Jewish leaders here today expressed alarm concerning the fate of the 300,000 Jews remaining in Hungary, as the German radio announced that all Jews in Budapest have been ordered not to leave their homes, which is usually a prelude to a Gestapo round-up of Jews for deportation.
At the same time, the Budapest radio announced that the Szalasi Government, which the Germans have set up in Hungary, has issued an order cancelling all exemptions from appearing the yellow Mogen Dovid granted by the previous regime to certain categories of Jews, including war veterans. The order emphasized that all Jews who discarded the yellow insignia, whether by exemption or arbitrarily, must immediately resume wearing at. “Jews who are caught without the yellow star will be arrested and interned,” the border said.
Custodians of buildings from which the yellow Mogen Dovid was removed must replace it immediately under penalty of internment, the order provides. The Budapest radio also broadcast an Order-of-the-Day by Premier Ferenc Szalasi, who is also the new Regent of Hungary, stating that the present war is “a war of independence directed against Jewry,” and indicating that the Jews in Hungary are considered enemies of the country.
JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS APPEAL TO POPE TO PREVENT “MASS-MURDER”
The Board of Deputies of British Jews is considering action in behalf of the threatened Jews. The World Jewish Congress office here has sent appeals to the Pope, to British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden who is now in Moscow, and to principal leaders of the United Nations asking for urgent measures to prevent “impending mass-murder of the remaining Jews in Hungary.”
Count Michael Karolyi, former Premier of Hungary now in London, today expressed doubts whether the Jews in Hungary can be saved. “The only thing that can still save Jews from the Gestapo’s last-minute massacre is a rapid advance of the Russian Army,” he told representatives of the press. “A terrible butchery of Jews is now going on in Hungary, but I hope that even with their German thoroughness, the Nazi will not succeed in killing all the remaining 300,000 Jews.”
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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.
