Synagogues are being put to the torch almost every other day throughout the German protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, according to reliable private advices reaching here today from Prague.
The latest case occurred in Zabrek-on-Oder, in Moravia, where Nazi storm troopers broke into the synagogue late in the evening, poured petrol over the benches and the Ark of the Covenant, defiled the Holy Scrolls and threw them into the flames.
A similar procedure is being repeated throughout the protectorate, although official announcements afterward declare the cause of the fire unknown. Fire brigades that arrive well after the blaze is under way are under strict orders not to extinguish it but to confine their efforts to preventing its spread. Reinforced guards have been posted around Prague synagogues, where the services are ended before nightfall, even on Fridays.
The Czech Government, with the approval of Reichs Protector Baron Constantin von Neurath, has pensioned off Jewish army officers, forbidding them to participate in public life.
The Kladno Jewish Community, which has been ordered to pay most of the collective fine levied on the city for the slaying of a German policeman, comprises only 200 Jews, most of whom are poor.
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