Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson was asked today to investigate why Michael Grazynski, anti-Semitic Polish ex-Governor of Upper Silesia, is being trained for post-war administration in liberated Europe at the War Department’s School of Military Government. The request came in a letter addressed to the Secretary of War by Congressman Emanuel Celler. It reads:
“I am informed that Michael Grazynski who holds the rank of major in the Polish Army is enrolled at the War Department’s School of Military Government at Charlottesville, Virginia on the recommendation of the Polish Government-in-Exile.
“I am further advised that Michael Grazynski’s record as Polish administrator of Upper Silesia revealed a most discriminatory attitude towards minority peoples, particularly the Jews, that he had expelled hundreds of Jews from a good part of Silesia and had committed many to concentration camps. It is further alleged that he instituted a boycott of Jewish concerns and levied unreasonable taxes against them in an effort to force them out of business, together with other Nazilike practices in the trentment of Jews.
“I do hope you can investigate these charges. It would be unseemly, to say the least, to have a person unable to meet the charges alleged against him to hold a position of power in our Government.
“In the light of daily pogroms and massacres in Nazi-controlled countries and the revulsion of feeling that exists against such blood-lust and against those who inflict tortures on Jews and other minority victims, it would be contrary to the dictates of common humanity to place your Department’s imprimatur of approval upon such a Pole who may have perpetrated cruelties upon the helpless similar to Nazi practices.
“I do beseech your earnest consideration to the end that you might have sifted the facts of these charges.”
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.
