Inquisitional methods are being employed by the authorities in Bessarabia against the peaceful and economically ruined Jewish population of the province, the Yiddish daily “Unzer Zeit” complains in an editorial to-day.
We receive harrowing details from delegations, heart-rending descriptions in letters, of acts of Sadistic savagery against respected Zionist workers, in the Chotin district who are subjected to such horrible ill-treatment that the brain reels at the thought, and the blood grows cold, it says.
Are we living in a civilised country, or in an inferno? The people in authority, those in power, who should be protecting public security and upholding the law, instead of proceeding against those who seek to overthrow the present order are beating innocent people, well-known communal workers, who have committed no crime except that they are Jews.
We protest against the murders at Jedinetz, in the district of Chotin. Samson Bronstein has there fallen an innocent victim at the hands of these torturers, and the crime must not go unpunished. We give his case only as an illustration, because there have been in Bessarabia other Bronsteins during the last few weeks who have been beaten to death, dragged along a road from which they never returned.
We do not know whether the Government will enforce a regime of law and order in Bessarabia which will put a stop to such brutal and shameful acts. But something must be done. The Government wants an atmosphere of peace in Bessarabia. We want it even more than the Government does. Our instinct of self-preservation demands that we should live in a place where our lives, at least, are safe. That is why we are on the side of order, and against anarchy, but when our Government uses anarchic methods, we must be allowed to say that these methods are driving away our youth, and poisoning their souls. It is the duty of the State to protect us against those who do us harm. It has means enough, there are judges and prisons in plenty. In the name of humanity and justice, in the name of the interests of the State itself, we demand that this beating and torturing in Bessarabia must stop.
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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.
