THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE JEWS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 65, 3 April 1937, Page 11

THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE JEWS

SUFFERINGS IN POLAND Synagogues Stoned and Burned

^JPHE CAMPAIGN of terrorism to which Polish Jews have been subjected dnring the last seven or eight months has now assumed as alarming a character as the Nazi persecution itself, writes Israel Coben. - Jews whose only offence consists in being Jews are aSsailed with clubs, knitcs and pistols; their houses atid shops ars Taidcd and demolished. Their synagogcs are siohed and even bombed. Eecause of the outbreak of anti-. Semitie* savagery ftvhich lasted from the end of the war until the middle of 1929, the Allied Powers insisted on Poland signing a Minorities Treaty to safeguard the lives and rights Of her Jewish subjects, as well as those of other racial or natiopal minorities. Now that seventeen ycaTS have passed, it is depressing to recoTd that the Treaty has been hallowed more in the breach than in the obsorvance. The Jews7 fundamental grievance, for whieh they hold the Government largely responsible, consists in their dislressing and increasing impoverishment. They form only a tcnth of the total population, but they provide about twenty per cent. of Poland 7s ro* venne, for the urban population, ulthough only a fourth of the total of 32,000,000, furnish over half the revenue, and the Jews, who form a third of the urban population, are assess?.l at a rate higher than their Gentile r ■ neighbours. Jews have been drivcn out of the various Stato monopolies, such as tobacco, salt, and matchos. They are discriminated against in regard to tbo grant of conccssions and licenses. Asto employment, their Jewishness is thought to be a liability. Those who need exedit for business purposes are unable to obtain it, or are limited to a minute amouut from the two Government banks. Jews in industry are luindicappod by a law tbat rcquircs thcrn uot only to pass tlie approntice exammations to their trade but also examinaLioii in Polish history, literature uud 1 geography, and to travel to a partieuI lar place to do it. Crafbsmen of many - years7 standing are affeeted. J Training for manual vocations is ren-

dered difficult by official restrictions, Jews have been obliged to ostablish their own 34 technical sehools but reeeive only 1 per cent of the Government grant paid such institutions. The fund from whieh the * grants are allotted is largely derived from a supplementary tax paid by Jews in addition to their trade licenses. Jewish students are dlscriminated against at the Universities, especially in the medical and legal .professions, and large numbers of them are compelled to wander to other lands in search of higher education. ■ No Jewish teachers can obtain a post in a Polish school, and teachers7 sominaxies arc barred to them. In the Government 's administration there is haTdly a single Jew. Of the 10,000 Post Office banks in Poland which derive 60 per cent of their deposits from Jews, not one has a Jewish official. Jews cannot obtain employment in, or contracts from. the municipal serviCe. And 'thel* elected members of the Polish Parliament liave been reduqed from 36 to 5. 'The spread of .consumcrs7. eo-operat-Ive socielios has Tuihed thouaands of Jewish trad-espeoplo. And cnforcement of a recent law will mean that half of the 40,000 butchers slaughtering cattle by the Jewish ritual method will bo thrown out of employment. One-third of the Jewish population is on the verge of starvation. A third okes out a bare existence. The rest have only minimum comfort. About 150.000 families dcx>ond on the Jewish eouununal loan funds (mostly created by Jewish philantliropies in America and Great Britain). The am.on.nts granted lo individuals are no more than a few shillings but from half the

Jews in Warsaw to two-thirds of them in Vilna apply for them. Jews receive no unemployment benefit from the Government as the law does not apply to. the relief of the small axtisan and tradesman. The tremendous neod means that beggary is rampant. Suicide has spread among all classes. Tho younger generation are driven by dcspair rather than conviction to tho allurements of Communism. Against this . combre background of cumulative misery there is now raging the most violent campaign of brutal Jew-baiting. Mainly responsible are the two political parties, the Endeks (National Democrats), and the Naras (National Kadicals) who boast their determination to expel the Jews from Poland, These parties strike at the present Government to discredit it and to replace it. Marshal Pilsudski suppressed anti-Semitism vigorously to save Poland 's prestige abroad. But since his death the enemies of the Government have displayed increased audacity and a ruthlcssness that makos life for jews in Poland iinpossiblo. In-Vilua, a bomb was exploded under a synagogue. Several more have been bombed elseAvhere. In Grodno there ware repcated strcet assaults upou Jews from which three died. At Chotzow, eleven Jews were iseriously iujured in a theatre by hydrochloric acid thrown upon them. At Wongrow'cc riors culminated in tho bnrning of tho house of the nresident of the Jewish community. N'ear lCielee, anti-Jewish rio,s raged for two days, entailing police intarvmtion, and resulting iu the injury of forty Jews by looting pea-

sanls, nine of whom were kiiied Dy police rifles. In Bialystok a young Jew was beaten by the Endeks and had both his hands broken. The pogrom in March 1936, at Phzytik, where a caref ully planned assault was made on tho Jewish community resulted in the death of four Jows and the serious injury of over fifty. Twenty-two persons were arrosted, including five J ews accused of illegally organising their self-de-fencel At the trial of forty-thrce Poles, eighteen, ineluding those accused of murder, were acquitted, while the rest received prison sentences from six to twelve months. On the other hand; of the Jews, who were guilty of nothing worse than self-defence, three wero senteneed from five to eight years and eight to imprisonment from six to ten months. .Tho Government have certainly been aciive in their .attempts to suppress th© rci'gn of terr.or, but it is now So widasprcad as to haffle their ©fforts. The Endek party has .been xepeatedly dissolved in vaxious districts. Baids at its "Warsaw and Cracow officeS seized inflamatory literature and "even bombs. The Government members are fully conseious of the motives of the Jewbaiters, and the disgrace they bring on Poland. Within a foTtnight before and after the Przytik pogram, Raczldcwicz, Minister of the Interior, and Prince Radziwill deplored the Endek activities, and Count Eostworowski appealed particularly to tho Catholic clergy "to use their inlluence and authority and try to quell the wava of hatred and strife that ic sapping the life of the nation.77 It would be futile for the Jews to appeal to the League of Nations; Poland has repudiated its right to intervene. They can but hope that the Polish Government will summon suffieient courage to adopt still more rigorous measures to stamp out an evil that is degrading their countrv to the cultural level of that of their Nazi neighbours. And- the persistent gravity oi! their -positiou scrves to emphasize the necessity of widcning for them the portals of .the only' land where they have been offieially declared to be "as of right, and not on suff erance 7 7 — the land of the Jewish National Home.