Seventeen Polish officers and men accused of anti-Semitic activity will be tried by court-martials, it was revealed today by Prof. M. Heitzman, chief of the political department of the Polish Ministry of Defense, addressing a meeting called to protest the mistreatment of Jews in the Polish forces.
The meeting, which was called jointly by the Council of Polish Jews and the Federation of Polish Jews, was attended by representatives of Polish Premier Stanislew Mikolajczyk and other high polish officials. The proceedings were frequently interrupted by members of the audience who shouted their doubts of the Polish Government’s willingness and ability to curb anti-Jewish discrimination in its forces.
Resolutions were adopted demanding immediate punishment of those responsible for anti-Semitic conditions in the Polish Army, which resulted in many Jews attempting to leave and join the British forces, and welcoming the appointment by the Polish National Council of a committee to investigate the status of Jews in the Polish armed services.
At another meeting here today, called by the Polish section of the veterans of the International Brigade, which fought on the Loyalist side during the Spanish civil war, an ex-member of the Brigade who was recently discharged from the Polish Army charged that anti-Semitism in the Polish forces was engineered by the high ranking officers working through non-coms. He related examples of Jewish soldiers being humiliated and mistreated.
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.
