The Polish Labor Party, recently founded by Ignace Paderewski and headed by General Josef Haller, today adopted a resolution demanding “diplomatic, social and administrative action to eliminate Jewish influence” in Poland. The resolution demands transfer of economic positions from Jews to Poles and organization of planned mass emigration of Jews with the help of the Government. It rejects violence and racialism, declaring Jews who have proved their attachment to Poland should enjoy full citizenship rights.
At the same time, legal, medical and army groups, acting separately, took steps aimed against participation of Jews in their respective fields.
The Central Lawyers’ Council recommended to the Government that no more lawyers be admitted to practice for a period of five years. A national conference of the Young Lawyers Association, meeting at Poznan, adopted the “Aryan paragraph” excluding Jews from membership. In another resolution, the conference demanded that the authorities strike from the rolls sufficient Jewish lawyers to bring their total in conformity with the Jewish percentage of the population, asserting that a bar on new candidates was not sufficient.
At Katowice, a national convention of the Young Physicians’ Association passed a resolution calling for a numerus nullus against Jews in universities and a ban on Jewish physicians in non-Jewish hospitals.
A national conference of the Army Reserve Officers’ Union, meeting at Lwow, adopted a resolution demanding exclusion of Jews from the army. Street demonstrations by nationalists, demanding purge of Jews from the Polish army, marked the convention.
Many Jews were beaten up and windows of Jewish homes smashed by gangsters in Gurakalvara, seat of the Gerer Rebbe, noted Chassidic spiritual leader.
The government’s reactionary policy on Jews was strongly protested in a resolution adopted by the Council of Jewish Trade Unions, urging the Jewish masses to oppose energetically attempts to deprive them of political rights, and reduce them to the status of second class citizens and jobless pariahs. The resolution appeals to Polish workers and peasants to join the fight against fascism.
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.
