Jewish organizations throughout Poland prepared today to stage a two-hour general strike Monday in protest against the growing anti-Semitic persecution that culminated in riots in Brzesc May 13.
Meanwhile, the Polish Government discharged the district chief of the Polesian city, M. Czernick, and the official in charge of local political affairs. Their dismissal had been urged by Jewish Parliament deputies for remissness in connection with the disorders.
Tomorrow’s strike was being arranged by all Jewish senators and deputies and many organizations, including all the Zionist parties–among them the Mizrachi, the Revisionists and the Jewish State Party–the extreme orthodox Agudath Israel and the Jewish People’s Party.
In a joint public declaration these groups called on the Jews to stand up for their rights.
Premier Skladkowski has given permission for the launching of a drive for a fund for relief and rehabilitation of Jews in Brzese. The campaign will last a few months. More than 60 large Jewish communities were notified by telegraph by central Jewish organizations in Warsaw of the Premier’s decision and were instructed to prepare for the campaign.
Deputies Emil Sommerstein, Isaac Rubenstein and Joshua Gottlieb held a one-hour audience with Premier Skladkowski, describing the consequences of the Brzesc riots and raising the question of compensation for the Jewish sufferers in Brzesc and other cities.
A seven-page interpellation demanding indemnification for the victims of the disorders and punishment of the guilty was submitted in the Sejm by Deputy Emil Sommerstein for the Jewish Parliament members.
The document holds that the rioting was caused by “the continual incitement of the population against the Jews by the greater part of the Polish press and incessant anti-Semitic incidents by a party whose headquarters is at Biala-Podlaska, near Brzesc.”
The police are accused of adopting an “apathetic attitude” toward the disorders.
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.
