STRIKE OF JEWISH STUDENTS

Southland Times, Issue 23332, 16 October 1937, Page 7

STRIKE OF JEWISH STUDENTS

OBJECTIONS TO “BENCH GHETTO” SYSTEM (Received October 15, 6.30 p.m.) WARSAW, October 15. Eight thousand Jewish university students, of whom half are girls, are on strike as a protest against the “Bench Ghetto” system. Six hundred girls locked themselves in the Jewish Academic Home, refusing to leave until the system was abolished. Others threaten a hunger strike. A message on October 6 stated that as an indication of the present tendencies of the regime in Poland, the authorities of the Warsaw Polytechnic had established a “bench ghetto” system, unknown even in Germany, in which Jews and Aryans would be separated in the lecture rooms, and benches would be marked exclusively for each. The Warsaw University would have seats numbered in which students would sit according to their identity cards. The numbers for Aryans would be all even numbers, occupying half the room, and Jews would have all odd numbers, and occupy the remainder. No doubt other schools in Poland would act likewise, and possibly the system would be adopted eventually in omnibuses, trains and theatres.