A reliable report reaching here today from Poland reveals that the Polish Government is gravely concerned over the continued attacks on Jews by bands of former soldiers hostile to the present regime, especially since the widespread terror is beginning to affect Polish peasants and workers.
Well-armed with automatic rifles and artillery discarded by the Germans when they retreated from Poland, the terrorists are reported to have killed hundreds of Poles in attacks on villages and small towns. However, the Jews remain their chief targets.
“A pogrom atmosphere,” the report says, “hangs over Poland. These bandits carry out wholesale pogroms on Jews, particularly in the smaller villages where few Jews reside. In many such villages not a single Jew was left alive. The Jews often receive orders to leave the district, where they are residing immediately, under threat of death. Although in the larger towns the Jews are more secure, they are nevertheless in danger because the situation has gotten out of hand.”
The Polish authorities are certain that the terrorist bands receive encouragenert and aid from outside Poland, otherwise, they say, they could have been stamped out leng ago. The Government is taking strong measures with the help of the police, army and many Jews who have organized into partisan detachments to hunt down the terrorists. All political parties have joined in an appeal to the population to give no aid to the bandits and to help the autherities uncover their hideouts, which are usually in forests near where they operate.
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.
