At least 70,000 Jews, representing half of the Jewish population of Bohemia-Moravia, must emigrate from the “Protectorate” within a year, under an order from the Gestapo to the Jewish Community Emigration Office, according to reports from Prague today. Hundreds of Jews lined up yesterday in front of the Jewish Town Hall in Maisel Street to apply for emigration permits.
According to figures just published by the Government’s Statistical Office, 24,131 individuals, including 20,684 Jews emigrated between October, 1938, and July 1, 1939.
Three emigration departments will be opened simultaneously by the Prague Jewish Community, as follows; (1) dealing with emigration to all countries except Palestine, (2) emigration to Palestine, directed by the Palestine Office of the Zionist Organization, and (3) dealing with emigration of persons not belonging to the Kultusgemeinde such as converted Jews and freethinkers. The community is also taking over the functions of the HIAS-ICA Emigration Association, which has been officially dissolved in the “Protectorate.”
After a visit to Vienna by Dr. Franz Weidmann, general secretary of the Prague community, contact has been established between the Prague and Vienna Jewish emigration offices. It is hoped that common emigration plans will be devised and carried out. A representative of the Vienna emigration office is expected in Prague.
Meanwhile, the German and Czech Fascist press demanded the dismissal of Laufer an “honorary Aryan” who a few weeks ago was appointed as an announcer for the Czech broadcasting system because of his “special merits for Czech culture.”
Police in Pilsen ordered display of signs, “Jewish Enterprise,” in the German and Czech languages in all Jewish shops. In Prague, the German sponsored “Czech Aryan Union” ordered police to furnish Jewish firms with placards pointing out their “non-Aryan” owner ship. Police were also requested to keep Jews out of all “Aryan” restaurants, cafes and public baths.
Spas and other health resorts in the “Protectorate” and in Sudetenland are facing economic ruin. The Marienbad spa management applied for a second time to the Nazi district leader for modification of the regulations regarding Jewish visitors.
It was officially announced that six Jewish communities in Sudetenland, including Leitmeritz and Komotau, and also about 50 synagogues, Jewish women’s organizations, charitable groups, Zionist associations, Jewish schools and burial societies had dissolved.
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.
