The gestapo intends before the end of February to launch the expulsion of Bohemia-Moravia’s 70,000 Jews, delayed by the arrest of Gestapo leader Klein for misappropriation of confiscated Jewish property, the Czech National Committee in Paris reported today in a communique.
The Jews apparently will be transported to the Jewish “reservation” in the Lublin area of Poland, the communique said, adding that Czechs also will be rounded up and sent into the interior of the Reich for forced labor behind the Siegfried Line. a few days before Feb. 1– the original deadline for Jewish voluntary emigration–4,000 Prague Jews were expelled in what was interpreted as an example to the Jewish population of what would happen if they did not emigrate, the communique said.
At the same time, the statement said, the Gestapo reopened 258 unsolved murder cases of women and children in the Protectorate in an effort to prove that they were “ritual murders” committed by Jews. “Evidence” was put on display in a public exhibition entitled “The Jew as the Enemy of Humanity” and the Gestapo forced Czech workers and school children to visit the exhibit on pain of being sent to concentration camps.
The communique confirmed previous reports that the Gestapo had called together Jewish representatives in Prague and informed them that “not a single Jew should remain in the Protectorate” after Feb. 1; that 120 Jewish communities were liquidated and only 18 permitted to continue operating, and that allow orders to the Jews were given orally and not reported in the press in order to prevent the news from leaking out of the country.
“Meanwhile. economic destruction of the Jews is being carried out by the Gestapo, ” the communique declared. “It is sufficient of any German to say that he wishes to acquire a Jewish enterprise and the owner is immediately arrested. The Gestapo finds to the German authorities, which in turn hand it over to the individual German who asked for it.”
Describing confiscation of property from Jewish homes, the statement continued: “Gestapo agents enter Jewish house and, without any shame, ask for Jewelry and anything valuable, which they put in their pockets without issuing any receipts They invade the same house two and three times until they are certain that nothing worthwhile stealing remains.”
Referring to the Jewish situation in Slovakian, the communique confirmed reports that the Slovak Government had prepared a law forcing Jews to sell their property at prices set by Government appraisers, paid in ten-years obligations.
“The hypocritical legislation to deprive the Jews of their belongings is even worse than spontaneous pillaging,” the communique said, adding that confiscation of all Jewish property in Slovakia could be expected at any moment.
The statement concluded by declaring the since Jan. 10 hundreds of Jews Had been sent by the Slovak authorities into special camps organized on the German model to he used for forced labor.
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.
