Chaim Moise Arbez, 72-year-old Rabbi of Bychawek in Eastern Poland, has been condemned to death by a German military court on the charge that he was leading a band of anti-Nazi saboteurs, it was learned today by Polish circles here.
The venerable rabbi, according to the reports received by the Polish sources, was found guilty of organizing resistance to the German authorities and of possessing fire arms in violation of a Nazi regulation that all arms he surrendered. Gestapo agents testifying at the trial stated that “Rabbi Arbez was the leader of a group of Jewish and Polish workers who went about the countryside burning haystacks and killing cattle requisitioned by the Germans.”
The Rabbi was captured last Saturday in a forest where the Nazis said he was hiding with ten Jews and six Poles. Two of these were also taken, but most of the group escaped. At the court proceedings the Nazi prosecution officials produced a long list of acts of sabotage which they ascribed to the Rabbi and his followers. Called upon to testify, the aged leader would neither admit nor deny the Nazi allegations. All efforts to make him speak were unavailing. Among the Rabbi’s companions who succeeded in eluding capture was his son-in-law, who is also an orthodox Jew.
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.
