Two Jewish leaders, representing the Jews of Poland, Left today for Scotland to attend the polish court-martial of a group of Jewish soldiers charged with desertion for leaving the Polish Army because of anti-Semitism and seeking to join the British armed forces.
The two are Dr. Ignacy Schwarzbart, one of the Jewish members of the Polish National Council, and Anselm Reiss, a member of the Representation of Polish Jewry. Dr. Schwarzbart and Reiss recently issued an appeal to Jewish soldiers in the Polish Army asking them to remain in the Polish units even though they were being abused by anti-Semitic officers and soldiers.
Zionist leaders in England, today declared that the court martial is not justified since the Jewish soldiers did not desert from the fight against the Germans, but merely insisted on participation as members of British units rather than of Polish.
“We have heard nothing of a public trial being held of those persons in the Polish armed forces responsible for spreading Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda and for persecuting their Jewish fellow-soldiers who are certainly more loyal to the ideals of democracy than the Fascist-minded members of the anti-Semitic Endek Party,” the Zionist Review, official Zionist organ, says in an editorial today. The article urges the Polish authorities to seek a constructive solution of the complicated problem of anti-Semitism among members of the Polish armed forces rather than to stigmatise Jewish victims of this racial intolerance.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
