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Jews in Polish Army Threatened with Death by Polish Soldiers

March 1, 1944
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The charge that “Jewish soldiers in the Polish Army in democratic Britain are being treated by their fellow soldiers in the Polish armed forces as Jews were treated in pre-war anti-Semitic Poland” was voiced here today by Capt. J. Halpern at a meeting arranged by the Committee for a Jewish Army.

Capt. Halpern stated that Jewish soldiers in the Polish Army have been warned by their comrades that when the second front opens it will be difficult to tell whether Jews were killed by German or by Polish bullets. “These Jews,” Capt. Halpern continued, “feel that they have no place in the ranks of the Polish Army. They have every right to demand a transfer. They should be given the opportunity to serve in Jewish units and be allowed to go on the battlefield and fight Hitlerites as Jews.”

At a session of the Polish National Council today at which a report on the UNRRA conference at Atlantic City came up for discussion, the Jewish member Dr. Ignacy Schwarzbart demanded that Jewish experts be included in the Polish relief agencies which are to work in cooperation with UNRRA. The demand was rejected by Jan Ewapinski, deputy Premier, who represented the Polish Government-in-Exile at the conference. He told the Council that “the problem must be approached from a general viewpoint at least until the relief machinery begins operating.”

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