A detailed picture of what has been happening to the Jews of Bohemia-Moravia since the occupation by the German army reached Paris for the first time today. A trustworthy source said Czechs throughout both provinces were demonstrating friendship for the Jews while the German population in German areas indulged in pillaging of Jewish homes, burning of synagogues and marking of Jewish stores with Nazi slogans.
At the same time, the Gestapo has drafted stranded Jewish refugees for forced labor in Karlsbad and other Sudeten areas. Czech Jews are not permitted to leave the “protectorate,” although an exception was made for approximately 600 Jews in Prague who were eligible for visas to the United States but did not receive them because the American quota for the year was filled until July.
Contrary to earlier reports, the HIAS-ICA Emigration Association will not be reopened by the Gestapo, which wants emigration matters concentrated in the Jewish Community offices. The Gestapo has permitted the community to tax all Jews, including converts, for community needs, which include soup kitchens for the needy. “Aryanization” of Jewish stores in Prague is going forward at a rapid rate despite the fact that the Czech population steadfastly refuses to boycott Jewish enterprises. Jews are not molested in Prague, where only one cafe bears a “Jews Not Wanted” sign. However, Jews do not visit the cafes, fearing provocations since large units of S.S. men (Hitler elite guards) have arrived in the past week.
To date the Czech Lawyers’ Association is the only body which has introduced anti-Jewish restrictions, the Czechs in other professions treating Jews as equals. In some instances, Czech artisans have raised funds to restore Jewish tailoring and shoemaking shops wrecked in German-populated provincial cities. In Pilsen, all Jewish stores were marked by the Nazis but the Czechs refused to boycott them. A refugee camp near Brno was converted by the Gestapo into a concentration camp.
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