Gestapo men are utilizing the Nazi massacre of Jews in Europe to extort money from the Jewish victims for “quicker deaths,” the World Jewish Congress office here was informed today in a cable from Dr. Ignacy Schwarzbart, Jewish member of the Polish National Council. Jews are told by Gestapo officials that they will be given “an easy death” if they pay for it, the cable said.
A cable from Palestine received by the Congress discloses that of 70,000 Jews deported by the Nazis from Lublin, about 7,000 were interned in a camp at Majdany. No trace remains of the other 63,000 and it is assumed that they were executed. In Cracow there were only 6,000 Jews left at the end of May, the remainder having been deported to unknown destinations where they were probably murdered. In Tarnow, 10,000 Jews were deported of whom 7,000 were machine-gunned to death at the railway station. The cable confirms previous reports that 18,000 Jews were deported by the Nazis from the city of Piotrokow, and many of them were shot by German soldiers. One trainload of deportees was made up entirely of Jewish children tern from their parents.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.