The Jewish Chronicle reported on May 7, 1943:"Details of some Nazi atrocities in Latvia have recently been given in the official SOVIET WAR NEWS. All Jews and gipies were killed in the towns and villages of Latfalia and in the Kurseme and Verseme districts. Whole families were herded inside shops in the market square and killed off with poison gas."On the same page, the JC reported on the Germans claiming to have "discovered" (their quotation marks) more mass-graves in the Katyn forest. The JC called it "atrocity propaganda".
In the same article about the gas shops, the JC related the dreadful news from Smolensk (which is only 12 miles east of the Katyn), where the evil Germans had captured the final 16 Jews in the region, tortured them, and forced them to dance naked on snow covered ground to entertainment the Gestapo. Afterwards the Jews were forced to dig a grave for themselves and shot. Strangely, the final words of one elderly victim were known: "Our children will avenge our torture!" The JC's source for this massacre, including the quote from the elderly victim, was Mr. Ilya Ehrenburg.
