Conditions in Poland and Madagascar Described by Experts

Iron-handed Nazi rule has not broken the spirit of the Jews in the Nazi-made Warsaw ghetto, according to newspaper reports received from Poland and described in the current issue of the “Contemporary Jewish Record,” the bi-monthly publication of the American Jewish Committee, published today.

Cut off from the outside world by eight-foot brick walls and carrying on their daily lives under the most severe restrictions yet imposed by the Nazis on the conquered people of Europe, the 450,000 Polish Jews crowded into the ghetto nevertheless show “no trace of groveling before the Nazis.” Instead, “national pride is emphasized, and faith in humanity and the brotherhood of mankind is kept alive,” the article says.

One of the most difficult questions of recent months was that of providing recreation in the narrow confines of the ghetto. According to the Nazis’ original plan, the Jewish cemetery was to be outside of the limits of the ghetto. Negotiations resulted in the exchange of several streets for this cemetery, which in addition now serves as a park.

Another article, by Eugene Hevesi, describes conditions in Madagascar, the subtropical island to which the Nazis have proposed to exile the Jews in the event of a Nazi military victory. Basing his judgment on reports by experts from France, Poland, Japan and even Germany, Mr. Hevesi concludes that any attempt to dump hundreds of thousands of Jews on the island “would result in fullest misery and eventual annihilation.” The hot and humid climate, the terrible sanitary conditions, the persistence of a number of diseases such as malaria and yellow fever in the swamp-infested land and “the unexplained radiations of the metallic soil” all combine to make existence in Madagascar for the white man almost unbearable and active labor practically impossible, Mr. Hevesi states.