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Ribbentrop Insisted on Deportation of All Jews from Pre-war Poland, Documents Show

December 7, 1945
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The Nazi Government twice demanded the expulsion of Jews from pre-war Poland as a condition for better relations between Germany and Poland, it was revealed today at the trial of top Nazi leaders here.

Extensive documentation on Polish-German relations produced today by the British prosecuting staff shows that in October 1938 the Polish Ambassador in Berlin, Josef Lipski, reported to his government that Johachim von Ribbentrop, then the Nazi Foreign Minister, who is one of the defendants, was insisting on the “emigration” of Jews from Poland as a basis for cooperation between Poland and Germany. This demand was repeated to Lipski in March, 1939, by Ribbentrop, who emphasized that “the Jews in Poland constitute a danger.”

Another document read at the trial today, was a report sent by British Ambassador Kennard to the Foreign Office in London, towards the end of August, 1939, shortly before the outbreak of the war. The British ambassador said in a report on the Nazi attitude that “German treatment of Czech Jews is apparently a neglibible factor as compared with the alleged sufferings of Germans in Poland.” Exactly a fortnight later, Ribbentrop ordered a rebellion of Ukrainians in Poland with instructions “to kill all Jews.”

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