“No Jews of German origin have been deported from Czechoslovakia,” Jan Masaryk, Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today. Mr. Masaryk was hopeful that the regulation requiring Jews, who in 1930 had declared German as their mother tongue or nationality to reapply for citizenship, will be relaxed.
Czechoslovakia, Mr. Masaryk pointed out, has not only permitted Jews fleeing from Poland to Palestine to pass through her territory, but has supplied them with food and shelter as well. He indicated that the closing of the Czechoslovakian frontier to further “infiltration” of Polish Jews was temporary and was caused by the overcrowding of camps in the American zone of Germany.
The Foreign Minister indicated that different conditions exist in Slovakia and Bohemia. He intimated that this is so because in Bohemia it was the Germans who “aryanized” Jewish property, whereas in Slovakia the Slovaks took it over. He stated that Czechoslovakia will continue its traditional policy of friendliness toward the Jews and will combat anti-Semitic tendencies. Mr. Masaryk was confident that such iniquities as now exist will be eliminated completely in the near future.
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.
