Nazis Burn 30 Jews in Synagogue at Przemysl, Expel Others to Soviet Side of City

Polish sources reported today that Nazis in the city of Przemysl burned down a synagogue in which they had locked 30 Jews and then forced the rest of the Jewish inhabitants, including women, aged and ailing, to cross the San Rive to the Soviet side.

“The Jews in Przemysl, when brought to the San, were forced to cross it not over the bridge but in the waters of the river,” one of the reports said.

It had been reported that Przemysl was part of Soviet-occupied territory, but the Polish Embassy and Polish Telegraphic Agency here explained that the city is divided by the San and a suburb on the left bank is held by the Nazis, where the synagogue destruction and expulsion presumably occurred.

Official Polish circles also reported that Nazis were confiscating Jewish and Polish property in Posen and other parts of Poland which Chancellor Adolf Hitler has proclaimed as an integral part of Germany. In Posen, no Pole is permitted to trade any longer, it was said. “Liquidation of the entire Polish commerce is practically completed in Posen and everything is passing into German hands.”

Information about mistreatment of Jews in Nazi Poland was also received by British circles here.

“Reports continue to pour in describing the inhuman treatment of Jews in Nazi Poland,” the British sources said. “Epidemics, of which typhoid and pneumonia have been the most widespread, are said to be raging in Warsaw and Lublin. The epidemics have spread particularly rapidly among the Jews as a result of overcrowding, lack of food and of adequate clothing for protection against the intense cold.

“Little medical aid is available and the Jews are excluded from all public hospitals. They are also forbidden to buy clothes, boots or white bread. No coal is supplied to them, with the result that they are obliged to use for firewood what furniture they may be fortunate enough to possess.”