The Nazi authorities have acted to begin expulsion of 90,000 Jews from Bohemia-Moravia on Feb. 1 by sending to Prague a leader of the Gestapo, Herr Klein, who organized the removal of Jews from Maerisch-Ostrau to the Lublin Jewish “reservation” in Poland, according to advices reaching Paris today.
The sending of Klein from Maerisch-Ostrau to Prague created panic among the Jews of Prague, who fear his reputation for brutality, and virtually dispelled hope that the Feb. 1 deadline for Jews to emigrate or be removed to Lublin would be postponed. The Prague Jewish Community accordingly began to mobilize its meager resources to prevent disease and deaths through freezing when the mass exile of Czew Jews in cattle trains is launched.
News of Klein’s designation for the job of expelling the Jews coincided with advices from Prague which said the authorities had officially ordered a census of all inhabitants of the Protectorate between the ages of 17 and 55, to be held from Jan. 15 and 30, after which those found fit for physical work would be sent to labor camps.
The announcement did not indicate where these labor camps would be, but it was believed in Prague that Jews would be transported to Poland and Czechs would be used for forced labor behind the German Army’s front lines. The action will be taken under the Reich law authorizing the drafting of men and women between the age of 17 and 55.
Even before the Feb. 1 expulsion deadline, central Jewish organizations in Prague have been ordered to arrange the emigration of a minimum of 4,000 Jews from the Protectorate during January. Baron Konstantin von Neurath, Reich Protector for Bohemia-Moravia, this week visited the Central Jewish Emigration Office in Prague to inquire as to the progress of the emigration work.
Simultaneously, the Gestapo called the presidents of all Jewish communities in Bohemia-Moravia to a meeting in Prague and told them bluntly that not a single Jew would be permitted to remain in the Protectorate, hence it would be advisable for Jews, regardless of age and health, to find a way to enter other countries before Feb. 1.
The Gestapo announced dissolution of 123 Jewish communities in the Protectorate–some of them the oldest and richest in Europe–their assets to be converted by the Prague Jewish Community into cash with which to support legal and illegal immigration into other countries. This will leave only 18 Jewish communities in existence, which will be responsible for organizing the vast emigration, with the Prague community to be held answerable to the Gestapo for all matters concerning the Jews.
Gestapo orders regarding the Jews are no longer announced publicly, in order to avoid attracting attention abroad. Instead leaders of the Prague Jewish Community are given the orders verbally with instructions to convey them orally to all Jews covered by the existing 18 communities.
Action has also been taken to prevent emigrating Jews from taking their property, which is confiscated by the authorities. In Maerisch-Ostrau, where the entire Jewish male population was removed to Lublin under Klein’s direction, there remain about 2,000 Jewish women and children, as well as aged and sick men, complete penniless as a result of confiscation of their money, jewelry, furniture and merchandise, and dependent on what assistance the Prague Jewish Community can send them.
Reports of Klein’s activities in Maerisch-Ostrau threw dread into the Prague Jews when it became known that he was shifting the scene of his work. It was reported that the Jews, before being expelled, were in many cases physically tortured, and that Klein personally interrogated Jews, striking them with a pointed stone which pierced their skin while he stripped them of watches and other valuables.
Klein “Aryanized” all Jewish enterprises in Maerisch-Ostrau. He held Jewish business men in prison until they agreed to give away their enterprises without compensation. He also forbade Jewish storekeepers to enter their own shops, appointing Nazi commissars as managers of the stores. To manage the shops he sometimes appointed former employes who had been dismissed for various reasons, such as theft.
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.
