The 25th anniversary of the execution by the Soviet authorities of Henryk Erlich and Victor Alter, leaders of the Jewish Labor Bund in Poland, were observed here today with a protest meeting at Town Hall. Several hundred people attended the meeting which was organized by the Jewish Labor Bund in New York and sponsored by a number of Jewish labor organizations.
Principle speakers at the meeting included Adolph Held, Norman Thomas, Dr. Emanuel Scherer and others. Erlich and Alter, in addition to being leaders of the Bund, were also members of the City Council in Warsaw and members of the executive board of the Warsaw Jewish community. Upon the occupation by Soviet forces of eastern provinces of Poland, following the entry of the Nazi Army into Warsaw, the two Bund leaders were arrested and kept in Soviet jails for more than two years. Later they disappeared without a trace, but the Soviet Ambassador in Washington notified labor leaders in this country that the two had been executed.
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.
