The Jewish Sejm Club has submitted an interpellation demanding action by the War Minister and the Minister of Interior against a police army captain, Swieczkowski, who on July 22nd brutally attacked the seventy-two year old Rabbi Sylmann of the township of Chmielnik, East Galicia. The aged and inform rabbi was walking down the street when the army officer without any provocation seized the rabbi by his beard, knocked and kicked him until he lay virtually unconscious in the street.
When the rabbi managed to finally get up, the officer drew his revolver and threatened to shoot him, if he didn’t go straight home and keep silent about the matter.
The rabbi’s cries attracted a crowd among whom was also a police sergeant. Instead of arresting the officer urged him to “finish his work”. The officer then proceeded to maltreat the old rabbi again. The Jews of the community are highly wrought up over the affair and the Sejm interpellation demands stringent punishment of both the army officer and police officer.
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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.
