Nazis Hurriedly Evacuating Jews from Polish Towns in Preparation for Retreat

A hurried “evacuation” of all Jews from cities in Western Poland is reported today to be taking place as a result of Nazi preparations for further retreats on the Russian front.

The aged and feeble Jews are being transported by the Nazis in cattle trains to Rawa-Russka, Galicia, where they are executed, while the younger victims are being sent to the provinces of Polesia and Wolhynia to build fortifications in the pre-war Polish-Russian border zone to where the Nazis apparently expect to be driven by the Russian Army.

Thousands of Jews from Lodz and other cities in the western part of occupied Poland have been driven from their ghettos to the city of Czenstochowa, during the last few weeks – since the Nazi defeat at Stalingrad. Information from Poland, reaching here today, however, reveals that all these Jews, estimated at more than 30,000, have been deported from Czenstochowa to an unknown destination and that this city has suddenly been made “judenrein.”

“JEWS CHOSEN FOR DESTRUCTION,” NAZI LEADER SAYS; RATION CARDS CANCELLED

Speaking last night before a Nazi audience in Koenigsherg, Roberty Ley, Nazi Labor Minister, declared that “the Jews have been chosen for destruction.” His speech was broadcast over the German radio, which is now publicizing the Nazi atrocities committed upon the Jews in an attempt to impress upon the Germans that a similar fate awaits the German people should the Nazis lose the war.

The Official Gazette of the Czech Protectorate published in Prague carries an order depriving all Jews in Bohemia and Moravia of their ration cards, thus making it impossible for them to secure any food. At the same time the Prague radio announced today that two Czechs have been executed for selling ration cards to Jews. Previous reports indicated that the Nazis have ordered that the Czech Protectorate be made “completely judenrein” by the end of March.

The sum of 17,000,000 kronen “to pay for the maintenance of Slovak Jews deported to Poland” is demanded by Germany from the Slovak Government, a report from Bratislava reveals. The report also discloses that Michael Szabata, a Greek Catholic priest in Blaskovice, Slovakia, has been arrested for baptizing Jews. Bratislava furriers, with whom customers have stored fur coats, have received orders from the Slovak authorities to demand proof that the customers are of “Aryan” descent before returning the coats. The garments of those who are unable to prove their “Aryanship” are to be confiscated, the instructions state.

The pro-Nazi newspaper “Slovak” reaching here today from Bratislava writes that “one of the reasons for expelling Jews from Slovakia was the fact that Jewish innkeepers ruined rural municipalities through alcohol. Now the Jewish innkeepers have disappeared but the people drink more alcohol than before.”