Sweeping Anti-jewish Measures Loom As Czecho-slovakia Breaks Up

Proclamation of an independent Slovak State, with anti-Semitic Premier Josef Tiso again at the helm, today accelerated the exodus of Jews from the region as sweeping anti-Semitic measures were expected in the German-dominated state in the wake of the anti-Semitic violence that was one of the features of the five-day crisis.

Trains arriving in Praha from Bratislava were jammed with fleeing Jews and Czechs, according to reports reaching here. The refugees said that at the Bratislava station patrols of the Hlinka guards passed through the trains, inspecting the baggage of the travellers, forbidding them to leave with more than 400 crowns and confiscating gold and jewelry.

Many of the 80,000 Jews in Slovakia had begun to flee as early as last Friday, when the separatist outbreaks and accompanying attacks on Jewish shops and other property foreshadowed more serious anti-Semitic developments, but the convergence on Praha reached great proportions today as a secret session of the Diet in Bratislava proclaimed separation from the Central Praha Government.

The position of the Jews in Praha and the truncated hulk of the Republic was considered far from secure as it was reported that one of the demands served on Praha yesterday by Chancellor Adolf Hitler, in his second ultimatum, was for solution of the “Jewish question” in what remains of the state by introduction of the Nazi Nuremberg Laws.

That independent Slovakia would introduce legislation along the lines of the Nuremberg Laws was a foregone conclusion. Even before the current crisis commenced, the Bratislava provincial Government had been preparing anti-Jewish legislation and had been pressing Praha for nation-wide legislation. Free now of Praha’s influence, for whatever it counted in exercising a moderating influence, and completely under Hitler’s influence, Slovakia was expected to proceed with sweeping anti-Semitic measures.