Search JTA's historical archive dating back to 1923

Sternists Threaten Leaders of Eastern Europe with Terror for Anti-zionist Measures

July 7, 1949
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
Advertisement

A sensational report claiming that the Stern Group has established headquarters “somewhere in Italy” and on June 22 sent from there a letter to leaders in Soviet-dominated countries threatening them with terror in reprisal for anti-Zionist activities and for the stoppage of Jewish migration to Israel is published in the current issue of the United Nations World.

The report says that the executive action committee of the Sternists threatened in its letter “to parachute 200 trigger men into Eastern European countries with orders to assassinate: 1. Communist officials responsible for the stoppage of Jewish emigration; 2. Communist propagandists responsible for the revived anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in the Communist areas; 3. Collaborationist Jews who support the new anti-Jewish moves; 4. Top leaders in Hungary, Rumania, Poland and even within the U.S.S.R., should preliminary killings not reverse present policy.”

“The Sternists,” the United Nations World reports, “moved with such speed that next day one man on the new Sternist blacklist received a warning letter. He was Vice-Premier Erno Gero of Hungary, himself a Jews.” The report points out that the shift of the Sternist headquarters to Europe has apparently been decided upon not only “to avoid compromising the Israeli Government, but also to escape its efficient secret police.”

Commenting on the report, the publication says: “The introduction of open anti-government terrorism into Eastern Europe marks a development the potentials of which are difficult to exaggerate. The first Sternist killing can precipitate a chain reaction of assassinations by anti-Communists hitherto intimidated into inactivity. It can also result in a government terror in which strangers, Jews, suspects of all sorts, would suffer; and possible mass retaliation in the form of pogroms.”

Recommended from JTA

Advertisement