jewish population is placed and the growing misery among them,” Dr. Rosmarin said. “We have shown that in some towns as much as sixty per cent of the Jewish population is compelled to depend on charity.
“What effect has it had on the government?”
Dr. Rosmarin then proceeded to prove that the general economic crisis, which has been cited as the reason for the difficulties the Jews are experiencing, does not suffice to explain the situation.
CRISIS CREATED BY TAXES
“This crisis,” he said, “has been created largely by the special tax legislation that applied to the towns, where the Jews constitute a large proportion of the population, and in particular, the laws restricting trading; the refusal to allow Jews to hold official positions, to be employed in government and municipal offices, and in government-controlled economic enterprises.”
The Jewish deputy charged the Ministry of Interior with failure “to hold the confidence of the entire population and to work in conjunction with the economic departments of the state to maintain economic equilibrium.”
“So far as the Jewish population is concerned,” he declared, “this equilibrium has been upset and the Jews are being pushed into poverty and misery.”
WANTS CANDID STATEMENT
He called upon the government to make a candid statement explaining what steps it will definitely adopt in order to alleviate the suffering of the Jews.
“These problems should be settled in accordance with the dictates of justice,” he said. “The interests of more than 3,000,000 inhabitants of the state cannot be placed outside the interests of the state itself.
“They affect the foundation of the whole state. No one will take seriously the suggestion that a population of 3,000,000 souls can be shut off from the existing political and economic life of the country without shaking the pillars of the state and undermining the legal and normal relations on which the well-being of the whole of the population of the country depends.”
Asserting he was convinced the Minister of the Interior was in agreement with this view, Dr. Rosmarin continued:
“The Jewish population expects he will follow up his words with deeds.”
PAINTS BLACK PICTURE
Before reaching this conclusion, the Jewish deputy painted a black picture, a highlight of which was his statement that the organs of Ministry of the Interior, instead of placing obstacles in the path of anti-Semitism, tolerated and even advanced movements against the Jews.
“There are certain sections which are, without any resistance whatever, spreading hatred and enmity against Jews, preaching that the Jews should be deprived of their political rights and of whatever economic positions have been left them.
“Authorities subordinate to the Ministry have frequently taken measures which might be interpreted as showing that these anti-Jewish tendencies are in accordance with the line of activity of the Ministry itself.
“The Minister of the Interior declares publicly that there is no distinction of any kind between citizens on account of their membership in any religion or nationality.
THINGS DIFFERENT IN PRACTICE
“But things are quite different in practice. The actions of certain organs of the Ministry of the Interior creates among certain sections of the Polish population and among the entire Jewish population the conviction that Jews are second-grade citizens, who are merely tolerated but do not possess equal rights.
“The last elections to the territorial and economic self-administrations in many parts of the country were so rigged that the Jewish representation was bound to be very much reduced.
“The organs of the Minister of the Interior base themselves on people and factors that demoralize Jewish public life and are imposed upon the pauperized Jewish masses as Jewish representatives to the benefit of neither the Jews nor the state, but only of their own interests.
THE GOVERNMENT DECIDES
“A blatant example is the influence which the organs of the Ministry of the Interior exercises on the Jewish communities, the overwhelming majority of which present a picture of demoralization, the decision lying not with the majority of the Jewish population but with the government representative.
“We fail to understand in the name of what state interest this is being done. We fail to understand why, when the state is faced by so many important tasks, its organs should give up so much time and effort and money to questions centering around the elections of the president of a Jewish community, a rabbi or a dayan in an out-of-the-way Jewish town, or the president or secretary of a Jewish merchants’ or artisans’ organization.
“The Jewish population obtains the impression that it is the victim of some secret machinations and becomes dispirited because of the demoralization that is being spread in its own ranks. It loses its sense of respect for the authorities of the state, which further the petty interests of individuals.”
Dr. Rosmarin then called attention to what he characterized as “a classic example.” Without taking into account the wishes of the majority of the Jewish population, the Government has appointed a government commissioner at Lwow, he said.
“All this has been done in flat contradiction to the wishes of the Jewish public,” Dr. Rosmarin pointed out.
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.
