The Soviet Government, prior to executing Victor Alter and Henryk Erlich, the two Jewish labor leaders from Poland, negotiated with them to organize and lead the Jewish anti-Fascist Committee now in existence in Russia, it was disclosed today in a statement issued by Samuel Zygelboim, Jewish labor member of the Polish National Council.
The statement declares that after Alter and Erlich were released in September 1941, they were visited by a high Soviet official, Col. A. Wokowysky, who, in behalf of the Commissariat for Internal Affairs, assured them that their arrest had been a mistake. They were given rooms in a Moscow hotel and it was proposed that they organize, in Russia, a Jewish committee to fight Hitlerism which would have branches in other countries.
Alter and Erlich agreed to this proposal. It was arranged that Erlich should be the chairman of the committee, Alter the secretary and S. Michaels, the famous Russian-Jewish actor, the vice-chairman. The plan was approved by the Commissar for the Interior, L.P. Beria, who personally conferred with the two Polish-Jewish Socialist leaders, and was submitted for Stalin’s personal approval at the request of Alter and Erlich. While awaiting Stalin’s sanction, the two men were evacuated from Moscow to Kuibyshev on October 15, 1941 together with foreign diplomats and government offices. On December 4, while sitting with friends in the Grand Hotel in Kuibyshev, Alter was called to the telephone. He informed his friends that he and Erlich had been invited to come at once to the offices of the Commissariat for Internal Affairs. They left at 12:30 stating that they would return soon. They were never seen again.
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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.
