For the first time since the death of Stalin, the Soviet press admitted this week-end that anti-Semitism had been practiced in the Soviet Union during the post-war period when many Jewish intellectuals were annihilated and the entire Jewish cultural life was liquidated.
Reports from Moscow quote Voprosi Istorri, leading Soviet organ, as declaring that “serious errors in the leadership of the party” have been made during the post-war period with regard to national minorities. The journal recalls Lenin’s rejection of anti-Semitism and says that his views were “misinterpreted” in the country today.
A report from Prague to the New York Times says that Czechoslovakian Premier Viliam Siroky declared this week-end that “certain manifestations of anti-Semitism” had been incorrectly introduced into the trial of Rudolf Slansky in November, 1952. He said that the prosecutor “had erred” in bringing out that most of the defendants were Jewish and added that there was still a difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.
The Czechoslovak Premier revealed that Mordecai Oren, an Israeli who was tried secretly and sentenced to 15 years in prison, recently asked for a pardon and that his case was being reviewed, Slansky, the former Secretary General of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, was executed with 13 others after a trial in which he was found guilty of having engaged in a “Zionist conspiracy” against the Czechoslovak Government.
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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.
