760C.61/986
Memorandum by the Ambassador to the Polish Government in Exile (Biddle)48
Shortly after Averell Harriman’s departure for Russia, General Sikorski told me he understood that the President had requested him [Page 172] to urge, in the course of his conversations with M. Stalin, the release of the arrested Polish Welfare personnel. The General, moreover, wanted me to let the President know of his deep gratitude.
The General went on to say that he had cabled instructions to Mr. Sokolnicki, Chargé d’Affaires of the Polish Embassy, Kuibyshev, (a) to contact Averell Harriman, and (b) to ask him whether he might see his way clear to mention, among other matters, in his conversation with M. Stalin, the question of the Polish Government’s desire that the Soviet authorities grant the Jewish Polish citizens residing in the USSR, treatment equal to that granted the Polish citizens of other religious categories.
Sikorski thereupon pointed out to me that he had received alarming telegrams from American Jewry concerning this problem. Moreover, the Polish Jews in Russia had strongly appealed to him for defense of their rights as Polish citizens. His own interventions thus far, however, had proved of no avail, in view of the negative attitude of the Soviet authorities.
I told him I thought that any appeal addressed to the Soviet Government on behalf of the Polish citizens in Russia, might best be applied to the Polish citizens as a whole, rather than to any particular group among them.
In response, he said that his instructions to his Chargé d’Affaires were motivated by the same thought; that he stood by the principle of equality of rights, irrespective of creed, color, et cetera. As regards the attitude of the Soviet authorities, however, experience had shown that in treating with Polish citizens, they discriminated against Polish citizens of the Jewish faith.
In this connection, the General said that in disclosing their point of view, the Soviet authorities had emphasized that all too frequently, the Polish Jews make trouble for the Soviet, following their release from confinement—especially those enjoying wide contacts with American Jewry. By way of illustration, the Soviet authorities had cited the following case (of about seven months ago): following their release from confinement, a Mr. Alter and a Mr. Ehrlich,49 leaders of the Polish Bund, had cabled from Kuibyshev, to the Bund in the United States, a message stating that they had been badly treated. This message had been picked up by the Soviet censor, and had led to an investigation of the activities of these two men. The investigation had brought to light that they were “Trotskyists”, and they were consequently promptly placed in prison again.
In connection with the question of the Soviet authorities’ recognition of Polish citizens, I feel that it is well not to lose sight of the fact that previous to the signing of the Anglo-Soviet Agreement, Moscow, [Page 173] according to General Sikorski, regarded as Soviet citizens, all Poles from areas east of the then envisaged Soviet post-war “security frontiers”. I mention this, as I have received insufficient information since the signing of the aforementioned Agreement, upon which to form a definite opinion as to whether or not this might possibly be the case even now. (For further details see my despatch Polish Series No. 137 of March 30, 1942).