Hungarian Minister of the Interior Laszlo Rajk today ordered a complete change of personnel in the police department of the town of Miskolc, where two Jews were lynched last week and the head of the political investigation department, also a Jew, was murdered in a subsequent disorder.
The Hungarian Government was expected to make a statement today in the parliament on the lynchings of Miskolc, which resulted in a wholesale exodus of Jews from that city. Meanwhile, members of the right-wing Smallholders Party, the largest in parliament, are demanding the resignation of Minister Rajk and of the administrator of Miskolc county, on the grounds that they are responsible for agitation which resulted in mobs resorting to lynch law.
Four of the largest parties in the country have publicly condemned the killings pointing out that the two Jews who were murdered because they were alleged to have violated price ceilings were already in the hands of the police and that individual action against them was “unnecessary.”
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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.