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NEWS
New Information about Indonesian Jews During the Holocaust
by Yated Ne'eman Staff
At a recent academic conference at Haifa University there were reports
of a previously unrecognized Jewish community that had been persecuted
during World War II: Indonesian Jewry. That community suffered
terribly under the Japanese occupying rule. Professor Rotem Kovner
investigated the events.
Professor Kovner found that when Indonesia was conquered by Japan, it
had been a Dutch territory. The Jewish community numbered about 3,000,
many of them Dutch citizens or from other European countries, with a
significant minority from Baghdad. Soon after the occupation began,
most of the Europeans were put into prison camps. The Iraqi Jews and
those Jews who were citizens of countries that were allies of Japan
were not imprisoned. However as the time went on, these Jews were also
added to the prison population. This stand in contrast to other areas
under Japanese control where only Jews who were citizens of hostile
countries were imprisoned.
Professor Kovner said that it seemed that the fact that Indonesian
rubber was so important to Germany served to draw attention to what
went on there so that Germany pressed their Japanese allies to
persecute the Jews on a racial basis, rather than a political
basis.
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