Emphasizing that it speaks for 500,000 organized American workers , the Jewish Labor Committee today cabled a strongly-worded protest to the Labor members of the Polish Cabinet in London, expressing resentment at the sentences imposed by a Polish court martial on Jewish soldiers who , because of anti-Semitism, were compelled to leave the Polish Army and seek admission into British units.
The protest said that the Jewish soldiers were not guilty of “desertion” as charged by the Polish authorities. “We well know of the heroism of the Jewish soldiers in the armies of all the United Nations, ” it states, “We are well acquainted with the self-sacrifice and bravery of the Jews in the Polish armed services, at the beginning of the war, as well as during the days of the radiant defense of Warsaw, we therefore, resent and categorically reject the slur upon the Jewish people, by saying that Jewish soldiers in the Polish Army have been guilty of ‘desertion’
“Though we are not fully acquainted with all details of the case at hand, our general knowledge of the situation leads us to believe that life of the Jews in the Polish Army had, because of the widespread anti-Semitism, become so intolerable and unbearable that the Jewish soldiers had no alternative but to seek a transfer from Polish Army to the armed services of another member of the United Nations, where they could continue their struggle as equals against our common enemy,” the protest continues, “We note, with deep concern, that the Polish soldiers and officers who had been guilty of anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic demonstrations in the camps have not yet been tried publicly, whereas, those who had resisted this mistreatment ,those who had refused to be subjected to anti-Semitism, have been condemned to imprisonment.
“Our organization has stood for an independent, free, and democratic Poland, in the postwar world , with all remnants of anti-Semitism, bigotry, and persecution of minorities, inherited from pre-war Poland, predicated forever. We have hoped for a Poland where the Jewish population could live peacefully on the basis of equality with their non-Jewish neighbors. The court martialing of the Jewish soldiers, however, points the opposite way. Jewish blood, toil, and tears have, it seems, not yet succeeded in stamping out anti-Semitism and those who are supposed to represent a democratic Polish rebirth have not yet drawn the proper lesson from past experience,” says the cable, which was signed by Adolph Held, David Dubinsky, and Joseph Baskin , chairman, treasurer and secretary, respectively, of the Jewish Labor Commitee.
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.
