hibited the Nara organization, but made certain that the organization would not be able to resume activity under another name and in another guise. Nara uniforms and insignia were declared illegal in the order.
The liquidation of the Nara organization became necessary, Polish officials declared, owing to the frequent street conflicts engineered by the anti-Semitic group; continual violation of the Polish penal code, and their spreading of race hatred and anti-government feeling.
The Nara organization has been under fire from the Pilsudski regime for some time. Numerous arrests of Naras have been made all over Poland and a number of Nara leaders sent to the concentration camp at Baraza Kartuska. Sztafeta, Warsaw daily organ of the Naras, was suppressed two weeks ago and the editor, Sigmunt Dziarmaga is a prisoner, while the editor-in-chief and supreme leader of the Nara organization, Jan Mosdorf, supposed to be the grandson of a converted Jew, has fled Poland.
HEADQUARTERS CLOSED
The headquarters of the virulent anti – Semitic, anti – government party were closed by government officials immediately after the murder of the Polish Minister of the Interior, Colonel Bronislaw Pieracki, supposedly by a Nara assassin.
Minister of Justice Michalowski announced to the press today that the murderer of the Colonel Pieracki fled from Poland and that although his three accomplices, Ukrainians, were caught, there is no hope of arresting the actual killer.
The Nara organization was founded on April 14, 1934, by the militant youth wing of the anti-Semitic National Democrat political party, known from the party initials as Endeks. The Nara group felt that the Endek party was not sufficiently anti-Semitic. They adopted a program based on Hitlerism calling for the “immediate elimination of Jews from Polish citizens and from all phases of Polish professional life.”
From its very inception the Nara party entered on a campaign of terror and hooliganism against the Jews of Poland. Mass attacks were carried out by Nara bands against Jews in every part of the country. Nara tactics culminated in mass attacks on Jews, which began about May 1. On May 3, a number of young Jews were injured when Nara hooligans armed ambushed a group of young Jews, attacking them with knives. On May 7, thirty-four Jews in various parts of Poland were badly wounded in a series of attacks carried out according to an organized plan by Nara bands. The worst excesses occurred in Bialystok, where the Jews fought the Naras.
STREETS UNSAFE FOR JEWS
Owing to Nara attacks it became virtually impossible for Jews to walk the streets of Polish towns after nightfall unless they did so in large groups. Jewish shops were repeatedly attacked and looted. Even the government admitted that the Naras were recruiting the criminal elements of the Polish population in their ranks.
Polish Jews formed self-defense organizations all over Poland to fight the Nara menace. Polish Socialist groups cooperated with the Jews in beating off Nara attacks.
A feature of the Nara campaign of terrorism was the placing of blame for every outrage carried out by Nara hooligans on the shoulders of the Jews. “Jewish provocations,” their organ Szatafeta declared upon every new Nara outrage.
The government acted vigorously to combat the growing Nara hooliganism. Nara leaders were arrested in large numbers, their press was suppressed and it became a foregone conclusion that the party itself would be outlawed. Rumors of the outlawing of the Naras have been current in Poland for weeks.
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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.
