Mass arrests and executions of Jews in Bohemia, together with an order of the Nazi Protector in Prague for dismissal of all Jewish employees from private enterprises in Bohemia-Moravia, were reported today via neutral countries.
The number of arrested Jews was given as “many hundreds” and the number of those executed in the last few days was estimated in the dozens.
The order to dismiss Jews from employment invalidates all labor contracts with Jewish employees and provides that no severance compensation be paid to those dismissed for being Jews.
The arrested Jews were said to be interned in concentration camps for exile to the Lublin “Jewish reservation” in Poland, where the number of Jews from Prague, Vienna and Danzig has risen from 22,000 to 45,000 in ten days.
Transported in cattle trains, the Jews are no longer delivered to the city of Lublin, which is overcrowded, but are ordered to leave the train many miles before the city and to reach Lublin on foot. They are given 24 hours to establish themselves in deserted and almost demolished towns and then are taken away by storm troopers to repair roads and drain marshes.
Males up to the age of 70 and women up to 55 are compelled to do the most difficult physical labor, many falling sick from exhaustion and starvation.
The French press devotes much space to describing the situation in Lublin, which is termed “something which the human mind cannot imagine.” The newspaper Le Journal advises the French Government to concentrate its fight against Hitler by increasing propaganda against the Nazi racial theory.
“Hitler’s downfall,” Le Journal prophesies, “will be due to his racialism. Therefore we must concentrate our entire propaganda on anti-racialism. In this way we shall soon have the majority of the world against him, especially the Moslem world.
“All human peoples which strive to a life of liberty are against Nazi racialism. England and France should proclaim slogans to ridicule Hitler’s racial theory as well as his basic theory. They will then be certain to win.”
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.
