All Jews Expelled from Zgierz; Nazis Introduce Ghetto for Jews in Rovno

The expulsion of all Jews from the Polish industrial city of Zgierz near Lodz, and the segregation of all Jews in the city of Rovno, Wolhynia, in a ghetto is reported in news reaching here today from Nazi-occupied Poland.

The Nazi paper Litzmennstadter Zeitung which reports the Jewish expulsion from Zgierz adds that the ghetto there, which existed for two years, has been demolished by order of the local Nazi authorities. It describes how the Jews were driven to the neighboring localities and says that when the last group of Jews left the city, the Nazi authorities ordered the population to decorate each building with white flags and arrange for a special celebration “on the occasion of the city becoming Judenrein.”

The segregation of the Jews in Rovno in a ghetto was explained in the reports reaching here by the fact that the Nazis have made Rovno their central headquarters for disseminating propaganda among the Ukrainians in the German-occupied Ukraine. There were about 60,000 Jews in Rovno prior to Nazi occupation of that city.

Despite continued and increasing persecution, the Jews in occupied Poland are reported to be organizing their religious and cultural life to the best of their abilities. The Shomrei Shabos, a Sabbath-observing society, has resumed its activities and held a meeting in Warsaw at which the Jews of the ghetto were called upon for stricter observance of the Jewish holidays. A special appeal was made to the Jewish barbers who were found breaking the Sabbath regulations. Similar appeals were issued by the Jewish Kehilla of Piotrokow and other towns in Poland. There are now 24 Jewish bookshops open in the Warsaw ghetto and three such shops in the Cracow ghetto, supplying religious books to the Jewish communities.