The exact manner in which the Jews of Poland are slowly but surely being ousted from the economic life of the nation through a considered government policy was portrayed here today by former deputy Apolinaris M. Hartglas, who delivered the principal speech before the convention of the Polish Zionist Federation.
Hartglas enumerated in great detail the various branches of economic life from which the Jews were being forced and recalled the recent speech made by Premier Leon Kozlowski, in which he painted a gloomy future for Polish Jews and proclaimed that the government would fight against the middlemen (mostly Jews) and support consumer cooperatives. He also dealt with the amended industrial law, soon to go into effect and which, according to Hartglas, would completely ruin Polish Jewish artisans.
The speaker summarized the situation by saying that “in view of the government’s anti-Jewish policy, 2,999,999 of the 3,000,000 Polish Jewish are unnecessary.”
Polish Jews, even those belonging to the government party, no longer have any influence, Hartglas said, adding that Polish Jewish leaders have ceased to make demands upon the government, knowing beforehand the futility of action.
A HOUSE DIVIDED
“The Jews of Poland have ceased to believe in their own powers. Polish parliamentary Jewish life is paralyzed and the Jewish parties in Poland now constitute a house divided among itself,” Hartglas said.
As an example of the tragic Jewish division, Hartglas cited the fact that even when faced with economic extinction, “the Jews cannot agree upon the formation of a united Jewish national council.”
Referring to the attitude of the Polish government during the period when the Nara anti-Semites were carrying out widespread attacks on the Jews, Hartglas declared “no one could have foretold how far those riots would have spread if Minister of the Interior Bronislaw Pieracki had not
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.
