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Polish Scientist Urges Formation of Students Self-defense Units

February 12, 1937
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If Nationalist students succeed in segregating Jews in universities in “ghetto benches” their next move will be to force Jews to use separate entrances, according to Prof. Tadeusz Kotarbinski, famous Polish scientist, of Warsaw University.

Accordingly, writing in the semi-official Kurjer Poranny, he urged creation of a self-defense organization to prevent Nationalist from “carrying out their acts of provocation.” He said that “where the self-defense is stronger than the attackers, order will reign.”

“Every time I enter the university, ” he wrote, “I am overcome by a feeling of bitterness. One of my pupils, a middle-aged lecturer, has had his skull fractured with an iron rod. Once, during my lecture, an Endek band rushed into the room and began attacking the Jewish students. Work at the university is being carried on in a haphazard way and every day there are many injured among the students.

“I admire the Jewish students who come to the lectures. Particularly some of them who have the courage to occupy seats on the right side of the lecture rooms deserve to be honored. Even foreign students who attend Warsaw University for special research purposes are in danger of being attacked. A few days ago Endek criminals wished to force a Jewish scholar from Belgium to occupy a seat in the left side of the lecture room.”

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