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Zionism Goes on in Poland As Underground Movement

May 18, 1941
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Zionism has become an underground movement in Poland, in both the German and Soviet areas, according to a Jewish Chronicle correspondent. While the Nazis do not differentiate in their persecution between Zionists and other Jews, the Russian policy is markedly anti-Zionist.

The Lwow authorities have declared Zionism illegal and counter-revolutionary. Zionists are subject to arrest. No one suspected of Zionist beliefs can hope to obtain a job. Nevertheless, many Zionist meetings are held secretly. Young Zionists travel, often afoot, as much as 200 miles to attend a meeting. News about Zionism heard on the radio is distributed secretly.

A secret paper, The Voice, is published regularly and is circulated throughout Poland, often smuggled from one side of the Soviet-German frontier to the other. It has not yet been discovered on which side the paper is published. Two thousand copies are printed and each is read by hundreds of persons. A dozen bulletins are also circulated.

Among prominent Zionists who have been sent to Siberia are Dr. Emil Sommerstein, Dr. Saul Langas, who was director of the Palestine Office in Lwow, and Dr. Anselm Halpern, president of the Stanislawow Zionist organization, but, undeterred by deportations, new supporters replace the banned leaders.

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