Nazi authorities in the occupied Ukraine, in addition to slaughtering tens of thousands of Jews, are seeking to incite the Ukrainian population to anti-Jewish pogroms, according to reliable information released here today.
The information, which was brought to Moscow by Soviet partisans who managed to reach here from the Ukraine, reveals that the Nazi occupational authorities called a “convention” of Ukrainians in the city of Zhitomir at which Nazi officials delivered inciting anti-Jewish speeches and made declarations aimed at winning the confidence of the Ukrainian population. They were supported in their anti-Semitic addresses by anti-Soviet Ukrainians who were brought from Germany and Slovakia. The speeches, however, were coolly received by those who were forced to attend the “convention.”
A statement issued here last night by the Committee of Soviet Jewish Intellectuals, which was formed to help in the fight against the Nazis, charges the German military command with bordering about 58,000 Jews in the Minsk district, 25,000 Jews in the city of Odessa and many thousands of Jews in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The statement confirms reports carried some time ago by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to the effect that the entire Jewish population of more than 4,000 people in Estonia was killed by the Nazis. It emphasizes also the fact that tens of thousands of Jews were massacred by the Nazis in Kiev, Zhitomir and other occupied Ukrainian cities.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.