Czech Government Seeks to Halt Influx of Fleeing Jewish Refugees from Poland

Jan Masaryk, Czechoslovakian Foreign Minister, today told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency here that he intends to meet with Jewish groups in London to discuss with them the problem of Jewish refugees who are continuing to enter Czechoslovakia from Poland.

There are now thousands of such Jews in Czechoslovakia, the Foreign Minister said, adding that they constitute “an increasingly great problem” for the Czechoslovakian Government. He emphasized that the Prague government intends to discuss this problem with the Polish Government in an attempt to halt the influx of Jewish refugees across the Czech border. At the same time, he admitted that most of the Jews who are fleeing Poland have no intention of remaining in Czechoslovakia, but hope to reach Palestine.

Questioned about the reported anti-Semitism in Slovakia, Masaryk said that anti-Jewish accesses took place there, but the situation improved after action by the neutral government in Prague. He revealed that he himself insisted on drastic measures against the anti-Jewish elements in Slovakia and went so far as to threaten that be would resign if strong measures were not taken to protect the Jews.

Surprise was expressed today in Jewish circles here over a report broadcast by the Prague radio, and carried by the Czechoslovak news agency CTK, that the Prague Government had submitted to the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal an indictment which makes no mention of the fact that tens of thousands of Czechoslovak Jews were extermimeted by the Germans.

According to the indictment, only 22,000 Czechoslovak nationals were murdered in Gestapo prisons, in addition to those who were tortured to death. Jewish leaders here point out that the number of Czechoslovak Jews killed by the Nazi is perhaps five times larger than the figure given in the indictment. They estimate that of 150,000 Jews deported from Czechoslovakia to extermination camps, hardly 10,000 have returned.