Prague advices said today that the Gestapo has ordered the immediate evacuation and removal to Prague of 15 percent of the Jewish population in the provinces. The order, which must be carried out by the end of this month, was issued in connection with the earlier Gestapo edict for evacuation of the provinces by Jews within a year.
Although the exact number of Jews residing in the provinces cannot be established, because of the constant emigration, it is estimated that their number totals from 55,000 to 60,000. About 8,000 of these will have to move to Prague this month as a result of the new Gestapo order. Since they will not have time to liquidate their property, it is expected that this group will become a burden upon the Prague Jewish Community.
Czech newspapers are protesting, as far as they can, within the limits of the censorship, against the order that Czech enterprises must display “Aryan Shop” signs. The papers point out that 93 percent of Czech businesses in the “protectorate” are “Aryan” and that display of such signs would be superfluous. Anti-Semitic papers, on the other hand, are demanding that Jewish shops be forced to display signs indicating their “non-Aryan” ownership. In many provincial towns, Jewish shops have already been ordered to display such signs.
Twenty-six members of the Czech Fascist group headed by the notorious anti-Semite, Jan Rys, arrested by the Czech police after an anti-Jewish excursion into the provinces during which they demolished Jewish shops and synagogues in many towns and wounded several Jews, have been released following German intervention. A police report explained that the arrests had been made “erroneously.”
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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.
