A Prague dispatch to the New York Times reported today that nearly the entire Jewish population of Moravska-Ostrava, in the Bohemia-Moravia “protectorate,” except the aged and infirm, has been shipped to Poland.
The dispatch said that the group included men up to 70 and women aged 17 to 55. The only personal belongings permitted the deportees were a knapsack and a small bag, together with 300 marks each.
According to the dispatch, the “full implication of this mass deportation of Jews to Poland are not yet clear. It is believed to be preliminary to rhe resettlement of the Jews of Germany in a Jewish State in Poland, but so far the Jews are being used chiefly as workers in reconstruction projects and are living in barracks. However, it is unlikely that those who have been deported will ever again see the homes they left so suddenly and that their existence henceforth will be determined entirely by Nazi dictates.”
The dispatch said that the removal followed similar action taken in Vienna “where practically every able-bodied Jew has been transported to Poland to work in labor battalion.” It added that children left behind by their parents would be cared for by the Jewish community, subsisting probably on the proceeds from the sale of Jewish property, businesses and shops.
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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.
