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Jews in Hungary Driven to the Front to Defend Danube Positions Under Fire

December 7, 1944
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Jews in Hungary are now being sent to the front where they are used as “yellow-starred auxiliary units” to defend the Danube which the Russian armies are attempting to cross, it was reported today from Berlin.

The Voelkischer Beobachter, Hitler’s leading newspaper, was quoted in the report as stating that “yellow-starred Jewish auxiliary servicemen are continually crossing the Danube bridges in the front line towns.” At the same time the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter today reported that the situation of the Jews in Budapest is growing steadily worse and that the pro-Nazi Hungarian Government has already started to carry out its threats against Jews holding Swedish “protective passports” and was arresting some.

Another report reaching here today from Berlin says that the press there has announced that “the Jewish problem in the Hungarian capital will soon be solved.” Official newspapers of the Hungarian anti-Semitic Arrow Cross party reaching here today carry reports revealing the miserable conditions under which thousands of Hungarian Jews are interned.

One of the Arrow Corps newspapers describes a visit to a camp where “Jews who resisted on October 15 and 16” are being held. It alleges that everybody is satisfied, and the food is excellent, but then adds that “enough Jews to form two companies, including women, are living under the most unhealthy conditions. The smell from the camp is terrible. Christians could not live like that, only Jews.”

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