The East German authorities are assembling Jewish families in special “reservations” near the Polish border in the vicinity of Frankfurt-am-Oder, the German illustrated magazine Der Spiegel reported today.
The magazine said that at a camp just south of that city Jews are being herded into tents in areas fenced in with barbed wire and guarded by the German Peoples Police. The “reservations,” according to Der Spiegel, are under the administration of a special Jewish section of the East German Security Ministry known by the code designation of P-6.
Orders have been issued by P-6 to separate families in the camps, permitting only children under the age of four to remain with their mothers. The magazine said that all resistance and protests are ruthlessly suppressed by a number of measures, including the killing of inmates “while trying to escape.” Der Spiegel added that “reservation” inmates are forced to exchange their clothes for a prison garb consisting partly of uniforms of the former Nazi Party.
The magazine also reported that the East German Ministry of Security is headed by a veteran Communist, Wilhelm Zaisser. Zaisser is said to be a former German Army officer of World War I who served with the Spanish Loyalists under the name of General Gomez.
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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.
