Panic Grips Jews As Reich Troops Enter Galicia; Deal with Soviet Feared

Entry of German troops into Soviet-held Galicia has thrown panic into the Jews in that area and aroused fears of a Soviet-German-Hungarian military offensive against Rumania, it was reported here today.

Refugees arriving here from Lemberg said that the appearance of Nazi troops in Lemberg (Lwow), Kolomyja, Drohobitch, Przemysl, Stanislwow and other cities of Galicia, which contain large Jewish populations, had led Jews to fear that a new Moscow-Berlin deal would put them under the Nazi regime.

At the same time, it was reported that the entry of the Nazi forces had raised the possibility of an invasion of Rumania by the Soviet army into Bessarabia, the German forces into Bukowina and the Hungarian army into Transylvania.

Reports from Nazi-occupied Poland said raids on Jewish homes, particularly in Warsaw, had been intensified to obtain draft labor. They were being sent to an unknown destination, believed by some to be the Siegfried line.

The Berlin Boersen-Zeitung reports that “Herr Kruger, the Gestapo chief in Poland, has proclaimed two years of forced labor for all Jews between the ages of 14 and 60,” adding that “the length of this term…will be prolonged should the educational aim of this measure not be achieved within the specified time.”

Thousands of Jews in Warsaw–and apparently also in other Nazi-held cities–were reported hiding in basements, sleeping in their clothing, to avoid seizure in the Gestapo raids. The only Jews to be seen on Warsaw’s streets were gray-bearded oldsters, and even some of these were being halted by Nazis who forced them to sing and dance in the streets. Many Jews were even afraid to appear at the Jewish soup kitchens to receive their daily charity rations.