Hungarian Premier Says Jews Will Be Held As Hostages for Air Raids

The German radio today reported that Jews in Hungary will be held as hostages for Allied air attacks. This, the broadcast said, has been decided upon by the new Hungarian Premier and Regent Ferenc Szalasi.

Quoting a statement allegedly issued by Szalasi, the Berlin broadcast announced, “The attitude towards the Jews in Hungary will depend upon their personal behavior and the enemy air attacks.” After the war, the Jews will be expelled from Hungary to a place “designated by international agreement,” the German radio quoted the Hungarian Premier as declaring.

A Slovakian leader reaching here this week from German-held Slovakia today told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the Jewish situation there is “catastrophic.” As soon as the rising against the present regime broke out in various sections of the country, all Jews throughout Slovakia were herded into concentration camps and confined under most inhuman conditions, he reported. They were given hardly any food and many of them were deported to death camps as soon as transportation was available.

“Unless the interned Jews are liberated soon, either by the insurgents or the advancing Russian Army, they are in the greatest danger,” the Slovak leader said. He added that one of the first actions of the insurrectionists was to free Jews from concentration camps. “This,” he declared,” was particularly successful at a large camp situated near Banka-Bistrica. The Jews liberated from this camp joined the revolt immediately after their liberation.”

“In the parts of Slovakia held by the anti-Nazis all anti-Jewish regulations have been abrogated and the process of restoring confiscated property to the former Jewish owners has begun,” the Slovak leader continued. “It will, however, require some time until the question of complete restoration of Jewish property is legally solved, since there are many complications.”