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Flight of Jews from Nazi to Soviet Areas Continues; 53 Shot in Warsaw

December 5, 1939
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The flight of Jews from German to Soviet areas of Poland is continuing despite the fact that the frontiers have been ordered hermetically closed.

During the past week, more than 3,000 Jews, chiefly women and children, crossed into Soviet territory near Jadowbrok Zaremby, south of Bialystok. The majority had been stripped of all belongings. Undernourished after camping for two weeks under the open skies of a no-man’s-land, three children died. Two women were driven mad by their experiences.

The Germans had forbidden the refugees to return to Nazi territory and the Russians permitted them to enter only after two weeks of unceasing application.

Meanwhile, the Lithuanian newspaper Lietuvos Aidas reported from Berlin that 53 Jews and a Polish policeman had been shot dead in Warsaw. An official German announcement asserted that Poles had released a Jew, Jacob Silbring, from prison although he had killed a Polish policeman.

According to the Nazi version, Jews living in the house where Silbring was hiding had told the police that the escaped prisoner was not there. When this was discovered to be false, all 53 residents of the house were executed.

The newspaper also reported that the Nazi Governor of Warsaw had ordered Jewish enterprises marked with a black star of David on a white background. The order applies to all enterprises whose owners or their parents are ews, or 25 percent of the shares are Jewish owned.

Jews and Jewesses in Warsaw and Cracow have been ordered to wear armlets with the star of David.

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