A document smuggled out of German-occupied Poland by a Polish refugee who escaped to the United States, turned over to the J.T.A. today, revealed that despite the German-Soviet pact the Nazis are spreading propaganda against Communism among the Poles under their rule, coupled with anti-Semitic propaganda.
The document is a 30-page pocket-size calendar of saints’ day for 1940 which, by cartoons and slogans on every page, preaches extirpation of the Jews and links them with Communists, Freemasons and the Polish Government-in-exile at Angers, France. According to the refugee who brought it here, many thousands of copies have been distributed free among Polish peasants and workmen.
The text is in German and Polish. The publisher gives a Warsaw address and signs with a Polish name, Josef Berdycki, but according to Poles here, the Polish is so bad as to indicate that it was prepared by someone unfamiliar with the language. It is characteristic of Gestapo agents in Poland, according to Poles here, that while they speak Polish fluently, their command of the written language is poor. The German used in the calendar is very simple. A publisher’s note states that it was issued “by permission,” meaning the permission of the Nazi authorities.
One of the cartoons shows three figures labeled “Freemason, Jew, Communist” clasping hands over a bag of gold and swearing to “make all mankind happy with blood and fire.” Another shows a Jew addressing a street crowd, with the Soviet hammer-and-sickle flag draped behind him, and is captioned: “The Social Democratic, Jewish, Communist inciters promise much but reality brings murder, hunger and want.”
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.
