British Jews Complain Against Continued Jailing of Czech ‘zionists’

Barnett Janner, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, will meet tomorrow with the Czechoslovak Ambassador to Britain for a discussion of a Board complaint that many Jews are still in Czech prisons on charges of alleged Zionist activities.

The basis for the talk will be a report by the Board’s Foreign Affairs Committee, which asserts also that Czechoslovakia “is the only Communist country which, after the anti-Semitic outbursts of 1951-52, culminating in the Rudolph Siansky trial, has not done anything to rehabilitate those sentenced in such trials. “

Mr. Janner also was scheduled to call on the Rumanian Minister in London, to whom the British Jewish leader will suggest the “humanitarian need” of coordinating the emigration of Jews from Rumania with Jewish organizations and welfare agencies.

Another phase of the Foreign Affairs Committee report stressed the Austrian compensation problem, noting that “Austria claims to be an innocent victim of the Nazis” in replying to compensation claims. The report noted that Austria was negotiating with the United States, France and Britain on a lump payment for outstanding claims against Austria. The Board, it was reported, has been in contact with the British Foreign Office and has asked support for its efforts to obtain compensation for Jewish victims of Nazism in Austria.

The Board also warns that anti-defamation laws planned by the West German Republic would be effective only if there was a “speedy removal” from influential public positions of Germans who carried out Nazi policy in the Hitler era. Such legislation, declares the Board, “can be effective only if speedy action is taken to remove from positions of influence in public life, particularly in the administration and judiciary, those who carried out the policies of the Nazi Government, and to ensure that no further appointments of such people are made. “