Nazi authorities in Belgium have ordered the conscription of all foreign Jews for forced labor in Germany, it was announced today over the Paris radio.
In the broadcast, it was said that there are today 42,000 Jews registered in Belgium of whom 38,000 are foreign-born. It warned the letter not to make any attempt to escape deportation to Germany by crossing to neighboring countries “because a similar fate awaits them also in Holland and in France.”
There were 82,000 Jews in Belgium when the Nazis occupied the country in 1940. The Nazi statement that today no more than 42,000 Jews are left indicates that many thousands of Jews have perished in Belgium under Nazi occupation since only a small number succeeded in getting away after the Nazi armies entered the country.
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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.
