Twenty “Jews and Communists” who were taken as hostages by the Nazi military administration in Paris this week were executed yesterday in reprisal for the death of a German soldier last Sunday, according to a Berlin radio announcement heard in London today. Twenty more hostages will be executed if the assassin of the German soldier is not delivered to the military command in Paris by March 16.
Figures purporting to describe the Jewish “invasion” of France were given last night in a broadcast on the Nazi-controlled French wireless. In 1789 there were 500 Jews in Paris, the broadcast claimed. In 1800 the number was 4,000. It grew to 10,000 in 1830; to 18,000 in 1848; to 30,000 in 1870; to 50,000 in 1914; and to 400,000 in 1936. “It is therefore no more a question of sentiment for Frenchmen,” the speaker claimed, “but defense against invasion.”
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