“Unpleasant surprise,” at a reported anti-Semitic speech by Polish Minister of Finance Henryk Strassburger was voiced today by the London Jewish Chronicle. Speaking before officers of a Polish regiment in Scotland, Strassburger is reported as saying, that “though all hands are needed to reconstruct Poland after the war it would be helpful if a million Jews left the country.”
The Chronicle says that this speech indicates that the policy of forced Jewish emigration is supported by members of the Polish government, and suggests that the Government should explain whether Strassburger expressed a private opinion or an official policy of the Polish Government. If the speech was an official declaration all previous talk by Polish officials of equality for Jews in a post-war Poland seems “pure nonsense,” the Chronicle comments.
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