The editors of the Polish anti-Semitic weekly, “Pod Prengiez”, appearing here, have been sentenced to imprisonment and fines for libelous attacks on Jews. The case created a great sensation, as these attacks had been getting more and more frequent in the province of Posen, and the Jewish victims of these attacks were usually afraid of prosecuting for fear of terroristic action on the part of the anti-Semites.
The Posen Jewish Traders’ Association, Director H. Eulenberg and Mr. Nashelsky, sued the editors for malicious libel. In the first case, in which Director Eulenberg was the complainant, the editor had to admit that he had no justification whatever, and was ordered by the court to publish a full apology in the next issue of the paper. The text of the apology had to be agreed to by Director Eulenberg himself.
In the second case, in which Mr. Nashelsky was the complainant, the editor was sentenced to one week’s imprisonment, and 50 zlotys costs. In the third and most important case, that of the Posen Jewish Traders’ Association, the Jewish lawyer Chaimowsky made an eloquent speech. “The accused is not an anti-Semite by conviction,” he declared, “but he is paid to attack certain enterprises. For money he would willingly praise even Jewish firms to the skies. His whole activity is a destructive and anti-social one.”
The court sentenced this editor to two weeks’ imprisonment and 100 zlotys fine. The court also ordered all the verdicts to be published in full in the next issue of the paper, and declared that the use of the word “Jid” (slang name for Jew) in the press was a deliberate offence, whether the person referred to was actually a Jew or not.
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.
