Czech Writer Replies in Party Paper to Vicious Anti-jewish Attack

A virulently anti-Semitic anonymous letter threatening the life of Dr. Edward Goldstuecker, a leader of the progressive wing of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, was published yesterday in the party newspaper, Rude Pravo, along with an article by Dr. Goldstuecker urging the party to cleanse itself “of people who have tried to smuggle Nazi demagoguery into it.” According to press dispatches received here today, the unsigned letter called Dr. Goldstuecker a “Zionist hyena” and a “disgusting Jew” and warned him that “your time will come, your days are reckoned.”

Dr. Goldstuecker, who is chairman of Czechoslovakia’s Writers Union, attributed the attack to hard-line opponents of the new Communist regime’s liberal policies probably associated with former President Antonin Novotony. The letter alleged that the democratization now taking place in Czechoslovakia was the work of Jews like Dr. Goldstuecker. Dr. Goldstuecker, himself a victim of Stalinist persecution in the 1950s, expressed the belief that the anonymous writer was a member of the state security apparatus because the language of the letter was much the same as that used against him and other defendants in the anti-Semitic atmosphere of the purge trial of Rudolf Slansky, former Secretary-General, of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, executed in the 1950s.

The letter and Dr. Goldstuecker’s article were prominently featured in the party newspaper. According to some sources, it was reported here, progressive Communists are concerned that the democratization process so far has benefited mainly intellectuals and journalists like Dr. Goldstuecker, more than the masses of the population. Jews hold leading positions in Czech polities and culture.