Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Culture

Nazi Spies Posing as Hookers Flood the Middle East

1913 •100 years ago

Naked Boxer in a Mikveh

East New York doesn’t have all the amenities that Brownsville has, and the mikveh on Wyona Street organized a special carriage that delivers immigrant Jewish ladies to the Brownsville mikveh from East New York. The fancy, horse-drawn carriage even has a sign on the side, “Free Ride to the Wyona Street Baths.” Last week, an intruder was discovered sleeping naked in the mikveh. It turned out to be a local boxer, Patsy Holay, who was hiding out after having robbed 14 year-old Morris Shneersky of his family’s rent money. After being discovered by detectives, Holay ran out of the baths and into the yard completely naked — much to the delight of all the neighbors, who were watching from their windows. The police caught him, but brought him back to the mikveh to get his clothes. Then they placed him under arrest.

1938 •75 years ago

Nazi Hookers Flood the Middle East

While one reads daily about the armies that Hitler sends out to conquer other lands and grab foreign territory, there is one army about which the world knows very little. This is the army of women — blond-haired German women whom the Nazis have sent across the world to work as dancers and prostitutes but are really Nazi spies. Many have been sent to the Middle East, to the English and French colonies. In Cairo, for example, the cafes, nightclubs and brothels are full of blond German women. Many claim to be Polish, Swedish or Hungarian, but everyone seems to know they are German. They are an advance guard of the German army, sent there by Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s minister of propaganda, and are there to provide information on territories that the Germans hope to conquer.

1963 •50 years ago

USSR Blames Anti-Semitism on Matzo

The Soviet press has become even more strident in its criticisms of the packages of matzos being sent to the Jews of the USSR for the Passover holiday, going as far to say that these gifts are a cause for resentment on the part of gentiles. Soviet newspapers have demanded that Jews refuse to accept these packages. The articles in the papers describe the Jews as a foreign element in society, one with ties to World Jewry. The fact is that there is hunger problems in the USSR, and with Jews receiving holiday food packages from foreign sources, some jealousy on the part of non-Jews does exist. It should, however, be noted that the Soviet authorities foment this jealousy.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version