Report 14,000 Polish Jews Have Registered to Emigrate and 3,000 Have Left

Fourteen thousand of Poland’s 25,000 Jews have registered for emigration and about 3,000 have already left the country in the wake of a continuing anti-Semitic campaign and a series of “show trials” in which most of the accused are Jews, an authority on Polish Jewry reported here today. The disclosures were made by Dr. S.J. Roth, director of the institute of Jewish Affairs at a press conference sponsored by the Institute and the World Jewish Congress.

Reporters were given copies of a new publication of the Institute titled “The Anti-Jewish Campaign in Present Day Poland.” The publication was prepared by Lucjan Blit, a Journalist and research fellow at the London School of Economics. It lists the names of 152 prominent Polish Jews or persons of Jewish origin who have been purged since the summer of 1967. Most of those listed were university teachers, editors, factory managers, high ranking civil servants and officials of various institutions.

The press conference also made public, with the permission of Bertrand Russell, a letter which Lord Russell wrote to Wladyslaw Gomulka, First Secretary of the Polish Communist Party, in which he declared that, “The wave of anti-Semitism in Poland requires that Socialists everywhere speak out.” He declared that Mr. Gomulka could have prevented the discriminatory acts.

Dr. Roth stated that the officially inspired anti-Semitic campaign in Poland continues and has taken on outright racialist features. He said the trials of students – mostly Jewish – who are accused of having fomented the student demonstrations for liberal reforms in Poland last spring are going on and a number have already taken place, the latest on Dec. 5, following the Communist Party Congress. He said more trials were scheduled for the near future and that the liquidations of Jewish institutions or the curtailment of their activities was also continuing.

Lord Russell referred to the trials in his letter to Mr. Gomulka. He wrote, “One might have hoped that the Fifth (Communist) Party Congress would call a halt to the trials of students, mostly Jews. However, the trials continue as I write, with the accused divided into small groups and the foreign press barred in the clear hope that these disgraceful events will not be noticed.” Lord Russell’s letter went on to say, “By some twisted logic, all Jews are now Zionists, Zionists are Fascists, Fascists are Nazis, and therefore Jews are to be identified with the Nazis.” Lord Russell reminded Mr. Gomulka, “Your own son is half Jewish. Surely you understand the criminality and danger of such a practice..Anti-Semitism in Poland has been exalted as the cover for factional struggle. You, Mr. Gomulka, could have used the authority of your high office to prevent this. The world awaits an answer from you.”