An official order approving the execution of typhus-stricken Jews in Nazi-occupied territories has been issued by Berlin to the Nazi administration in Poland, the Baltic countries and the Ukraine, it is reported in the press here today. The order provides that Jews showing any symptoms of epidemic diseases should be shot, especially in places where there are no ghettos. All their belongings are to be destroyed at once, the order specifies.
The shooting of infected Jews has been going on in Nazi-held territories of Eastern Europe ever since the spread of typhus among the German soldiers. The latest reports reaching here reveal that many Jews were shot in Vilkomir and other cities in the Baltic section of Eastern Europe, in addition to hundreds of Jews shot in Poland.
Panic stricken over their failure to check the spread of typhus in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, the Nazi authorities there are reported to have introduced rigid isolation of Jews in the ghettos of Kaunas, Vilna, Riga, Tallin and Dwinsk. Jews are no longer taken from these ghettos for forced labor which might bring them in contact with Germans. Each of these ghettos, however, is not allowed to have more than three Jewish doctors for every thousand Jews. The rest of the Jewish doctors have been transferred to work in German military hospitals.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
