STUDENTS’ STRIKE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 247, 18 October 1937, Page 8

STUDENTS’ STRIKE

PROTEST AGAINST “BENCH GHETTO” SYSTEM WARSAW, Oct. 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 a Jewish academic home, refusing to leave until the system is abolished. Others threaten a hunger strike.

A message from Warsaw on October 6 said that as an indication of the present tendencies of the regime, the authorities at the Warsaw Polytechnic had established a “bench ghetto” system, unknown even in Germany, whereby Jews and Aryans were separated in the lecture rooms. Benches were marked exclusively for each. The Warsaw University has the seats numbered, the students sitting according to identity cards. The message added that no doubt other schools in Poland would act likewise, and it was possible that eventually the system wouid be adopted in omnibuses, trains and theatres. NATION-WIDE STRIKE Received Oct. 17, 8.15 p.m. WARSAW, Oct. 16. Jews throughout Poland numbering 3,600,000 are on strike as a protest against the ghetto benches. The strike appeal is signed by all the Jewish political parties. Businesses, shops and factories were closed until mid-day. Another appeal is signed by the Jewish Parliamentarians and requests a week's abstention from all amusements and any unnecessary expense, the money saved to be used as a relief fund for the Jewish students, whose strike has been extended to the universities and colleges throughout Poland. 'thirty Jewish students at Lwow were injured when Fascist gangs invaded the university and technical college in an attempt to force the Jews to occupy the ghetto seats.