A new method of Nazi mass-slaughter of Jews, by driving them into tank traps and machine-gunning them there, was reported here today at a press conference on the basis of information coming from occupied Poland through underground channels.
More than 6,000 Jews were executed by this method in the town of Czyzew alone, Dr. Ignacy Schwartzbart, Jewish member of the Polish National Council, reported at the conference. Thousands of Jews were massacred in the town of Wlodzimierz, he stated. They were buried in a collective grave one mile long. More than 300 Jews were executed in Janow, while in the city of Kobryn, near Brest-Litovsk, all Jews were driven out of their homes and the entire Jewish district was set on fire by the Nazis. “Only immediate reprisals can deter Hitler from carrying on his criminal actions,” Dr. Schwartzbart said.
An appeal to English newspapermen “to end the conspiracy of silence” which prevails in the general press with regard to Jewish sufferings in Nazi-held territories was made at the press conference by Samuel Silverman, Laborite member of the British Parliament. The Jewish casualties in this war already exceed the casualties of any other nation in Western Europe, he pointed out. One can easily imagine what would happen to the Jews in Palestine in case of a German breakthrough, he said, emphasizing the necessity of arming all Palestine Jews.
It was estimated by speakers at the conference, which was arranged by the World Jewish Congress, that a million Jews have been executed or starved to death by the Nazis in occupied countries since the outbreak of the war. Of these, 700,000 were killed in Poland and Lithuania, 200,000 in the occupied part of Russia and the remainder in other Nazi-held lands.
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.
