Mass-pogroms on Jews Throughout Galicia; Victims Send S.o.s. to Democratic Nations

Unprecedented panic among the remaining Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland is reported in brief code messages which continue to reach here from various sections of the Government General, especially from Galicia, where large-scale pogroms are being carried out in the ghettos by special Gestapo units.

The messages indicate that if steps are not taken immediately to force the Nazis to discontinue their renewed mass-executions of Jews, there will not be a single Jew left alive in all of Poland very shortly pieced together. The brief S.O.S. messages, coming from different sources through underground channels, make it clear that while the Nazis have deported all the Jews from the Warsaw ghetto, they are not resorting to deportations in other towns, but are murdering the Jews on the spot.

Following a pogrom in the Lwow ghetto which lasted several days; the Gestapo chief for Eastern Galicia this week personally supervised a pogrom on Jews in the Galician town of Drohobycz, and himself participated in the execution of the victims. One of the Jewish leaders of Drohobycz who was killed by the Gestapo chief in cold blood while other Jews were forced to look on was Dr, Bardasz, who was well known throughout Galicia.

All indications point to the fact that the mass-annihilation of the Jews in Galicia is being carried out by a special “travelling unit” of the Gestapo created for this purpose. The unit moves from one town to another executing Jews in the various ghettos. At present the major Jewish ghettos in Galicia are located in Cracow, Lwow, Tarnopol, Duohobycz, Stanislawow, Rawa-Russka, Zlotchov, Stry, Samber, Borislav, Brzezany, Czortkow, Przemysl, Rzeczow, Tarnow and Bochnia.