Search JTA's historical archive dating back to 1923

Polish Senate Leaders Demand Emigration of Jews, Holding Situation Hopeless

February 21, 1936
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
Advertisement

Two Senate leaders created a stir in Parliament circles today by openly demanding mass emigration of Jews from Poland, declaring that there are no prospects for amelioration of their plight.

The implied warning that Nazi anti-Semitism might be emulated in Poland to obtain additional Palestine immigration certificates was voiced by Prince Janusz Radziwill, president of National-Conservative bloc and former head of the State Department.

He joined Senator Michal Wostworowski in demanding before the Senate Budget Committee that the Government approach American and British organizations for aid in expatriating Polish Jews.

They asked the Government to undertake diplomatic negotiations with Great Britain, Mandatory Power in Palestine, for an increased allotment of immigration certificates.

Count Wostworowski declared that perhaps another territory for settling Jews could be found which was “less dependent on the caprices of English politics.”

He stated: “It is necessary to solve the Jewish problem according to Isaac Gruenbaum, who has said that Poland has a million Jews too many.” (Gruenbaum is head of the labor department of the Jewish Agency for Palestine’s Executive.)

Condemning anti-Semitic excesses, he asserted that there are no prospects for amelioration of the Jews’ plight because “the economic development of Poland tends toward the ousting of Jews from employment.”

Supporting his stand, Prince Radziwill asked the Polish Government to seek Palestine certificates from England and added:

“If Germany has by anti-Semitism obtained a high quota of certificates, the Polish anti-Semites might wish to follow Germany’s example.”

The statements before the budget committee climaxed rumors that Poland was considering emigration of Jews. Berlin reports quoted Reichsfuehrer Hitler’s Voelkischer Beobachter as stating that Polish Government circles “are occupied in studying the question of how to settle Polish Jews in overseas colonial territories with an eye to growing racial differences between the Government and its more than 3,000,000 Jews.”

Recommended from JTA

Advertisement