German troops have driven some 400 Jews out of the Polish town of Hrubieszo, near Lublin, shooting down 83 who were not able to flee quickly enough, it was reported here today. The expulsion was ordered by the new military commander of the town, who previously had carried out a mass execution of Jews in the public square of Kalisz.
The commander ordered all Jewish males of Hrubieszo between the ages of 16 and 60 to gather in the public square. Many of them, fearing such a massacre as occurred in Kalisz, instead fled from the town, and only 400 appeared in the square. These were then driven by German troops to the outskirts of the town and from there into the fields. Eighty-three who did not run fast enough were shot and the remainder hid in the woods.
Local Polish Christians, horrified by the event, sent a delegation to the commander to appeal for mercy for the Jews, but he replied that he considered the expulsion and slayings as a warning to the town’s Jews to hasten their departure.
To speed the expulsion of Jews from the Polish provinces, apparently to make place for repatriated Baltic Germans being sent into occupied Poland, the Nazi authorities have ordered Jewish small traders and artisans to apply to the economic department of the Gestapo for renewal of their licenses.
While in Warsaw some Jews succeed in obtaining licenses if they can prove that they have stocks of merchandise, the issuance of permits to Jews in the provinces is much more restricted.
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