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Serbian Guerillas Attack Nazi Concentration Camp and Liberate 400 Jews

February 1, 1942
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More than 400 Jewish internees confined by the Nazi authorities in a concentration camp in Yugoslavia were released in a lightning raid by a group of guerilla fighters who attacked the camp under the leadership of a Jewish commander, a report reaching Yugoslav circles here today stated.

The liberated Jewish prisoners immediately joined the guerilla forces, the report said. The number of Jews participating in the guerilla battle against the Nazi army in Yugoslavia is so large that a special Jewish news bulletin in the Serbian language is now being published by the Jewish guerillas. The clandestine publication, which appears under the title “Zidov,” constantly calls upon the Jews in Yugoslavia to join the guerilla forces and avenge the massacres of Jews in Belgrade and other Yugoslavian cities.

As a result of the fact that a large number of Jews escaped from Sarajevo to the mountains to join the guerilla forces, the Nazi military authorities have issued an order providing the death penalty for Jews suspected of “intending to join” the Yugoslav fighters. At the same time General Draja Mihailovitch, the commander-in-chief of the guerilla forces, issued instructions to his units to attack as many concentration camps as possible in order to liberate the Serbian and Jewish patriots imprisoned there, the Yugoslav report declared.

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