Following a visit by a delegation of Slovak Jews, who protested against the anti-Semitic incidents which have occurred in the past few days in Bratislava and other Slovak cities, the Ministry of the Interior announced today that it is sending a commission to Slovakia to probe the disturbances. The police are also sending investigators.
Although reports from Bratislava say that the situation there has quieted, sporadic outbreaks of anti-Semitic violence are reported from provincial cities. At Cadca, for example, two hand grenades were thrown into a Jewish inn. At Kosice violent anti-Jewish propaganda is being circulated and new outbreaks are feared.
Both Joseph Lettrich, Democrat, and Karol Smidke, Communist, co-chairman of the Slovak National Council, the semi-autonomous Slovak parliament, have condemned the disturbances. The latter said that although it was regrettable that some incidents had occurred in Bratislava, the anti-Semitic forces had not succeeded in organizing a mass movement. He charged that the so called “partisans” who attacked Jews had never been partisans, but were masquerading as such.
Questioned by a JTA correspondent concerning the legislation providing for restitution of confiscated Jewish property, Smidke said that the law was fairly satisfactory, but added that it was not being implemented properly and that specific orders concerning the carrying out of the intent of the measure are necessary.
Jewish spokesmen say that a contributory factor to the attacks on Jews is the fact that the persons responsible for the pogrom at Topolcany, Slovakia, last year have never been punished, and also the agitation of the Bratislava Democratic party newspaper.
The paper recently glorified Anton Vasek, who was executed last week for having doomed 50,000 Jews while he was Commissioner for Jewish Affairs in the Nazi Slovak puppet government. The Jewish leaders also point to the fact that only five persons have been arrested as a result of the outbreaks here.
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.
