The Polish Government, in a White Book published saturday, states that it considers the introduction of ghettos for Jews in Nazi-held Poland to be a violation of existing international laws.
“The confinement within ‘ghettos’ of hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens, who are forbidden to leave them, constitutes an instance sui generis of the illegal measures taken by the occupying authorities in violation of the most elementary rules of law and humanity,” the White Book charges.
Dwelling at great length on the atrocities committed by the Nazi authorities in Poland against the Polish and Jewish populations there and on the expulsion and mass-deportation of Jews from numerous Polish towns, the White Book, supporting its charges with documentary evidence, relates among other things how synagogues were burned down by the Nazis in a number of towns and how Jews, in addition to wearing the Star of David, were ordered in some localities to salute every German they met in the street by uncovering their heads.
“Aside from this long list of persecutions, mention must be made of the ‘spectacles’ organized by German soldiers and police who make Rabbis dance in their ritual robes to the accompaniment of blows from the butts of their rifles,” the White Book states. It carries the official text of the Laws and Customs of War on Land known as the IVth Hague Convention which constitutes the recognized international provisions for governing treatment of citizens of an occupied territory, and concludes by pointing out that these provisions “have been openly violated by Germany.”
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.
