A suggestion that Jews in Rumania, who are excluded from military service under the existing anti-Jewish laws, be drafted into the army and organized into special “Jewish regiments” for service on the Russian front, is published in the Rumanian anti-Semitic newspaper Porunka Vremi which reached here today from Bucharest.
“While Rumanians are dying on the battle front, the Jews remain happily alive,” the organ of the anti-Semitic Iron Guard Party writes. “With our warriors under the threat of Russian machine-guns, we may as well form at least a few Jewish regiments for the Eastern front. We wonder whether it was altogether wise to exclude the Jews from our army, even though they may act as spies and may spread defeatism and anarchy.”
General Bascanu, the mayor of Bucharest, in an article in the newspaper Universal, complains that “Jews negligently carry out their compulsory labor duties as street-cleaners.” He warns the Rumanian supervisors of severe punishment if they continue to treat the Jews leniently, and announces that unless the situation improves a collective fine will be imposed upon the Jewish community, the money to be used for hiring non-Jewish street-cleaners.
The Bucharest newspaper Currentul reports that two priests of the Hungarian Reformed Church in Rumania are charged by the Rumanian authorities with issuing false certificates of baptism to seventy-four Jews in order to make it possible for them to enter Hungary, since only baptized persons are admitted. They are also charged with falsifying church registers in the cities of Galati, Braila, Plocsti and Busteni which were in their charge. One of the priests is reported to have escaped to Hungary, and the Rumanian paper states that his extradition is being demanded by the Rumanian Government. Baptized Jews are permitted to enter the Transylvanian section of Hungary which for merely belonged to Rumania. They are, however, prohibited to go from there into pre-war Hungarian territory.
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.
