Three hundred Jewish emigrants from the Soviet Union arrived here on two El Al flights from Vienna early this morning. Some of them expressed the opinion that Communist provocation was behind the hijacking of the Moscow-Vienna express train by two Arab terrorists Friday which led to the Austrian government’s decision to close down the Jewish Agency’s immigrant transit center at Schoenau Castle near Vienna.
Today’s arrivals were at Schoenau when the events took place. They said they based their suspicions on what they were told by Mrs. David Szaplik, wife of one of the three Jewish hostages removed from the train by the terrorists. Mrs. Szaplik and her child were held at gunpoint by the terrorists but managed to escape unharmed.
There were two Russian women in the compartment at the time who told the Jews, “Why go to Israel. Why are you looking for trouble?” according to Mrs. Szaplik. Boris Stromberg, 25, an emigre from Czernowitz, said, “Everyone in Vienna is convinced it was all a Russian provocation intended to end Jewish emigration from Russia.”
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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.
