Entire Population in German Town Penalized by French for Desecrating Jewish Cemetery

Only in the French zone of Germany have the occupation authorities taken promt and effective measures to check the desecration of Jewish cemeteries, it was emphasized here today by Karl Marx, editor of the German-Jewish newspaper Juedische Allgemeine Zeitung.

Mr. Marx reported that when a Jewish cemetery was desecrated in a small village near Triere, in the French zone, the French authorities penalized the entire population, setting them to work putting the cemetery in order. Since then there have been no desecrations of Jewish cemeteries in the French zone.

The number of desecrations of Jewish cemeteries in the American and British zones of Germany, Mr. Marx said, is mounting to such a point that the Jews have given up reporting them to the authorities. The British authorities have so far taken no decisive action whatsoover on cases reported to them, he declared. He also pointed out that not a single German community offered to rebuild the synagogues destroyed by the Nazis during the Hitler regime.

The League of German Student Associations adopted this week-end a resolution condemning the new wave of anti-Semitism in West Germany. Simultaneously, German students, meeting at Mainz, in the French zone, expressed concern over the series of anti-Semitic “incidents,” and called for restitution of Jewish property seized by the Nazis and correction of “moral injustices” done to the Jews.

The latest desecration of a Jewish cemetery occurred at Kleinbardorf, in Frankonia, where 16 tombstones were felled and ten others damaged by German farmers who, according to the local police, were cutting down trees for firewood. A protest by Dr. Philip Auerbach, Bavarian Commissioner for Persecutees, in a letter to the provincial Premier, Hans Ehard, asked that the persons responsible be punished. He insisted that the damage did not result by accident.