The Sejm (lower Parliamentary house) today rejected a demand by its three Jewish deputies that the Government indemnify victims of the Brzesc (Brest-Litovsk) pogrom of May 13. It was decided, however, to grant the interpellation in which the demand was voiced parliamentary immunity and to permit its publication.
The interpellation, presented in the Sejm on May 21 by Deputy Emil Sommerstein, demanded indemnification for the victims, punishment for the rioters and charged the rioting was caused by “the continued incitement of the population against the Jews by the greater part of the Polish press and incessant anti-Semitic incidents by a party whose headquarters is at Biala-Podlaska, near Brzose.”
The interpellation also accused the police of an “apathetic attitude” in the disorders.
A similar document was presented in the Senate on May 29 by Senator Jacob Treckenheim. Asking Government relief for the pogrom victims, the statement urged disciplinary action against Governor de Tramecourt and other officials of Polesia Province and Brzesc for failure to suppress the excesses.
Trial of Isaac Szcerbewski, Jewish butcher whose fatal stabbing of a policeman provided the spark that set off the disorders, was set today for June 15 in Brzesc. Ten rioters will go on trial June 10 in the same city.
The Council of Polish Trades Unions, representing 50,000 workers, adopted a resolution strongly protesting against the Brzesc riots and demanding that the Polish Government indemnify the victims.
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