All-woman Community Council Conducts Jewish Affairs in Nazi-held City of Przemysl

The city of Przemysl, Nazi-occupied Poland, is today the only city in the world where the Jewish community council is composed entirely of women, a report reaching here today discloses.

The report states that in 1939, when one part of Poland was occupied by the German army and the other part by the Soviet army, Przemysl was on the demarcation line. Half of the city thus fell into Nazi hands while the other half came under Soviet administration. With the Nazis torturing Jewish men, the entire Jewish male population crossed into the Soviet section of the city, leaving their wives and daughters behind, under the Nazis, but communicated with them daily on the demarcation line in front of German and Soviet officers.

Soon, however, the Nazi authorities issued an order forbidding Jewish inhabitants in their section to maintain any communication with the Jewish residents of the Soviet section of the city. Not only were families thus broken up, but the Jewish female population in the Nazi part of Przemysl remained without any means of support, and dependent entirely on charity which reached them from central Jewish organizations in Cracow and Warsaw. The establishment of a local Jewish community council was ordered by the Nazi authorities to be responsible for the behavior of the Jewish population and to take care of its needs. As there were no men in the city, the Nazis set up a Jewish council composed only of women.

Though the Nazis have long occupied the whole of Przemysl and are now far into Soviet territory in that section of the country, the all-woman Jewish community council in Przemysl is still functioning. Simultaneously, the Nazi administration established a Jewish community council also in the other section of the city from where the Soviet army had retreated. The Jewish council in the former Soviet part of Przemysl is composed of men and is headed by the former president of the Przemysl Jewish Community, Dr. Ravich. The Nazi authorities still keep the two sections of the city separated from each other, but the two separate Jewish councils have been given permission to communicate with each other.

The report estimates that in both sections of Przemysl there are now no more than 5,000 Jews. Their position is especially precarious since some of the 11 soup-kitchens which were maintained by the Jewish councils in both sections of the city had to be closed down due to the shortage of funds. More than 1,000 of the Jews in Przemysl are reported to be ill, several hundred of them seriously, due to starvation and lack of medicaments.