Page Four

Friday, September 27, 1946

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle

"Unfinished Business"

By EARL G. HARRISON

EDIITOR'S NOTE: This address,
delivered by Earl G. Harrison. Dean
of the Law &hoot of the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania and United
States Representative on the Inter-
governmental Committee on Refu-
gees at the Midwestern States Con-
vention of final Brith, was termed
by Henry Monsity, president of the
01 der, as "a historic document."

It is just about one year ago
that, after having spent several
days at SHAEF headquarters in
Frankfurt studying statistics, re-
ports and statements of policy, I
started my trip through Germany
and Austria, visiting some thirty
of the former concentration camps
rind centers for Displaced Persons.
While those portions of the re-
port, subsequently filed, dealing
with conditions within the camps
received most attention in the
press at the time, there were two
parts of the report which obvious-
ly dealt with matters of far great-
er importance. Indeed the debate,
which followed for some weeks
after the publication of the report,
regarding conditions within the
camps and the extent of the im-
provement in them between the
date of my report and its delayed
release to the press, was rather
pointless because it was so wide
of the real issues.
As was clearly pointed out it
the report, most of the people whc
had spent years in the concentra-
tion camps did not ask or ever
want improvement in the condi.
tions within the camps. They
feared that should such improve-
ment come, attention would be di.
verted from the principal matters.
These were stated in the report

to be:

"For reasons that are obvious
and need not be labored, most
Jews want to leave Germany
and Austria as soon as possi-
ble. That is their first and great
wish...Their desire to leave
Germany is an urgent one. The
life which they have led for the
past ten years, a life of fear
and wandering and physical tor-
ture, has made theni impatient
of delay. They want to be eva-
cuated to Palestine now, just as
other groups are being repat-
riated to their homes. They do
not look kindly on the idea of
waiting around in idleness and
in discomfort in a German camp
for many months until a lei-
surely solution is found for
them * * * Evactuition from
Germany should be the empha-
sized theme, policy, and prac-
tice. * * * To the extent that
such emigration from Germany
and Austria is delayed, some
immediate temporary solution
must be found. In any event
there will be a substantial num-
ber of persecuted persons who
are not physically fit or other-
wise presently prepared for emi-
gration. Here I feel strongly
that greater and more extensive
effort should be made to get
them out of camps, for they are
sick of living in camps."
It makes my blood run cold tc
realize that they are still in camps,
that these, - the worst victims of
the most vicious persecution pro-
gram of all history, are still com-
pelled to live, no, not to live but
to exist, on the German and Aus-
trian soil which they loathe. What
injustice!
There were those who felt, or at
least stated, at the time my report

was filed, that I indicated through
its content and recommendations
some unawareness of the many
problems facing in particular the
occupying military authorities and
that I seemed to expect that too
much could be accomplished too
quickly. They argued that in view
of the gigantic repatriation pro-
gram then under way, a short
time more in camps even for
those who had seen their families
and relatives exterminated in such
places was not unreasonable. I
wonder what they think now when
well over a year after V-E Day
and longer after so-called "libera-
tion" of the concentration camp
inmates, most of them are still de-
nied a normal life and are to all
intents and purposes confined. I
pause to make entirely clear that
at this time I am making no ref-
erence to conditions within the
camps or centers. I am pointing
again to the much more impor-
tant phases of the situation.
Although disappointed, I was
not too surprised when President
Truman's personal request ad-
dressed to the British Govern-
ment that one hundred thousand
Jews be permitted to enter Pales-
tine met with an abrupt refusal. I
had hoped for a more under.
standing response from a Labor
Government, some of whose high
representatives had, during the
pre-election campaign, made very
definite promises and statements
regarding freer immigration into
Palestine. But my own observa-
tions in London and in the British
zone in Germany led me to the
conclusion that any such proposal
would be stoutly resisted or, to
state it another way, that there
was no real wish or will to help
even the few wretched survivors
of the Nazi extermination pro-
gram with respect to their desire
to go to Palestine.
The proposal, however, that an
Anglo-American Commission of
Inquiry be created seemed to me
a reasonable one. I was not one
of those disappointed at the sug-
gestion or who looked upon it as
a means of gaining further delay.
In view of the recognized difficul-
ties, it seemed as I say ,reasona-
ble to set up a joint commission
comprised of fair, open-minded,
judicial men representing the gov_
ernment from which a request for
merciful action had emanated and
the government possessed of the
power to grant or deny the re-
quest.
it n o w appears
I assumed
naively—that if the Commission
did a thorough job and made rea-
sonable recommendations, b o t it
governments would stand by them
and earnestly and vigorously seek
ways and means to carry them
into execution. When invited t
appear before the Commission, I

■

Rosh Hashonah Greetings

promptly accepted. I was im-
pressed with the caliber of the
men selected by both governments.
While of course I had no notion
of what direction some of their
Ideas or conclusions would ulti-
CHRYSLER — PLYMOUTH
mately take, I was rather confi.
MOTOR CARS
dent that at least a majority of
them would react as I did to the
plight of those still confined in
8000 MICHIGAN AVE.
OREGON 3330
camps in Germany and Austria.
As the first witness . before the
A n g l o-American Commission, I
stated:
A O.
"I am confident that after you
have heard all witnesses and
have completed your own exam-
inations, you will conclude that
the most immediate, the most
pressing and appealing need for
remedial action in Europe is in
connection with the approxi-
mately 100,000 Jews in Germany
"Dry Cleaners of Distinction"
and Austria. I am equally suer
you will conclude that, no mat-
5445 RIVARD
MADISON 2870
ter how much conditions have
improved in the camps or so-
called D.P. centers in those
countries, so long as the former atHICH:HXKICH:1***1:100 1:8:8:1* CH:t0M:H:8:HW:H:HiECHXWKOCt****Din*
concentration camp inmates are
obliged to live in those places,
there is important unfinished
business of liberation."
I went on in my testimony to
TO THE ENTIRE JEWISH COMMUNITY
remind the Commission that they
had been charged by the two gov-
ernments, as I had been instructed
THE HORENSTEIN BROTHERS
some months earlier by the United
States Government, "to make es-
timates of those who wish or will
be impelled by their conditions to
migrate to Palestine or other
countries outside Europe." Both

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