“aryanization” Drive Launched in Sudetenland

“Aryanization” of Jewish businesses in Sudetenland was launched today, coincident with the arrest of several Jews, while the Czechoslovakian Government continued forcible reparation of Sudeten refugees.

The taking over of Jewish-owned firms will be carried out with full speed, it was announced. Registration of Jewish property exceeding 5,000 marks — as required under a recent Reich decree — will be carried out within 24 hours.

Authoritative sources reported that of 15 Jews remaining in Teplitz-Schoenau, several were arrested by the Nazis, including the manufacturers Levy and Abeles and the advocate, Dr. Gutfreund. Their whereabouts were not known, but they were probably interned in a concentration camp.

No arrests were reported in Aussig, where 50 Jews had remained behind when the general exodus took place, but the local synagogue was converted into a cinema. Thirty Jews remained in Reichenberg.

The expulsion of German democrats, Czechs and Jews to Audetenland continued despite Praha Government assurances that the repatriation policy would be modified. In cases where there was intervention in behalf of refugees, the authorities declared the expulsions were due to unauthorized initiative of police officers.

Jewish leaders were preparing a memorandum requesting residential permits for Jews from the Sudeten districts, declaring that most of the refugees were productive, independent elements, able to contribute considerably to the building up of new industry and willing to use their experience and connections for the benefit of the Czechoslovak State.

Meanwhile, the autonomous Slovak Government officially announced that Chancellon Adolf Hitler’s Voelkischer Beobachter, chief Nazi Party organ in the Reich, and Der Stuermer, Julius Streicher’s Nuremberg Jew baiting weekly, would be allowed to circulate in Slovakia.