Friday, July 6, 1945
1,200,000 Jewish Children
Have Perished in Europe
Senator Godard of France, President of OSE, Reports
Only
150,000
Survived; Truman Sends Envoy to
Europe to Study Refugee Problem
NEW YORK, (JTA)—Only about 150,000 out of a total of 1,-
350,000 Jewish children who lived in central and eastern Europe
before the war have survived the Nazi terror, according to Senator
Justin GIDdard, prominent French leader and president of the World
Union OSE, organization for child care, health and hygiene among
Jews who arrived in New York on an official French government
mission.
Speaking at a reception given in his honor by the American
OSE at the Commodore Hotel, Senator Godard, who was a candi-
date for President of France and a minister in several French
cabinets, described the plight of the Jewish children, most of them
orphans, who have been saved from various concentration camps.
About 8,000 Jewish children have survived the horrors of Buch-
enwald and Belsen, most notorious German camps, he estimated.
The French leader reported that there are now about 10,000
Jewish children under care of OSE in France, over 6,000 of whom
are placed with families and about 2,500 of whom are being taken
care of in the 14 institutions and children's homes of OSE in France.
Homes for additional 700 children are now being prepared by OSE
which now maintains 26 medical dispensaries in France, he said.
Recalling the agreement recently reached with the French
government according to which the French OSE has been author-
ized to assume care and hospitalization of the Jewish orphans re-
leased from German camps, Senator Godard declared that the
French government assured a Jewish delegation that the Jewish
refugee children from Germany, whom French authorities in Paris
recently placed, under the care of a non-Jewish welfare organiza-
tion, will be transferred to Jewish institutions.
Warns Thousands of Children May Become. Marran. os
ATLANTIC CITY, (JTA)—The resurgence of a Judeo-Chris-
tian religion such as the religion of the. Marranos was predicted
here at the 56th annual convention of the Central Conference of
American Rabbis by Dr. Salo W. Baron, speaking on the possible
effect upon thousands of Jewish children of the influence exerted
during their formative years which were spent in Christian homes
during the Nazi occupation.
.
UNRRA, Swiss Red Cross Arrange Havens for 2,000
GENEVA, (JTA)—American military authorities, UNRRA and
the Swiss Red Cross have concluded an agreement under which.
2,000 refugee children will be brought to Switzerland from concen-
tration camps in Germany.
The agreement was disclosed by U. S. Army Chaplain Capt.
Herschel Schacter, who arrived here with 347 children from Buch-
enwald, the first contingent of the 2,000 who will eventually' come
here. The children left Weimar, near which the Buchenwald camp
is located, on June 12, and arrived at Basle on June 23.
Desire to Settle in Palestine and America
The majority of the youngsters come from Poland an Hun-
gary, and had been confined in camps for about five yearS. Talk-
ing to them one gets the impression that he is speaking to adults.
They have definite ideas on where they want to go eventually—
and 'few of them want to return to their homelands. Many want to
settle in Palestine and others wish to emigrate to America, where
they have relatives. The parents of most of the children are dead.
.
The chaplain revealed that shortly after the liberation of
Buchenwald a group of young Zionists founded a "Hachshara"
colony to train themselves for settlement in Palestine. U. S.
military authorities placed an estate at their disposal which
they named "Kibbutz Buchenwald." Since this area has now
been assigned to the Russians the youths, who are remaining
under American military jurisdiction, will be transferred to an-
other farm, Capt. Schacter said.
The Jewish survivors found in the Nazi camps he visited were
in an indescribable state, Capt. Schacter said, but not all of them
were crushed. Many had kept their faith in the future of the
Jewish people, but were disappointed at what they considered the
passive attitude of world Jewry towards their sufferings. Their
chief concern is: "Where 'do we go from here?" The Jewish chap-
lains, and many Jewish soldiers, are doing everything possible to
bring immediate aid to these survivors, but the task is immense
and far beyond their potentialities, he stressed.
7,000 Jewish Children in Budapest Homeless
TEL AVIV, (JTA)—Of the 10,000 Jewish children remaining in
Budapest, 7,000 are wandering the streets, homeless and uncared
for, according to a report recei-c7ed here. Shelter in orphanages
has been obtained, so far, for only 3,000.
1,600 Jewish Refugees Will Leave for Palestine
PARIS, (JTA)—A transport of 1,600 Jewish refugees, includ-
ing the 82 children from Buchenwald who were placed in the care
of a non-Jewish agency by the French Government, will leave
France for Palestine within the next few days, it was announced by
David Sealtiel, representative of the Jewish Agency here.
Among the 1,600 will be 670 internees from Bergen-Belsen,
who were scheduled to be expelled this week from a Swiss intern-
ment camp to an UNRRA camp in Italy. Other passengers will in-
clude 80 internees from Switzerland who were recently transferred
to an American camp in Metz and children and adults from France.
Exit permits have been secured under an agreement between
the French Government and the Intergovernmental Refugee Com-
mittee, Sealtiel said. Transportation will be furnished by SHAEF.
President Truman Sends Harrison to' Europe
WASHINGTON, (JTA)—Earl G. Harrison, former U. S. Com-
missioner of Immigration and Naturalization, has left for Europe as
President Truman's personal representative to study the position of
refugees in France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and other coun-
tries.
Mr. Harrison will pay special attention to the problem of "state-
less" refugees and those who refuse to return to their native lands.
He may also visit refugee camps in Germany and Austria in order
to talk to the refugees and learn of their hopes and intentions.
Mr.- Harrison succeeded Myron C. Taylor as U. S. representative
on the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees. He will confer
with officials of the committee in London soon after completing his
survey of the European continent, and will discuss with them plans
to care for racial, religious and political refugees who cannot return
to their homes.
French Government Refuses Shelter to Repatriated Deportees
• PARIS, (JTA)—Jewish and other deportees of foreign nation-
ality Nk-ho are now returning to France are no longer being admit-
ted to 'housing centers operated by the Ministry for Deportees, as
a result 'of a policy adopted recently by the Ministry.
All returning "alien" deportees no matter how long they re-
sided in France prior to their deportation are affected. • This move,
which is reportedly due to the ministry's reluctance to finance the
housing of non-French deportees, will work a great handicap. upon
Jewish organizations, since none of them have, as yet, obtained
requisitions for hotels or other adequate shelters for the arrivals.
Some foreign Jewish deportees are now being housed in former
schools or Jewish institutions under miserable conditions.
While the total number of Jewish deportees who have re-
turned does not exceed 2,400, of whom only a small number require
housing from the Jewish community, the problem is great mainly
because of overlapping and duplication by several agencies which
are continuing relief activities despite the creation of the Jewish
Committee of Relief and Reconstruction, which is supposed to act
as a central body.
THE JEWISH NEWS
Page Three
Weekly Review of the News of the World
(Compiled From - Cables of Independent Jewish Press Service)
AMERICA
OVERSEAS
Karl Hermann Frank, Nazi Minister of State
for Bohemia-Moravia, now in custody of the
U. S. 12th Army Group, confessed signer of
mass execution orders for Czech citizens, has
denied guilt for the persecution of Czech Jews
or for establishment of the Jewish death camp
at Theresienstadt, Frederick Kuh, reports from
London in the New York newspaper PM.
Madeline S. Levy, Bronx high school stu-
dent, is one of the 40 finalists, in the Westing-
house Electric Corporation fourth annual
Science Talent Search competition, among 15,-
600 high school seniors all over the country.
Miss Levy will receive a $100 science schol-
arship.
A meeting of the World Federation of Polish
Jews will be held in New York in October,
with the participation of a delegation from
Poland, headed by Dr. Emil Sommerstein, to
map out plans for a relief campaign to assist
in the rehabilitation of. Polish Jewry.
Sol Bloom, Democrat of New York, intro-
duced a joint resolution in Congress (H. J.
Res. 223) to enable the United States to par-
ticipate in the work of the Intergovernmental
Committee on Refugees and to pay its share
of the expenses of the Committee's activities.
The resolution was referred for action to the
House Committee on Foreign Affairs, of which
Rep. Bloom is the chairman.
The Third Session of the Council - of UNRRA
(United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation
Administration) is scheduled to take place
July 24 in London, UNRRA headquarters in
Washington announced.
In Romania all Zionist publications have been
suspended and not a single official Zionist
publication has appeared in Hungary. Many
Jews in both countries desire to emigrate, but
are not given exit visas. In Hungary the Jew-
ish Communists have emerged as the strongest
political party, with a strong anti-Zionist bias.
Figures on the number of Jews in both coun-
tries, as contained in this first hand report,
follow:
Only about 15,000 Jews reside in Hungary's
provincial cities, but Budapest has emerged
as the city with the largest Jewish population
in all of liberated Europe-140,000. This con-
stitutes about three quarters of Budapest's
former Jewish population. Most have return-
ed to their old homes which have been, how-
ever, 'seriously damaged and despoiled. The
return of another 36,000 Jews from Ally-liber-
ated slave labor camps, is anticipated. Many
thousands of Hungarian Jews are now in Ro-
mania. Romania has a Jewish population of
nearly 400,000.
The Jewish population of Budapest suffers
great distress, which has been partially ameli-
orated, however, by the larges-scale relief-
activity of the American Jewish Joint Distri-
bution Committee which is spending large sums
for feeding children, women, the old, sick and
poor. The relief work is directed by a commit-
tee of three prominent Hungarian Jews: A'ndor
Biss, a pro-Zionist; Karl Wilhelm, an assimila-
tionist, and Offenbach, a Zionist, all of whom
are members of an Advisory' Committee com-
posed of two Orthodox religious -representa-
tives, three Liberals, and four Zionists.
A 200-year-old Talmud, Holy Scrolls, pray-
er books, belonging to the tiny community of
308 Jews who once lived in Bad Morgentheim,
Germany, were hidden from the Nazis by a
Catholic, Julian Mulek, who, at the risk of
his life, kept them for three years in a plain
box in his warehouse filled with similar
boxes. The religious articles were entrusted.
to Mulek by a Jewish merchant, named Fer-
dinand Wurzburger, who in 1942, with the
last 16 Jews of Bad Morgentheim, was shipped
to Theresienstadt ghetto. The articles were
used for the first time since then, when Mulek
presented them to the Jewish chaplain of the
63rd Infantry Division, U. S. Army, for
Thanksgiving Day memorial services at the
Bad Morgentheim synagogue, believed to be
the only synagogue still standing in Germany.
Dr. Manuel Prado, president of the Peru-
vian Republic, expressed his sympathy and
support of the Zionist cause, which, he de-
dared, in his opinion is just and humane. Dr.
Prado stated this viewpoint to Nathan Bistri-
zky, representative of the. Keren Kayemeth in
Jerusalem, with whom. he held a lengthy dis-
cussion on the problem of Jewish Palestine.
Three hundred Jewish inmates of the
Buchenwald concentration camp have re-
nounced their faith and -been baptized.
Colonial Secretary Oliver Stanley is re-
ported to have rejected urgent appeals - that
the government grant Palestine certificates,
outside the White Paper, for children in Ger-
man concentration camps. The appeal was
made by a deputation from the Women's Zion-
ist Federation of Britain, headed by Rebecca
Sieff, who were accompanied by non-Zionist
women.
An organization has been formed in Paris
of foreign Jews who saw service with the
French Army as volunteers, and who have
only recently returned from German captivity.
They have announced that they organized to
fight for citizenship which has been denied
them, individually, despite their record of vol-
untary service, and for servicemen's benefits
to which they feel as entitled as any other
servicemen.
PALESTINE
The right for Jewish veterans from all Allied
armies to settle in Palestine was demanded in
a joint resolution adopted by a plenary session
of the Vaad Leumit Jewish Palestine's National
Council. The resolution pointed out that
"Jewish Palestine will regard every such Jew-
ish soldier from Allied armies who comes to
Palestine the same is its own volunteers, and
extend to him privileges identical with those
given to demobilized Palestine Jews."
Owing to the non-participation of Arab coun-
cilors in the sessions of the Jerusalem Munici-
pal Council the government reportedly pro-
poses to dissolve the present Council and nomi-
nate a Municipal Commission to admisister civ-
ic affairs. The Jews oppose this plan, pointing
out that before the last elections in 1943, when
the Jews left the municipality, the govern-
ment did not deem it necessary to dissolve, and
the Council was conducted without the Jews. -
The Arabs left because of the Government's
proposals to have the mayoralty revolve, with
a Jew, Moslem and Christian, in turn occupy-
ing the post. . -
- The Jewish Agency for Palestine submitted
a 1,500 page report on Nazi war crimes against
the Jews, and a list containing. the names of
thousands of war criminals, 'members, of the
S. S., Gestapo; and guards and commandants
of concentration camps, to the United Nations
War. Crime Commission. The report contains
testimony assembled by the Committee In-
vestigating War Crimes ' Against Jews, estab-
lished by the Agency's Political Department.
Jewish refugees who arrived in Palestine dur-
ing the war, and who lived for years under
the Nazi extermination regime in the ghettos,
concentration and slave labor camps, were the
source of most of this evidence.
A new weekly, named "Message for Near
and Far," began publication under the aus-
pices of the Missing Relatives Bureau estab-
lished by the Jewish Agency's Secretariat and
Immigration Department. It contains lists of
survivors of concentration camps in Germany,
and lists of Jewish refugees in the U.S.S.R.
who are seeking information on the position
of the remnants of European Jewry. '
Viteles in Germany
To Lead JDC Mission
NEW YORK—Harry Viteles,
former director of the Palestine
Economic Corp., who arrived
this week in Europe as a rep-
resentative of the Joint Distri-
bution Committee, has been as-
signed to head one of 10 mis-
sions now going into German
concentration camps, Dr. Joseph
C. Hyman, executive vice-chair-
man 'of the JDC, announced.
Mr. Viteles' primary objective
will be to provide shelter for
the children he finds in these
camps and to make arrange-
ments for their care in areas
outside Germany. He also will
survey the number and origin
of the Jews who survived in
Germany.
JDC has just been granted
permission by SHAEF to send
10 teams of medical and social
work personnel into Germany.
The units will be attached to the
Army and will work in close
cooperation with UNRRA.
_ Mr. Viteles served for many
years in Palestine as director of
the Central Bank of Coopera-
tive Institutions. A native of
Philadelphia, Mr. Viteles spent
many years in Europe for the
JDC after the first World War.
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