- PfircTay, Marc1 T7, 19114
Soviet Press Reports Nazi
Murder of Krasnotav Jews
'Jewish Tailor Was Hidden in Cellar for Two Years Under
German Occupation; -Sweeping Gestapo Measures
Expected in France
MOSCOW, (JTA)—The methodical extermination of the entire
Jewish population of the city of Krasnotav, in the Ukraine, by
German occupation troops is reported this week by the Soviet
press in a dispatch from a front correspondent based on affidavits
given him by four non-Jewish eye-witnesses of the massacres.
Immediately after the Germans seized Krasnotav in August,
1941, 47 Jewish men were taken to the woods on the pretext that
they were to be used for forced labor. When they reached a spot
near the village of Senigov, however, they were all shot. A week
later a German punitive detachment came to Krasnotav, rounded
up several hundred men; women and children and loaded them into
trucks which took them to the woods near the village of Guta.
There two large pits were already waiting, and 735 Jews were
. machinegunned and dumped into the mass graves. Many persons
who were wounded, but still alive, were buried there. Th prop-
erty of the massacred Jews was looted by the German soldiers. -
From time to time during the subsequent six months Nazi
detachments raided the village to massacre any remaining Jews
who had found shelter in the homes of non-Jewish friends. In
March, .1942, these raids were climaxed by the visit of the region-
al commandant of the German police, under whose supervision
175 Jews were captured and tortured. Survivors were driven half-
naked to a camp at Berezov, from where they were taken a short
time afterwards to the notorious Slavuta Camp, where thousands
of Russian war prisoners had been tortured to death. None of the
- Jews ever left Slavuta. Eventually, all of them were shot and
their bodies buried near a water tower in the village of Slavuta
proper.
Jewish Tailor Hidden in Cellar for Two Years
Red Star, the Russian army newspaper, this week published
a story of an old Jewish tailor who lived in a cellar for nearly two
and a half years until the Russian forces ended the German occu-
pation of his village.
The place was Vasilyevka, in the Korovograd region, and the
tailor, Isai Konstantini•itch, was kept alive in his hiding place
by an elderly neighbor who risked her life to bring him food. His
hands and feet were swollen, and his fingers twisted with rheuma-
tism when he was brought out; his eyes were conditioned to dark-
ness, and shunned light. "If he had been discovered, he and his
protectress would have been put to death under the German anti-
Jewish policy," the paper pointed out.
sweeping Gestapo Measures in France
ZURICH, (JTA)—Sweeping measures against Jews in all parts
of France are predicted in the Swiss press in connection with in-
lormation reaching here from Paris that the Gestapo has completed
a compilation of lists of all Jews born in France.
This week a French news agency reported that the Vichy Gov-
ernment has officially asked the German authorities in France for
copies of these lists.
Underground in Poland Gets JTA News
LONDON, (JTA)—The Jewish Telegraphic Agency news ser-
vice is now reaching Jews in occupied Poland through the Jewish
underground movement, it was revealed here by the Polish Gov-
ernment-in-Exile.
The Polish Government this week reported that the German
administration has decided to start liquidating the Lodz ghetto
which is the last one remaining. in ,Poland. There are about 150,-
000 Jews in Lodz at present, most of them skilled workers brought
from various Nazi-held countries to work for German war indus-
tries. The report ,of the Polish Government confirms that not a
single Jew has been left by the Germans in the city of Lwow.
?HP UEWIS151 NEWS
Page Three
Weekly Review of the News of the World
(Complied From Cables of Independent Jewish Press. Service)
AMERICA
The War Department is prevented by inter-
national law from stopping publication of the
Nazi propaganda paper, Der Spiegel, by Ger-
mans interned at the prisoner of war,. camp
at Trinidad, Colo., according to Lieut. Col.
Jesse Marshall, district commander of the In-
ternal Security division.
The issues as to whether the committee
should extend its services to the defense of
the civil rights of native fascists has caused
a split in the Civil Liberties Committee in
Chicago. Dr. John A. Lapp, prominent Catholic
leader, resigned from the Committee because
of his objections to the defense of native fas-
cists.
The trial of the 30 native faScists and Jew-
baiters under Federal indictment for sedition
was seen here as the American link to the
world guilt trials already begun in Russia
several months ago. The defendants include
Lawrence Dennis, Joe "Handsome" McWil-
liams, Rev. Gerald P. Winrod and others
actively..engaged in native fascist activities
over a period of years.
Herbert H. Lehman, director of the United
Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administra-
tion, will soon leave for Cairo in connection
with the work of the UNRRA. He will also
stop in London.
PALESTINE
Ruhi Bey Abdul Hadi, assistant secretary of
the Palestine government, is shortly to be ap-
pointed District Commissioner of Gaza, the first
Arab to hold the post of District Commissioner
under the British Administration, it is reported
by the Arab press. In 1937, he was expelled
from the country bec
ause of Iris connections
with the terrorist activities. Fakhari Abdul
Hadi, a cousin, was a leader of a terrorist band
during the 1936-39 riots and a lieutenant of
Fauzi el Kawkagi, who was known . as the
"Commander in Chief" of the terrorists.
Eleven groups of Palestine Jewish soldiers
have -already been formed with a view toward
setting up agricultural settlements after they
have been demobilized at the termination of
the war, the Vaad Leumi, Jewish Palestine's
National Council, announced.
Haiafa was jubilant at the launching of the
first steel fishing vessel made by Jewish Pales-
tine. The vessel, 250 tons, was built by Nach-
shon, maritime corporation of the Histadruth,
General Jewish Federation of Labor.
One hundred and sixty Rumanian Jewish
refugees arrived in Palestine from Cyprus.
They had been in Cyprus half a year, arriving
there from Turkey which they had reached in
small boats from Rumania.
A loan of £5,000,000 ($20,000,000) has been
offered to the city of Tel Aviv for its postwar
development projects by the Anglo-Palestine
Bank, Barclays Bank and several international
insurance companies. This was announced by
Mayor Israel Rokach during a debate on the
1944-45 budget at a meeting of the Tel Aviv
Municipal Council. The proposed budget totals
£1,250,000 ($5,000,000):
The sternest condemnation of the attack on
Douglas Maynard, a British constable, on the
streets of Tel Aviv, was voiced at the session
of the Tel Aviv Municipal Council.
Four thousand dunams of artificial ponds
are maintained in 26 Keren Hayesod labor
villages for the purpose of fish-breeding, ac-
cording to a report to the conference of fish-
breeders held in Haifa. The delegates pointed
out that thousands of dunams unfit for cultiva-
tion were utilized for this purpose.
Eighteen tractors, of which nine are tracked
and another nine on wheels, have so far arrived
in Palestine for use in its agricultural sectors
under the United States Lend-Lease arrange-
ment. Altogether about 100 tractors will be
received in Palestine during the first half of
this year. The newly arrived tractors were
distributed to Arabs and Jews.
OVERSEAS
Gestapo plans for a total roundup of all
native French Jews for purposes of deportation
to forced labor camps and extermination cen.
ters in Eastern Europe have been frustrated,
insofar as the Jews in Paris are concerned, by
the Nazi underground there, it has• been learned
M French circles in London. The Gestapo had
ordered the Vichy government to submit a
full list of French Jews and had, on its own,
padlocked all population records of the pro-
vincial municipalities.
All Hungarian Jews between the ages of 16
and 60 will be placed `.!at the disposal of the
Hungarian government" by official decree, ac-
cording to reports reaching Ankara.
Report has reached Ankara of the death of
Dr. Julio Fisher, Chief Rabbi of the Orthodox
Jewish community in Budapest, Hungarian
capitol. He had requested just before his death
that "in view of the difficult times' his funeral
be a simple one, without a procession and
"hespeidim" (funeral orations.)
W•ODWARD AT STATE
British Palestine Decision
Is Not to be -Expected Soon
Statement Made in London by Dr. Nahum Goldmann;
Jewish Agency Prepares I2-Point Memorandum
to Be Presented to British Government
LONDON, (JTA)—The British Government is not likely to
make any decisions on the Palestine question shortly, although re-
sponsible British circles are becoming convinced that the present
state of affairs cannot continue and that a fundamental solution
must be found, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, head of the Washington of-
fice of the Jewish Agency, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
prior to returning to the United States.
The postponement of action on the Palestine resolution by the
Congressional committees in Washington is no major political blow
to the Zionist demands, Dr. Goldmann said. In their consultations
in London, the Zionist leaders have achieved unity with regard to
`the Biltmore Declaration, he added. He said that during his stay
in London he conferred with representatives of the British, Soviet
and other Allied governments with regard to the, rescue of Jews
from Europe and that "practical schemes have been evolved with
the help of these governments."
Agency Resumes Demand for a Jewish Army;
Britain Explains Difficulties
The demand that Britain fulfill its promise to establish a Jew-
ish fighting force was voiced here at a public meeting by Moshe
Shertok, head of the political department of the Jewish Agency,
who is in London to participate in discussions with British officials
on post-war Palestine. He urged that the British Government
combine all Jewish military units scattered throughout the Medit-
erranean theatre of war into one Jewish army.
British official circles explained that the Jewish army has
not been raised chiefly because of "administrative difficulties
which would arise if every race or religious minority in the British
Empire raised its own army."
Jewish Agency Prepares 12-Point Program
JERUSALEM, (JTA)—A 12-point program on the Biltmore
Declaration was drafted by David Ben-Gurion, upon resuming his
post as chairman of the executive of the Jewish Agency this week,
it was learned here. This program will be included in a memor-
andum which the Jewish Agency in London will submit to the
- British Government, it was stated here.
It is understood that since Ben-Gurion and Dr. Weizmann have
reconciled their differences, the former will not proceed to London..
The reconciliation was reached on the . basis that Dr. Weizmann's
sphere of action is in London and Ben s-Gurion's remains in Jeru-
salem. The delegation sent to London by the executive of the Jew-
ish Agency in Jerusalem is expected to return to Palestine at the
end of this month;
160 Rumanian Jews Reach Palestine
HAIFA, (JTA)—A group of 160 Rumanian Jews arrived this
week after a trip which started before Rumania entered the war.
The Jewish refugees were aboard a vessel which was wrecked
in the Black Sea and reached the Turkish coast in lifeboats. They
. were interned by the Turkish authorities while efforts were made
to secure their admittance to Palestine. When the Palestine Gov-
ernment refused them admittance, they were transferred to Cyprus
and held in a camp there for more than two-and-a-half years. The
Jewish Agency finally secured immigration visas for them, en-
abling them to land here as legal immigrants.
A report from Istanbul reaching here said that 50 Jewish
children from Bulgaria have arrived there en route to Palestine.
A second group of 75 Jewish children is expected to arrive there
within the, next ten days.
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