The Czecho-Slovakian ministry of education today began an investigation into the use of public school textbooks containing anti-Semitic marks. The probe was the result of protest on the part of Jewish leaders whose attention had been called to the volumes by Jewish parents.
One geography text generally used in the schools contains the following passage: “In Slovakia the Jews had a virtual monopoly of trade as well as of industry. The peasants, who were exploited as laborers, took to drink and could not free themselves from Jewish influence. There was virtually no Slovakian settlement in which the businesses and inns were not in the hands of Jews. The Jews were the richest element of the population in Slovakia. But with the overthrow of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy there came a change. The Slovaks freed themselves from the influence of the Magyars and Jews and again became masters of their glorious homeland”.
Another school book declares that “in Judaised Munkacz, Czechs were kept prisoners of war during the fifties.”
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.
