Hundreds of Jews are dying daily from exposure and lack of food in the Lublin Jewish “reservation” set up by the Nazis in Poland, it was reported today by a Polish army officer who had made his way through the area and arrived in Budapest.
The officer, in an interview with the Budapest correspondent of the London Jewish Chronicle, declared that conditions in the region were beyond description, with thousands of Jews herded together almost without any food and exposed to severe cold.
The officer related that in one case, the Nazi guards, after robbing their victims of all their valuables, took several hundreds in boats to the middle of the river and suddenly ordered, “All Jews out!” They forced women and children at bayonet point to jump into the icy waters of the river. Most were drowned and those trying to swim to shore were shot. The guards, the officer said, mocked the victims as they struggled in the water.
Newspapers here reported today that Jews in the Nazi-held Polish province of Kalisch had been threatened with the death penalty if they violated a curfew forbidding them to leave their houses between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m.
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.
