As the proceedings in the Barshay trial against four workers charged with indulging in anti-Semitic persecutions against their Jewish fellow worker is going forward, it becomes evident that the White Russian Soviet authorities are determined to convert the proceedings into a demonstration against anti-Semitism as an enemy of the Soviet state. It was for this reason that the trial is being held in Minsk instead of Sritchlosk.
The cross-examination of the defendants was concluded on Friday. It brought out facts substantiating the charge of the prosecution that Miss Barshay was the victim of deliberate (##)streatment for anti-Semitic reasons.
Dneize Barshay testified in Yiddish, her testimony being translated in court. She related that the outstanding incident in her persecution at the hands of the defendants occurred on July 25. She described the (##) infected on her by Tochilin, Gruzdyev and (##) while the factory policeman, Krasnyansky, looked on but took no action to stop them. On October 31, when Tochilin kiplced her ankle with a wooden shoe, she was forced to remain away from work for several days because of the wound inflicted.
Miss Barshay’s testimony shattered the attempt of the defense to prove that she had had intimate relations with Tochilin. A photograph in Tochilin’s possession proved to be not hers but her sister’s, taken without permission.
Isotorz, Dreize Barshay’s noon mate who disclosed the persecutions leading to the trial, testified that Dreize is not mentally detective as the defense claims, but is merely timid and cowed due to fear and suffering and to her lack of education.
The efforts of the defense and the denials of Krastryansky, Pchelkin. Gladkor and Koronin, to prove that anti-Semitic motives did not enter into the incidents, were (##) by Nitzayewskaya’s admission that Miss Barshay was abused as a Jewers. Nitzayevskaya disclaimed that she was guilty of anti-Semitism. Her late husband was a Jew and she now fives with her sister-in-law.
When asked if she dashed (##)on Miss Barshay while Tochilin and Grinzdyex held her, she said : “I don’t remember. I don’t think I did.” She testified, however, that Tochilin and Griuzdyev, while (##) Miss Barshay, threw the girl to the flour and stripped her. Also, that the term “Zhid” was employed commonly by the master workers in referring to Miss Barshay.
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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.
