Details of anti-Jewish terrorism throughout Poland were revealed today by George Backer, of New York, chairman of the board of directors, of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, after a survey of provinces in which anti-Semites are most active.
“My survey,” he declared, “reveals that anti-Semitism in Poland functions as an organized program, directed from the Sejm (Parliament), where anti-Jewish attacks are applauded, and ensures their authors popularity in the smallest village.
“Anti-Jewish propaganda is assuming the character of vicious incitement to physical attacks and is directed by paid agitators and an insistent assault is being made upon the Jewish position.”
Mr. Backer continued:
“In Poland today, the pro-Semite is defined as a person who does not endorse bloody pogroms. In the smaller towns the two bulwarks against physical violence are the older peasants and the church. These two forces insist upon ‘respectable’ anti-Semitism–use of the blockade and the boycott to drive the Jews from Poland. However, their influence and authority are being undermined rapidly.
“The police power of the Government is broken down almost completely in the smaller communities. The Government is either indifferent or criminally negligent. The Jewish position is desperate. The Government does not consider the following facts as sufficient evidence of the need of additional police protection in the smaller centers.
SITUATION 16 MILES FROM WARSAW
“Sixteen miles from Warsaw, capital of the Republic and centre of learning, culture and the humanities, lies the town of Karczev, inhabited by 2,000 families, of which 120 are Jewish. An evening visit to this town finds Jews barring their doors and windows and extinguishing their lights, for if a Jew should be seen at night his life is in danger.
“The anti-Jewish boycott in Karczev is completely effective and Jewish business, trades and occupations are gone. The financial state of the community can be judged from the fact that $40 enables a family to leave the town, yet not a single family is in a position to leave.
“That the fears of the Karczev Jewish community about physical attacks were fully justified is shown by the fact that twelve hours after our visit homes were plundered and Jews attacked.”
Mr. Backer asserted that “a more serious situation exists in the Radom and Czenstochow districts, where Jews live in constant and permanent fear of pogroms.”
“In Truskolas, a half hour from Czenstochow, the entire Jewish population has been undergoing an economic blockade for more than two months. Yet no Jews can leave the town because pickets are stationed at the roads to prevent Jews from communicating with other communities. Jews seen leaving the town are attacked.
“A group of six who dared to leave the town were attacked and three seriously injured. The local synagogue was bombed and partly demolished. A Jew summoned to court in a neighboring town as a witness was attacked by pickets and prevented from leaving the town.
“The Jews of Truskolas do not have any police protection whatsoever. Their appeal to Warsaw for a police station was rejected, the authorities demanding 2,000 zlotys before sending the police. The authorities similarly refused to install a telephone with which Jews could telephone for help. There is still no telephone in Truskolas.
“The boycott is proceeding vigorously, with no peasants permitted to enter Jewish shops and no Jews allowed to appear at market days. Every Jew of the town has been attacked at least ten times, the mobs not even having spared women and children. Cut off from the world, the Jewish population is having difficulty in obtaining food, and the position of the Jews there is most desperate.
“A similar situation exists in Pajenczna,” Mr. Backer continued, relating that Jews are attacked so often that they do not bother to replace windows smashed by anti-Semites.
“We are not people of the world,” they told the J.T.A. head. “We cannot tell the story of our lamentations. Pleas help us and tell others what you have seen and heard here.”
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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.
