In an attempt to counter the adverse impression created broad by its establishment of ghettos for Jews, the Hungarian Government today “explained” in a radio broadcast that “sending Jews back to ghettos is no punishment for Jews adhering to their traditions, because they have been used to living in ghettos.”
“The segregation of Jews in Hungary from the non-Jewish population will only guide back to orthodoxy those Jews who have forsaken their traditions,” the broadcast said. It reported that the transfer of Jews throughout Hungary into ghettos “is proceeding rapidly,” and added that the ghettos in the Budapest district are situated in areas “likely to be bombed.”
The Neue Zuricher Zeitung, a Swiss newspaper, today reports that while Jews have been deported from Budapest, the number of Jews in the city is constantly growing since thousands are fleeing from frontier districts to Budapest. At present Jews constitute probably more than fifty percent of the entire population of Budapest since non-Jews are leaving the city because of Allied air raids, the paper states. The Hungarian authorities are taking all measures to render contact between Jews and non-Jews impossible, it adds.
Other reports reaching here today from Hungary state that many leading non-Jewish businessmen are attempting to sell their enterprises while it is still possible to do so because they realize that Hungary will soon face an economic breakdown as a result of the hasty expulsion of Jews from trade and industry.
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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.
