Fifty persons were arrested in Cracow for participating in anti-Jewish riots during which two Jews were killed, many injured, and a synagogue set afire, it was reported today by Marek Bitter, vice-president of the Central Committee of the Jews in Poland, who arrived here last night from Poland as a delegate to the conference of the World Jewish Congress.
The Jewish leader, who witnessed the Cracow ricts, gave the Jewish Telegraphic Agency a first-hand report of the events which, he said, provoked a wave of protests all over Poland. The outbreaks, he related, started on the morning of August 11. The first disturbances broke out in front of a synagogue on Miodown Street, Polish traders in second-hand goods whose shops are in the vicinity spread a rumor that the Jews had seized Polish children and were hiding them in the synagogue.
As a result, a group of about sixty hooligans began an attack on the synagegue in which services were being held. The worshippers resisted the rioters, but the latter succeeded in pushing into the synagogue where a hand-to-hand fight raged until police arrived and restered order.
After being ousted from the synagogue, the gang began attacking Jews on the streets. Some of them invaded Jewish houses and started locting. In the ensuing struggle one Jewish man and one Jewish woman were killed and several injured.
On the same evening the anti-Jewish disturbances were renewed when another group broke into the synagogue and set the building afire. Some of them dragged prayer books out of the synagogue building and burned them in a bonfire in the street.
AUTHORITIES ALARMED, OUTLAWING OF ANTI-SEMITISM DEMANDED
The authorities, aware of the fact that the anti-Jewish outbreaks were instigated by fascist elements who oppose the present regime, became very much disturbed. The governor of Cracow, Adam Ostrowski, called a conference the next day of representatives of the four Polish political parties. The conference resulte in a joint declaration strongly condemning the outrages. Resolutions condemning the riots were also adepted at public meetings held in factories and in workshops.
The Polish National Council, at a session held after the Cracow riets, adepted a resolution asking the Polish Government to prepare a decre making the dissemination of racial hatred a penal offense. The resolution was introduced by the Democratic Party and action on it is already being taken. The decree, it is understood, will soon be published.
Those arrested are being held for interrogation by the security authorities, Mr. Bitter reported, Among them are several Germans who previously had participated in anti-Jewish disturbances.
POLISH PRIME MINISTER SAYS GOVERNMENT DETERMINED TO END EXCESSES
Prime Minister Edward Osubska-Morawski, addressing a press conference in Warsaw, expressed his condemnation of the Cracow riots. The government, he said is determined to put an end to such excesses. The entire Polish press carried front-page appeals urging the Polish population not to be influenced by anti-Jewish propaganda of reactionary elements.
The Central Committee of Jews in Poland received many telegrams from various Polish organizations expressing their sympathy with the Jewish victims and protesting against the atni-Semitic outrages, Mr. Bitter reported. He revealed that anti-Jewish ricts also took place recently in the town of Rzeszow, though on a smaller scale than in Cracow.
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.
