The first clear and definite order to discontinue ani-Jewish acts in the Upper Silesia plebiscite area was issued tonight by Captain Ramshorn, police president and leader of a Nazi brigade in the industrial section of the region.
The order threatened imprisonment in concentration camps, even for Nazis, of violators of the order.
“It has been reported to me recently that Jews have been molested and even attacked by rowdies and other elements at night,” the police official declared. “I warn that every one apprehended molesting Jewish citizens, even to the slightest extent, will be sent by me to a concentration camp. I have instructed all storm troopers to see that such acts of violence do not reoccur and to arrest immediately any offenders and deliver them to the police.”
Following the petition of Franz Bernheim, an Upper Silesian Jew, to the League of Nations last Spring, protesting violation of Germany of the minority rights of the Jews in the plebiscite area, the German Government agreed to remove anti-Jewish restrictions and safeguard Jewish rights there. While the technical restrictions were removed, the discriminations have continued and the Jews of Upper Silesia have been little better off than their coreligionists in the Reich proper. This order is the first directed at protection of the Jewish population.
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.
