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Mass Expulsions Most Tragic Aspect of Nazi Terror, Szoszkes Holds

December 26, 1939
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Poles are suffering together with Jews from Nazi persecution in German-occupied Poland, it was declared today by Dr. Henry Szoszkes, former vice-president of the Warsaw Jewish Community, who arrived here on the Conte di Savoia on Saturday one of the first Jewish leaders to leave Poland after the German invasion and reach the United States.

“The worst thing I witnessed in Poland,” Dr. Szoszkes said in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, “was not the bombardment of Warsaw, although that was horrible at least 10,000 Jews were killed but the expulsion of Jews from towns to wander they knew not where; the Jews who left their homes in the morning and were afraid to return, fearing that the Nazis would be there.

“There can be nothing worse than to be cast out of your town and told to wander where your eyes lead. And this was not the fate of Jews alone. Thousands of Poles were also expelled from their towns and villages, especially in Pomerania and Poznan.” He exhibited a yellow armband which Jews in Lodz are forced to wear.

The Warsaw Jewish leader intends to remain in the United States several months before proceeding to Palestine, where he has been named a consul by the exiled Polish Government.

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