Eleven dispatches of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in which the horrors of the Nazi occupation of Poland are described by JTA correspondents abroad were read to the House this afternoon by Representative Samuel Dickstein (Dem.,N.Y.). It was the first time that the enormity of conditions in Poland has been presented to the Congress.
Today, the State Department still insisted that it had no official knowledge of the authenticated stories of wholesale murder and rapine and of the reduction of Poland to slavery.
Later this afternoon Dickstein said that he would soon introduce into the House a resolution calling upon the President to ask the German Government to have mercy on Poland.
“So far as any real news items from Poland are concerned,” Dickstein said, “Poland, whether occupied by the Soviets or by the German Army, is a great blank spot. It was, therefore, with great interest that I was able to collect material from news items gathered by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and I feel that it is of interest to the House to submit this material to you.” The Congressman then read the dispatches.
Dickstein pointed out that the United States was responsible for creating the Polish State at the end of the last war and that the country should still feel responsibility for Poland. He charged that the Nazis have slain 100,000 Jewish men, women and children in Poland.
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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.
