The American Jewish Committee today sent a cable to the Polish Government protesting against anti-Semitism in the Polish Army, and demanding that “full and immediate punishment be visited upon the anti-Semitic agitators.” The protest, signed by Judge Joseph M. Proskauer, president, reads:
“The American Jewish Committee urgently represents to the Polish Government the widespread concern and indignation felt in this country over the manifestations of anti-Semitism exhibited in the Polish Army in England.
“It is of record that several hundred Jewish soldiers, because of these conditions, were permitted to leave the Polish Army to join the British forces. That the few soldiers who were court-martialed for endeavoring to join the British Army were signaled out for punishment was essentially a complete reversal of previous policy. These Jewish soldiers were not seeking to shirk military duty; they were seeking to fight in the British Army and, in the language of Emanuel Szerer, representative in the Polish National Council who was present at the court-martial, “That these men were driven to the desperate step of leaving their units to join the British Army must impress everyone having an open heart for human distress.”
“It is a complete violation of the great principles for which this war is being ?ought to punish these men who were driven by intolerable conditions to seek a place in the British Army where they could fight with that morale and heroism that can exist only under decent human conditions, and not to visit the most condign punishment on those who were responsible for the anti-Semitic manifestations that made it practically impossible for self-respecting human beings to function as soldiers within the polish ranks.
“We earnestly represent that American public opinion demands that full weight be given to the circumstances which impelled these men to seek to join the British Army, and that full and immediate punishment be visited upon the anti-Semitic agitators in the Polish Army. The Polish Government owes a duty to itself and to humanity to put a stop to these conditions and, in the language of Mr. Eden in his statement in Parliament, “to intensify its efforts to eradicate manifestations of anti-Semitism in the Polish forces” and to see to it “that all steps are taken to insure that this policy be translated into appropriate action.”
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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.
