An appeal to Polish Prime Minister Edward Osubka-Morawski, asking him to act so that the massacres of Jews in liberated Poland may”be stopped at once,” was cabled today by the Federation of Polish Jews in America following the reports of various anti-Jewish outbreaks in Cracow and the vicinity.
“Deeply shocked by pograms in Cracow following systematic murder of Jews by anti-Semitic bands in Poland,” says the cable signed by Dr. Joseph Tenenbaum, president of the Federation. “I urge your government to take stern measures to punish perpetrators of crimes against Jews and stop further pograms against remaining Jews. Conscious of the fact that these acts of barbarism are instigated by fascist and reactionary elements within and outside Poland in order to embarrass your government it is absolutely necessary for the good name of Poland for future relations of the world to Poland that these massacres be stopped at once. Hitlerism must die with Hitler and a revival of fascism cannot be permitted in a free Poland. As in the past the World Federation of Polish Jews will do its utmost to fight fascism and we have confidence in the new government that it will not neglect anything in its power to stop this most vicious form of fascism in the free land of Poland.”
Dr. Tenenbaum also sent an appeal to British Ambassader Lord Halifax in Washington asking him to call the attention of the British Government to the fact that “the systematic murder now going on in Poland is an indirect result of the closing of the doors of Palestine and thus compelling Jews to return to Poland where anti-Semitic reactionary forces are waiting to destroy them. Hundreds of displaced Jews returning from concentration camps have thus perished and the newest pograms in Cracow with the police looking on is but a culmination of a chain of events for which the British Government must indirectly bear its share. These pograms are being encouraged by the reactionary elements of the former government-in-exile in order to embarrass the new provisional government in Poland. A direct communication was traced between the army maintained by your government under the generalship of that arch anti-Semite Wladyslaw Anders and the underground anti-Semitic movement within Poland. The disbandment of this army and severance of any connections with the reactionary government-in-exile will be an important milestone to peaceful solution within Poland.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
