Minister of Interior Nicolas Storace Arrosa summoned the chief of police of Montevideo today and demanded from him a report on what was being done to check the outbursts of anti-Semitic incidents in this capital city which culminated in the beating to death of an elderly Jew yesterday. The Minister will be questioned in Parliament next week on the anti-Jewish terrorism which included the branding of eight Jewish men and girls with swastikas.
Tension prevailed in the city today as military jeeps were patrolling the streets of Montevideo in an effort to curb organized anti-Semitic terrorism. University and college students called a one-day strike for Friday to protest the inability of the police to trace the terrorists and arrest them. The Medical Society of Uruguay announced that it was organizing protective measures for its members since a Jewish physician, Maximon Handel, was one of the victims attacked, beaten and branded with a swastika last Monday night.
Armed Jewish guards are now guarding synagogues and buildings of Jewish institutions, while police have increased their security measures in the Jewish business districts. The police reported last night that a Jew shot a taxi driver whom he suspected of being one of the anti-Semitic terrorists. The shooting took place when the driver slowed his taxi in a secluded area and the Jew believed that he might be dragged into the taxi in the same manner as the other Jews who have been kidnapped.
The elderly Jew who was beaten to death yesterday by anti-Semitic kidnappers was a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp, Samuel Saltzberg, who lost his wife and children during the Nazi occupation of Poland. He recently received a compensation payment from West Germany for the loss of his family. A few days ago he told his brother that he had been threatened.
(In Buenos Aires, a heavy, plastic bomb exploded last night damaging a building occupied by Jews. One resident of the building was taken to a hospital for treatment for shock.)
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.
