Editor Paints Gloomy Picture of Jewish Situation in Poland

The Polish government is not anti-Semitic, but its politics are decidedly so, and the position of the Jews in Poland is tragic, but not hopeless, declared Solomon Dingol, managing editor of the Day, who recently returned from a tour of Poland. Mr. Dingol not only visited Poland, where he toured the Jewish centers, but also paid a short visit to Germany.

Mr. Dingol made a hurried tour through the Jewish sections in Berlin and reported that stores were open everywhere, many with obviously Jewish names on their windows. What impressed him most, however, was that during several hours spent in a Berlin railroad station where thousands of people were congregated he failed to hear one laugh or to see a single smile. All seemed to be tense.

From Berlin Mr. Dingol went to Paris by train. “It was curious,” he declared, “what a pall of silence hung over the compartment in which I traveled with a group of Germans, as long as we were in Germany. We stared at each other furtively, but no one spoke. The minute the train crossed the Belgian frontier, a startling change took place. People relaxed, smiled, and began to talk in the most friendly fashion. It was as though an invisible barrier had been removed.

EVIL SPIRITS SUMMONED HITLER

“The conversation was of great interest and very revealing. My traveling companions were Germans, out-and-out supporters of Hitler, but even they were disillusioned. Thus it was elaborately explained to me that Adolf Hitler himself was fine and noble, and that he was doing great work for Germany, but he was surrounded by evil companions who were deliberately spoiling his work and making it hard for the German people.

“From their talk I was also able to glean facts as to the working of the anti-Jewish boycott in Germany. I was told that although they were compelled to call in ‘Aryan’ doctors, they always called in Jewish doctors to confirm the verdict of the ‘Aryan.’ One woman, an actress and a staunch supporter of the anti-Jewish policy of the Nazi government, told of giving the contract for her stage dresses to an ‘Aryan’ firm, only to be treated so badly that she was compelled to return to the Jewish firm which had made her costumes for years and was welcomed back as though nothing had happened.”

POLISH JEWS SUFFER HUNGER

Asked about the Jewish situation in Poland, Mr. Dingol stated that while the situation was tragic enough, it was by no means hopeless. The Jews, he declared, were ruined economically and were literally starving, but at the same time Polish Jewry was displaying a remarkable tenacity, shifting its occupational base and making heroic efforts to maintain cultural levels.

That Polish Jewry was suffering and in dire need, Mr. Dingol made no effort to disguise. He described hunger that would seem incredible even to a depression-conscious American. “Thus a man ordering a pair of shoes from a shoemaker would never dream of giving him money to buy leather,” Mr. Dingol declared, “for he would know that instead of buying leather the starved shoemaker would rush off and buy bread for his starving family.

“I saw Jewish families which had been evicted from miserable dwellings in which whole families crowded into one room, living in old abandoned automobiles, with little children with the distended bellies betokening hunger peering out at passersby, while their parents were out trying to earn a few zlotys to buy bread.

TALES OF HARDSHIPS

“On a Wilno street I met a Jew wearing a capote (long coat) which had been patched and repatched to such an extent that it was impossible to know what the original had been. When I talked to this man he said: ‘You mustn’t think this is my everyday coat, on the contrary, this is my Sabbath best.'”

The political situation in Poland, Mr. Dingol declared, was complicated beyond belief and it was impossible to simplify the picture. Thus the Pilsudski regime was not anti-Semitic in itself, but its politics were thoroughly anti-Semitic, owing to the pressure of political and economic anti-Semitism.

The Pilsudski regime was strangling the petty Jewish traders by decree after decree, but at the same time was heavily subsidizing loan funds and charitable organizations engaged in rehabilitating ruined Jewish traders.

SITUATION IN LAND BAD

It was wrong to call the Pilsudski regime an open dictatorship, Mr. Dingol declared, pointing out that the Marshal was the national hero in Poland and that he constantly used the Polish parliament and elections to further his policies, “I would say that Pilsudski uses democratic methods to achieve dictatorial ends,” he said.

“The position of Polish Jewry is completely bound up with the general economic situation, which is exceedingly bad in Poland, and until that is solved there will be no improvement in the Jewish situation. You can imagine how bad it is when I tell you that in Telachin the Jewish community collected bread for the starving peasants.

“The poverty which besets all of Poland is hard to picture. The stock-in-trade of the average small Jewish merchant, for instance, seldom amounts to more than fifty or sixty dollars. No books are kept and when government inspectors come around to assess taxes they are compelled to place arbitrary valuations on the stock, which in many cases consists of empty boxes.

UNITY IS ESSENTIAL

“If the economic situation in Poland improves, which in turn must be predicated on world recovery, the Jewish position will improve tremendously. But first the Jews must achieve a united front with a united Jewish leadership. At present they are badly divided. While I was there such a unity conference was held, but failed. However, even in the failure there was hope, for a committee was chosen to continue negotiations.

“In addition, the Jews must rehabilitate themselves. They must go into new occupations, artisanship, handicrafts and the like. And it is in this field that the Gmelath Chasodim chests (loan funds), installed by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, are doing wonderful work. Some 700 Jewish communities in Poland have benefitted from these funds and helped on the road to rehabilitation.

“But above all Jewish unity in Poland is essential before there can be any marked or lasting improvement in the Jewish situation there.”