Thousands of Jewish aliens, including refugees and stateless persons, today besieged Government offices to register for national service, as provided under a recent decree permitting aliens to serve in the country’s defense. They received registration certificates, thus automatically becoming responsible to the War Ministry.
The majority of alien Jews who registered today were stateless persons between the ages of 20 and 50. Others were political refugees, between the ages of 20 and 30. All of them signed declarations obligating them to follow the same mobilization orders as Frenchmen.
Simultaneously, all Jewish immigration organizations issued a joint declaration pledging “to put all the moral and material means which they possess into service for their adopted homeland.”
The Association of Polish Jewish War Veterans in France made public a message sent to President Ignace Moscicki in Warsaw declaring: “We are ready to defend with our lives and property the integrity and honor of Poland.” The message emphasized that it had always been a tradition of the Polish Jews to offer their lives in Poland’s defense, “and this was particularly demonstrated by the active participation of Jewish youth in the Polish Legions and during the last war, which brought Poland’s resurrection.”
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.
