A plan of Mass Jewish emigration, involving liquidation of Jewish property and increased Polish exports on the lines of Germany’s program, and denationalization of hundreds of thousands of Jews were indicated by Polish newspapers today as the main lines of the Government’s policy on the Jewish question.
Although informed political circles said definite proposals for anti-Jewish legislation had not yet been worked out by the OZON (Camp of National Unity), Government party newspapers widely featured an emigration plan closely following the scheme for German Jews broached by Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht recently in London. The papers suggested liquidation of Jewish property with the aid of an international loan which would be repaid by additional exports. The articles declared that the process should extend over a period of several years lest Poland’s economic system be dislocated.
(Jul an Bobinski, Polish journalist, writing in the 12-Uhp Blatt of Berlin in a symposium of anti-Semites conducted by Reichsminister of Propaganda Paul Joseph Goebbels, predicted the introduction in the Sejm of a law virtually confiscating all Jewish capital and another making compulsory the emigration of a definite number of Polish Jews annually.)
At the same time the Wilno paper Slowo announced that a bill would be introduced in the Sejm after the Winter recess which would denationalize all Jews naturalized after 1918. The paper declared that several hundred thousand persons would be affected, mainly those who returned to Poland in 1921 after the Riga peace treaty ending the Soviet-Polish war.
Political circles expected that the next Sejm session would also hear the Government’s reply to the OZON’s recent interpellation demanding immediate action for Jewish emigration and an economic war against the Jews. The reply was expected to be included in an exposition of the political situation by Foreign Minister Jozef Beck dealing with both the internal situation and the Jewish problem.
Furthermore, Col. Beck was believed to be preparing shortly to take the initiative in calling an international conference of the United States, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, as well as countries with large Jewish populations such as Poland and Rumania, to consider the Jewish problem and seek to organize mass emigration of Jews overseas.
It was announced that 3,430 Jews traveled to Palestine last year through the Palestine Office here, including 2,592 emigrants, 703 re-emigrants, 135 tourists. In addition, about 1,000 Jewish tourists went to Palestine without this office’s aid.
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.
