The communique issued by the Cabinet with regard to the occurrence in Soroca is in many respects in gross contradiction to the findings made on the spot, Deputy Michael Landau declared to representatives of the Bucharest press to-day.
The communique, he said, speaks only of one frontier guard, in association with the smuggler Mihalas. Actually there was one soldier and one assistant. The report makes no mention of the definite statements of the peasant Rusu, that frontier guards had revealed to him that they had been ordered to find Jews to shoot. The statement that the victims were observed by an advanced section of the frontier guard is untrue. The fact is that one of the frontier guards actually brought them out of the house of the smuggler Mihalas. He led them to the banks of the Dniester, and there they found the execution party ranged and waiting for them. The execution party did not consist only of soldiers, but also included officers, who, too, fired shots. The report ignores the important fact that the autopsy discovered dum-dum bullets in the bodies. It is also deplorable to find the official report claiming that the victims were shot only in the back and the sides, while the truth is that the victims have many wounds in front.
The report suggests that the victims were taking important information across the frontier, Deputy Landau went on. Where has this information been obtained? Probably from the same source which discovered that Zelda Pferdmann was a teacher in the Jewish High School in Soroca. This statement is quite untrue. Zelda was for five years a teacher at the State school in Bricevo, in the district of Soroca. For several years past she had been unemployed. There is no ground whatever for bringing the Jewish High School in Soroca into the affair. An attempt to bring this Jewish High School into disrepute has been made once before, but the investigation which followed made it clear that the Jewish High Schools are a powerful bulwark against the spreading of Communism among the youth.
All this goes to show, Deputy Landau concluded, that the Government has not kept its word that the bloodshed of Soroca would be thoroughly probed. Naturally, no man with any sense of justice will refuse to accept this Government communique. I declare solemnly that I shall continue to fight in order to enlighten public opinion with regard to the occurrences in Soroca, so that the idea should not prevail that the Jewish population there is outside the law and defenceless against all injustice. I shall not nest until the truth is made clear.
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.
