Anti-jewish, Anti-zionist Campaign Being Intensified in Czechoslovakia

The anti-Zionist, anti-Jewish campaign of the Soviet-run Czech media has intensified, according to information from sources at the World Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Committee and others. The basis for the current series of broadcasts and press articles is a translation of the book “Beware: Zionism,” written last year by a Russian, Yuri Ivanov. The controlled publishing house Epocha has run of 20,000 copies. In an epilogue by another writer, former Czech leader Alexander Dubcek and Czech Jewish liberal Dr. Frantisek Kriegel are accused of being in league with alleged Zionist spies. It is alleged that many former Czechs who moved to Israel have returned as trained spies “to carry out subversive work.” The newspaper Bratislava Pravda, which has been running excerpts from the book, claims that “After having weakened the influence and control of the party (in the Soviet invasion of August, 1968), the Zionist and pro-Zionist forces strove to disrupt the Communist system and stir up the masses.”

Dr. Kriegel and his supposed Zionist clique, the charges continue, “gradually seized key positions in the party and state” with the aid of Israeli intelligence forces. “The illegal activity of Zionism in the country did not stop” with the Soviet takeover, it is alleged. The Jews of Czechoslovakia–a 1,000-year-old community that has dwindled from 170,000 before World War II to 8-10,000–was subjected to similar charges by the Stalinists in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and most recently this past summer. In August, Bratislava Pravda and Radio Prague accused Prof. Eduard Goldstuecker, the first Czech ambassador to Israel, of “defeatism and cowardice.” Other Czech Zionist leaders were similarly accused on the basis of allegations in the book “Zionism and Anti-Semitism,” by Frantisek J. Kolar. Dr. Goldstuecker reportedly left the country after the Soviet invasion and after being subjected to charges of “disgusting Jew” and “Zionist hyena.” He was chairman of the Czech Writers Union. Some 4,000 other Czech Jews were also reported to have left the country after the invasion.