Jewish leaders here today displayed great interest a confidential Polish report which warns that mass repatriation of Polish Jews later the war would be considered by the local population as “an invasion against which it would defend itself even in a physical manner,” The report asks the Polish Government-in-Exile to immediately start a campaign for the creation of a national game for Jews in “an Eastern European territory.”
Polish official circles here told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the report does not represent the opinion of the Polish Government. “It merely expresses the commitments of certain groups in occupied Poland,” an official said. The document published in the Jewish newspaper “The Bay,” is credited to the official underground representative of the Polish Government-in-Exile in occupied Poland. It is stated to be part of a secret survey on the general situation in Poland sent by this representative the Polish Government in London. The text, as translated from Polish, reads.
“Among our nation’s problems, there is also the Jewish problem. This problem, although it has had the appearance of an inner problem has, in reality, always been connected with international problems and influenced our position abroad. To an even greater extent, we believe, this will be the case at the liquidation of the present war in which international Jewry belongs to one of the warring sides.
“The mass murders of the Jews in Poland, which were carried out by the Germans reduced our Jewish problem but did not eliminate it entirely. There will be a considerable number of Jews who will be saved and their re-immigration at the end of the war may lead to a situation where we will have to reckon with a Jewish population of from one to two million. Because of the horrible persecution of the Jews in Europe, the public opinion of the world will be even more sensitive to their fate and will be concerned about their interests.
POLES HAVE TAKEN OVER JEWISH POSITIONS
“In our country, at the moment, the Christian sympathies with the Jews predominate, but there is also, in the eastern portion of Poland a very acute antagonism in the attitude toward Jews. This antagonism still remains from the time of the Bolsheist occupation.
“In the country as a whole there is also an objective situation which is independent of psychological elements and because of which the return of the Jews to their positions and trades is absolutely out of the question, even in a considerably reduced number. The non-Jewish population has taken over the positions of the Jews in the towns and cities, and in a large part of Poland it is evidently a change which bears a character of finality.
“The population would consider the mass re-immigration of the Jews not as a return to their previous positions but as an invasion against which it would defend itself even in a physical manner.
“It would thus be very tragic for our political situation that just at the moment when our borders would have to be determined, when we shall have to obtain credits, enter alliances, create federation, that Poland should be placed before the public opinion of the world as the country of militant anti-Semitism. All elements
that are hostile to us would utilize this factor in order to oppress us and rob us of the fruits of the so dearly bought victory.
JEWISH STATE IN “EASTERN EUROPE” SUGGESTED
“The government does well in assuring the public opinion of the world that there will be no anti-Semitism in Poland, but anti-Semitism will not exist in Poland if the Jews who escaped from the pogroms do not endeavor to return en masse to the Polish cities and towns. The country sees only one way out of this difficult situation, that the Polish Government should, in due time, possibly immediately, take the initiative in the creation of a national home for the Jews of eastern Europe.
“This program must be worked out in contact with the Jewish circles of the Zionist type. And as for the future states, the program must look toward an eastern European territory rather than either Palestine which is too crowded, too exotic, and revokes conflicts with the Arab world, or to a tropical colony to which the Jewish would not desire to emigrate. It would be too early to determine the type of territory in question.
“Our position in this matter should not bear an anti-Jewish character but one of Jewish friendship. The Jews are a people; they have a right to a territory of their own, and they have a right to create in this territory all classes and elements of population.
“Exile is a curse for the Jews, and for the horrible persecutions that the Jews have suffered they deserve a reward which should, first of all, concern those nations which have in the course of centuries offered hospitality to the Jews and which are represented in the conclusion of the peace and who will participate in the economic defense of the new world.
“We do not know how easy an action in this direction would be, but we consider it as urgently necessary to intensify the work in this direction both politically and by propaganda. Insofar as the program itself is concerned, it appears to us much more realistic at the time of the general revision of the borders and the creation of the new government combinations than it would be at the time of a settled and enduring peace.”
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.
