Reports reaching Paris today told of an unabated anti-Jewish terror raging in Slovakia, marked by widespread attacks on Jews in streets and homes.
Bratislava, the capital, has been the scene of the most violent excesses, with Hlinka Guards mercilessly beating all Jews who dared appear in the streets. German residents in various localities, encouraged by the presence of Nazi storm troopers, have likewise been attacking Jews and pillaging their homes.
In the town of St. George, almost the entire male Jewish population was beaten and in other ways maltreated on streets and in homes. The Jews there were forced to demolish their synagogue with their own hands. A rabbi was compelled to soil and tear the holy Scrolls of the Law, after which his beard was cut off.
Scores of Jews in various cities are being forced to march through the streets on their knees. Others, as in Vienna after the Anschluss, are being compelled to scrub the sidewalks.
At Boessing, near Bratislava, the entire Jewish population fled after being subjected to unbearable terror. Many families were robbed of all their possessions.
At Pistany, about 30 Jews were put against a wall and forced to stand there for fifteen minutes, with Hlinka Guards holding rifles in readiness to shoot. Later, however, the Jews were taken into a nearby hall and, after cruel beatings, ordered home.
The entire Jewish population of Handlowa has fled. At Kismark there has been an epidemic of suicides resulting from the terror.
Although the Zionist Organization at Bratislava is still functioning, the Maccabi, Jewish sports organization, has been disbanded throughout the country. Bel Baer, leader of the Mizrachi Organization, religious Zionist group, has been under arrest for weeks on undisclosed charges.
The terror has been coupled with anti-Jewish economic measures. Commissars have been put into all Jewish enterprises which last year showed a turnover of 500,000 kronen. Thousands of Jewish employes have been dismissed under a decree cancelling collective agreements. Jewish doctors have been dismissed from all institutions and Jewish attorneys have been ousted from the bar associations.
Jews are frantically trying to emigrate, but none is permitted to take along valuables, money or furs. Even payment for railway tickets abroad requires a special permit from the authorities.
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.
