Massacres of Jews in the Ukraine and Galicia, equalled only by those of 1918 when anti-Semitic bands murdered more than 60,000 Jews in the Ukraine are feared in the event of Nazi occupation of Soviet territory.
It was learned here that the Nazis have set up, in Cracow, a “Free Ukrainian Government” which will be proclaimed as the official government of the Ukraine as soon as Nazi army reaches Ukrainian soil. The possibility is not excluded that this “government” will move in to Lamberg (Lwow), capital of Eastern Galicia, should the Nazi troops succeed in entering this city, which is thickly populated with Ukrainians and Jews and which is less than a hundred kilometers from the demarcation line between German and Russian Poland.
The “government,” composed of a group of notoriously anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi Ukrainians who had been in the service of the Nazis ever since Hitler came to power, will be used by Nazi propagandists to stimulate anti-Jewish pogroms throughout Galicia and the Ukraine as part of the program of “liberating” the Ukrainian people from “Jewish Communist domination.” It is expected that the “Free Ukrainian Government” will be headed by Hetman Skoropadski, whom Germany proclaimed as head of the Ukraine during the German occupation of the Ukraine in the first World War.
The position of the 1,500,000 Jews in Galicia and other parts of Soviet-occupied Poland in the event of Nazi occupation, would be even more precarious than that of the Jews in Nazi held Poland. It is pointed out that these Jews, whose property was confiscated and currency devaluated immediately after the Soviet occupation would now face complete starvation, coupled with fierce anti-Jewish action which local Ukrainians might develop under the influence of Nazi trained Ukrainian propagandists, who are following the Nazi troops.
Fear was also expressed here over the fate of the Jews in the Baltic countries, especially Lithuania, where the economic situation of the Jews is like that in Galicia. It was reported from Germany that Lithuania and Latvia had declared their “independence” and it was stated here that the position of the 300,000 Jews in these two countries might be very serious, in view of the possibility that the anti-Semitic elements in these countries may now have the upper hand in their readiness to serve Germany’s interests.
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