A Jewish general in the army of the Soviet Union, General Dragunsky, who arrived here today, refused to comment on the recent arrests and imprisonment of Leningrad and Moscow Jewish leaders, declaring only that “these men were tried as criminals, not as Jews.”
General Dragunsky, one of Russia’s foremost heroes of World War II, is one of the few military men in Russia decorated twice with the order of Hero of the Soviet Union; He was one of the first Allied commanders to enter the Nazi death factory at Auschwitz, after that concentration camp was liberated at the end of World War II.
General Dragunsky was expected here last week, as a Soviet delegate to the current Warsaw Ghetto exhibition. However, he was delayed in Moscow “due to visa difficulties.” He brought with him ten panels of photographs and statistics contributed to the exhibit by the Soviet Union. The Russian section of the exhibit was put on display immediately.
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