Edward Ochab, chief of the Communist Party of Poland, whose position is reported to be shaky after the Poznan riots is using anti Jewish prejudice among the Polish people to divert them from the real causes of the general discontent in the country, it was reported today in a cable from Warsaw to the World-Telegram and Sun.
The cable quotes an unnamed Jewish official of the Communist Party in Warsaw as stating: “We believe the anti-Jewish campaign has begun. It is being directed from the very top by party secretary Ochab and his group.” The correspondent adds that “according to Polish sources, Ochab is relying on the backing of Khrushchev who shares the anti-Jewish prejudice of the average Russian and Polish peasant.”
The correspondent reports that he has established that a number of Jews have been dismissed from administrative positions and that there have also been dismissals from the army. “There are reports that graves in Jewish cemeteries have been desecrated and that Warsaw school teachers have been making Jewish children sit by themselves,” the correspondent says. “The Jews in Poland fear that these manifestations are only the overture to a campaign of severity against them by party chief Ochab which will make all recent incidents seem but a whisper,” he concludes.
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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.
