4 NOVEMBER 1938, Page 2

Anti-Semitism in Central Europe The Jews in Central Europe have

ceased to be human beings ; they are driven like cattle from country to country and left to starve in the no-man's-lands between frontiers which have become their only resting-place. The latest in the appalling series of crimes which have been committed against the Jews is the expulsion, at a moment's notice, of thousands of Polish Jews from Germany last week. This action was taken because it was thought that they were going to be deprived of Polish citizenship by the Polish Government and would become a liability on Germany ; it provoked a threat of retaliation against Germans in Poland, which put an end to the expulsions, but not before 6,000 Jews had been driven destitute into Poland and 4,000 left homeless and starving between the frontiers. The most significant factor in the whole situation is the cynical contempt shown for human, as distinguished from political, rights ; loss or cancellation of a passport turns human beings into homeless animals whom no man need respect, without any protection against the most brutal mistreatment. It must be remem- bered that Central Europe contains millions of Jews living under Governments which take this view of them ; and unless other countries interest themselves in their fate they may soon have no choice but to be starved and tortured to death. The Jewish problem, in all its horrors, shows how far Europe really is from the era of peace and reconciliation between men that politicians so hopefully predict.