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Czech Population Anxious over Deportation of 40,000 Jews from Prague

October 31, 1941
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The mass-deportation of Jews from Prague and other cities in the Czech Protectorate is provoking considerable anxiety among the Czech non-Jewish population who fear they too will soon be deported the Nazis to occupied Poland, it is reliably reported here today.

The report is substantiated by an article in the pro-Nazi newspaper “Posledni List,” reaching here today from Prague. The article states that the non-Jewish population in the Protectorate considers the deportation of the Jews as only the fore-runner for a wholesale ousting of Czechs, especially since the Nazi press has recently warned non-Jews that they too will be deported should they fall under suspicion of sympathizing with Jews.

Attributing the fear among the Czechs to “a Jewish whispering campaign,” the Posledni List publishes a doubtful assurance which aims at allaying their fears but which actually gives the Czechs more reason for worrying. “Only Jews and philo-Semites will be ordered to leave the Protectorate, but not the people fulfilling their duties in the belief in a happy Czech future within the framework of the existing political conditions,” the article explains.

The Prager Abend, a daily evening paper which reached here today from Prague, reports that the deportation of Jews from Prague and Moravska-Ostrava “is making great progress.” German newspapers reaching here today from Berlin report that over 40,000 more Jews will be deported from Prague to Poland and Nazi-occupied sections of Russia, in addition to those already transported. The total Jewish population in the Protectorate is estimated to be about 115,000, not including so-called part-Jews.

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