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Vilna Reported “judenrein”; Last 14,000 Jews “disappear” from Ghetto

September 16, 1942
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The city of Vilna, where Jews have been living since the 14th century, is now completely “judenrein,” according to a report published today in Die Nation, a Swiss publication.

The last 14,000 Jews who were permitted to remain in the Vilna ghetto – because the German considered them “useful elements” – after the Nazi massacre of 60,000 Jews there during the two-week pogrom which started on May 7 and ended on May 20 of this year, have been deported, the report says. The suspicion exists that they too were killed after being taken from the ghetto. Most of these 14,000 were doctors, engineers and highly-skilled artisans.

The Deutsche Zeitung, a Nazi paper which reached here today from the Baltic countries, reports that spotted typhus is now raging throughout the Vilna district. The situation is so serious that the Nazis have established delousing stations at ten-mile intervals. In addition physicians and nurses are being rushed to supervise compulsory disinfection of the clothing of every inhabitant.

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