Anti-semites in Paris Destroy Furniture of Jew in Street Bonfire; Shout “hitier Was Right!”

A gang of anti-Semitic thugs last night invaded an apartment reclaimed by a Jew from a collaborator who had obtained it during the occupation and threw the furniture into the street where it was destroyed in a bonfire, while the hoodlums danced around it shouting “Hitler was right! Send the Jews to the crematoriums!” Police, who arrived after the damage had been done, made no arrests.

The legal occupant of the apartment, Fiega Lustman, is a Polish Jewish woman who has resided in Paris for 16 years. Her husband was deported by the Germans. Mrs. lastman obtained a court order ousting the former occupant of the apartment, a Frenchman named Bruneau who worked on the staff of the Nazi-controlled Paris radio, and who had been given the Lustman apartment by the Germans.

The apartment was vacated the day before yesterday and Mrs. Lustman and her three children had their furniture moved into it. They did not stay there last night because the flat was too upset. After 11 O’clock, when the policeman stationed at all reclaimed apartments to forestall fascist violence, had been withdrawn, the anti-Semitic band, consisting of about 15 men, broke in. The Lustman family is new afraid to occupy the apartment, while the Bruneau woman is attempting to re-enter.

It is reported that one of the leaders of the gang was a police inspector named Fichot. Many anti-Semities are still on the police force, although they worked for Vichy. One policeman who was watching the furniture being removed from an apartment to which the Jewish tenant was returning, said to this correspondent today; “Now they’re coming back after spending the occupation on the Riviera.”

As usual, this morning a gang attempted to prevent the furniture from being (##)ved from the apartment.