An agreement between the German and Soviet governments which would force approximately 150,000 Jews from Nazi-held territories into Soviet Russia was reported here today.
The report said the Nazis had reached an arrangement with the Soviet authorities by which all Jews born in the Baltic countries and in the Soviet-occupied Poland would return to their native places if they now reside in Nazi-held territory. The Soviet authorities, while agreeing to admit those Jews into Soviet-controlled land, however reserved the right to refuse admission Jews whom they consider as “capitalist elements.”
The Nazi-Soviet agreement is reported to contain a provision permitting the Jews to take along their household property when leaving Nazi-held territory for Soviet. They will, however, not be permitted to take with them any merchandise which may be in their possession. This merchandise is to remain in the hands of the Nazis in exchange for goods left by Germans repatriated from the Baltic countries to Germany.
The report added that while Jews from Soviet -held Galicia were being transported to Siberia for hard labor, the Soviet authorities in Lithuania had started transportation of declassed Lithuanian Jews to Biro-Bidjan.
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.
