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U.S. Consulate in Warsaw Compiling Pogrom Data for Hull

May 23, 1937
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The American Consulate is compiling a dossier on the Brzesc pogrom of last Thursday for transmission to the State Department, it was reliably learned today.

The dossier, it is believed, will include photographs proving the contention of many Brzesc Jews that the city’s police encouraged the rioters.

Action of the Consulate is attributed to a visit Dr. Stephen S. Wise, president of the American Jewish Congress, made to Secretary of State Cordell Hull in Washington yesterday, in the course of which he is said to have discussed the possibilities of friendly representations by the United States to the Polish Government.

More than fifty Jews were wounded in the rioting which was precipitated by the fatal stabbing of a policeman as he sought to arrest the Jewish operator of an allegedly illegal abattoir. Property damage to scores of Jewish shops and homes is estimated at upwards of $400,000.

Dr. Bernhard Kahn, European director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, announced he and David J. Schweitzer, vice-director, will go to Brzesc Monday to direct relief activities. About 22,000 of the city’s 25,000 Jews are reported to have been impoverished by the rioting and thrown entirely on charity.

Dr. Kahn told a press conference this morning that the Joint Distribution Committee intends to spend $100,000 in relieving the situation in Brzesc and $30,000 in other pogrom areas.

Announcing that the American organization has trebled its activities in Poland in the last month, Dr. Kahn urged the establishment of a central advisory council to supervise all work it finances.

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