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Brandt Under Fire for Not Inviting Jews to Go to Warsaw for Signing of Pact

December 7, 1970
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An opposition member of the Bundestag criticized Chancellor Willy Brandt and his government today for failing to invite any Jews to accompany the Chancellor to Warsaw for the signing of the new pact between Poland and West Germany. Werner Marx, a deputy of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU), noted in an article published in the Berliner Morgenpost that several Catholics and Protestant personalities were invited and accompanied Chancellor Brandt, but no Jews. Mr. Marx said that representatives of Catholic and Protestant churches declined invitations from the Brandt government. Sources here said the Polish government had hinted to West Germany that it would prefer not to have Jews accompany the Chancellor. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s West German correspondent, Alfred Wolfmann, was the only foreign correspondent denied an entry visa by Polish authorities. No reason was given. Mr. Wolfmann is a correspondent for an Israeli newspaper and holds an Israeli passport on which he applied for the visa. The passport was returned to him without the entry stamp.

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