Refugees from Nazi Poland today confirmed reports that German troops had raped Jewish women in various parts of the occupied territory. The refugees cited specific instances that occurred in Brest-Litovsk during the six days that city, now in Russian hands, was occupied by the Nazi forces, and in the town of Wengrow.
The Nazis held Brest-Litovsk from Sept. 14 to 20. One evening shortly before curfew, 20 women were taken from the streets and brought to the railway station, where they were placed on an ambulance train. The women returned to their homes after midnight in an “indescribable condition,” the refugees said. Since the victims were members of well-known Brest-Litovsk families, the refugees refused to reveal their identity.
Among the victims in Wengrow, they reported, was a Jewish woman physician who was taken from a hospital while she was on duty.
Earlier reports reaching here had stated that Nazi troops were seizing Jewish women in the streets of Polish cities and taking them to military camps for lewd purposes. The military authorities of Lodz were reported to have ordered the Jewish Community there to supply 100 women for the troops, and to have seized them at random on the streets when the command was disregarded.
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.
