Fights between Jews and Nazi soldiers in the city of Mohilev-Podolsk, Transnistria, with casualties on both sides, are reported today to have taken place when German soldiers maltreated a unit of about 1,000 Jews which had been driven to forced labor in German-held territory on the Russian front.
The city, which is the capital of the section of the Ukraine under Rumanian administration, is also the central point from which the Rumanian authorities send able-bodied Jews deported from Rumania to Transnistria to forced labor. At present, the report reveals, the Rumanian authorities in Transnistria are “lending” many of the deported Rumanian Jews to the Nazi military authorities for work in the part of the Ukraine administered by Germans. These Jews are grouped in special formations and sent to build roads under Nazi supervision in the devasted sections of the Ukraine.
The deportation of Rumanian Jews from Transnistria to regions in the Ukraine further east which are under German administration started last week with 3,500 Jews from the city of Zhmerinka and 500 Jews from Mohilev-Podolsk being the first to go, the report states. They were driven to the city of Tulchin from where they were despatched in units to various Nazi-held towns on the Russian front. The second group of 1,000 Jews, the ones who are reported to have resisted the Nazis, was taken from the Mohilev-Podolsk ghetto for shipment to unknown destinations closer to the front.
RUMANIA TIGHTENS RULES AFFECTING JEWISH FORCED LABOR
Stricter regulations affecting Jews in the compulsory labor service were placed in effect last week in the sections of Rumania where Jews are still permitted to reside. The Nazi newspaper Bukarester Tageblatt reports that the Rumanian authorities in Bucharest announced that privileges given certain categories of Rumanian Jews have now been withdrawn because of “wholesale Jewish sabotage of their labor duty.”
The paper discloses that the privileges may be restored “if improvement occurs within sixty days.” Should the situation not change, however, the Rumanian Government is determined to take even more severe action against Jews in the labor service, the paper writes.
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.
