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Post-war Jewish Immigrants Losing Citizenship in Bohemia-moravia

April 25, 1939
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Prague advices said today that all Jews who had immigrated to Bohemia and Moravia after 1918 were being systematically deprived of their citizenship. Exemptions announced by the Hacha Government before the German occupation, applying to persons educated in Czech schools, members of Czech organizations, those who acknowledged Czech nationality during the 1939 census and others, are no longer being granted.

The denaturalized persons lose the right to work. It is expected that a decree will shortly be issued proclaiming as “stateless” all Jews who were naturalized after 1918, thus making further revisions superfluous. It is believed that speeding up of denaturalization is the result of an influx of Germans who are obtaining posts previously occupied by Czechs and for whom new jobs, such as commissars for Jewish businesses, must be found.

Four hundred emigrants, mostly refugees from Germany and Austria, were reported to have left Bruenn by train, bound for Yugoslavia and thence to Ecuador.

The Polish Government has refused visas to Prof. Franz Kahn, general secretary of the Zionist Organization of Bohemia and Moravia, and M. Edelman, manager of the Palestine Office. With the approval of the Gestapo they had intended to go to Warsaw for a few days to attend a conference on distribution of Palestine immigration certificates.

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