An important Prague daily warned yesterday that there was danger of a new wave of anti-Semitism in Czechoslovakia and called for legislation to make anti-Semitic utterances illegal. The warning appeared in the newspaper Vecerini Praha, organ of the Prague Regional Trade Council, in an article by the Czech writer, Josef Lastuvka, on the 30th anniversary of the Nazi occupation of Bohemia.
The article indicated that manifestations of anti-Semitism in Czechoslovakia had become increasingly serious since the occupation of the country last August by Warsaw Pact forces under Soviet leadership. It asserted that “everyone has the right to disagree with the views of Sik and Goldstuecker but no one is entitled to spread anti-Jewish hysteria in this country to call for pogroms against the Jews.” The references were to former Deputy Premier Dr. Ota Sik, who was the chief economist of the Alexander Dubcek regime, and Dr. Eduard Goldstuecker, the Czech-Jewish writer and champion of liberal reforms, who fled the country after the Soviet occupation. Both men were the objects of violent attack from Soviet and pro-Soviet elements and both were denounced as “Zionist” agents. Dr. Sik was quoted recently as denying that he was of Jewish origin.
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.
