The World Jewish Congress executive committee today telegraphed Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of Britain and Premier Edouard Daladier of France urging them not to consent to any solution of the Sudeten German crisis in Czechoslovakia that did not safeguard the rights of the Jews living in the area.
“It is our duty to inform you of the growing anxiety felt by millions of Jews before Germany’s attempt to acquire new territory inhabited by Jews or to hand them over to oppression by her partisans,” the message said. “World Jewry cannot forget the inhuman treatment inflicted on the Jews of Danzig, the Saar and Austria. The executive therefore beseeches you not to assent to a settlement which does not fully safeguard unforgettable Jewish rights and the fundamental principle of justice and humanity.”
It is learned that the Czechoslovakian delegation to the League of Nations has received Jewish leaders and has assured them that Praha will never consent to any step in the Sudeten area which may harm the Jewish minority.
The Swiss press supports a suggestion for solving the crisis by exchanging all Nazi Sudeten Germans for Jews and others who are willing to leave the Reich, the latter to be permitted by Germany to transfer to Czechoslovakia as much capital as Czechoslovakia will permit the Sudeten Germans to transfer to Germany. In this way, it is asserted, the Sudeten territory will be rid of the Nazis, while Jews from Germany will be able to populate this territory.
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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.