Page Sixteen

THE JEWISH NEWS

Friday, August 31, 1945

Writers View Improved Position of Jews in Europe

(Continued from Page 1)
Bracker, Rome correspondent, and Paul
P. Kennedy, who cabled his story from
Madrid.
"After three months of confusion, al-
most inevitable in a land so deeply scar-
red by war," Mr. Middleton reports, "the
lot of the Jews is being ameliorated in
the U. S. zone of occupation in Germany
by the efforts of the Combined Displaced
Persons Executive of U. S. Forces in the
European theater, the Jewish Joint Dis-
tribution Committee, German rabbis and
in some cases Jewish GIs working spon-
taneously among their correligionists in
their spare time."
"Today's orders," Mr. Middleton cab-
led on Aug. 25, "emphasize again that
the stateless and non-repatriable person
categories, which include most of the
Jews in the three western zones of Ger-
many, shall be granted the same assist-
ance as United Nations displaced per-
sons. Lt. Col. Charles I. Schottland of
Los Angeles, chief of the processing sec-
tion of the Combined Displaced Persons
Executive, estimated that seven .or eight
special Jewish camps will be maintained
in various parts of Germany. He esti-
mates that" there are 90,000. Jews in Ger-
many and believes that approximately
75,000 are in camps or installations under
military control."
Camps Set Up in Hurry
Col. Schottland, according to the
Times correspondent, admits that
conditions in many camps "had not
been 'satisfactory"' and he attri-
butes` the poor conditions to the speed
with which the camps were organ-
ized.
Mr. Middleton's report continues:
"Six Jewish teams of 34 specialists
each have been organized to handle Jew-
ish problems in the three western zones
of occupation and already are at work
in • the field, he declared. The teams
represent the American-Jewish JDC and
are composed of welfare workers,' im-
migration experts and nurses. In addi-
tion, the Jewish agency for Palestine has
been approved to work with the camps
and those Jews who want to settle in
Palestine.
"Much has been done, but there is a
great deal still to be done. Those who
have worked with the Jews since the
German capitulation emphasize that we
have only begun to solve a complex
problem. Jacob L. Trobe of the Joint
Distribution Committee, who has travel-
ed throughout the United States, British
and French zones on Jewish welfare, be,.
lieves that 'unless we want to hear the
shrieks of joy that greeted the liberators
of Dachau and Buchenwald turn to bit-
ter recriminations we must speed relief
to the Jews.'
"The problem in this zone is not only
that of the German Jews but of the many
thousands of Polish, Hungarian and Ro-
manian Jews now in this area.
"The Combined Displaced Persons
Executive at USFET places the number
of stateless persons in the three western
zones, virtually all of whom are Jews,
at 26,197, of whom 12,527 are in the U. S.
zone, 12,194 in the British zone and 1,476
in the French zone.
"Mr. Trobe, on the other hand, esti-
mates there are 65,000 Jews of all na-
tionalities in the three zones. There are
various other estimates, none of which
goes beyond 80,000 Jews of all national-
ities in the three zones.
Some House Only Jews??
"At present, most of the Jews in the
U. S. zone are living in camps organized
by the Combined Displaced Persons Ex-
ecutive and other organizations are car-
ing for the fluid population in Germany.
Some of these camps house only Jews.
Others house displaced persons of one
nationality, such as Poles, whose num-
bers include many Jews.
"Opinions differ as to the number of
German Jews who wish to return to their
old localities to work and help rehabili-
tate Germany. Whatever the general
will, the number who have returned to
their homes thus far is small, an indica-
tion that these Jews wish to remain in
their old homes longer than next spring.
"According to Mr. Trobe, the com-
mon objective of almost all Jews, Ger-
man or otherwise, is to leave Germany
and Europe. Social and economic per-
secution is such a familiar story to them
that they do not wish to return to Po-
land, Romania or Hungary or stay in
Germany.
"During the last six weeks between
35 and 40 Polish Jews 'have reached the
area around Frankfort from Poland after
making their way through the Russian
zone of occupation. They report that in
the confusion in Poland attending the
establishment of the Polish Provisional
Government, many Poles who remained
in Poland during the war, and who the
Jews call collaborators with the Nazis,
are taking the opportunity to persecute
the few Jews who have returned to Po-

land. They do not believe that this per- this camp is almost entirely due to the
secution represents government policy work of Sgt. Philip Tulipan of Jersey
nor do they believe it widespread, but City. A lawyer who works at USFET
they have returned from their home- as a clerk, he found scores of non-Ger-
land convinced that their only course is man Jews wandering through Frankfort
to leave Europe forever.
when he arrived there three months ago.
"Most of the Polish Jews who do not
" 'They were told to go to a Polish dis-
wish to return to Poland are not influ- placed-persons camp,' he said, 'but they
enced by the present political alignments. found anti-Semitism so strong there that
The same is true of those German Jews they preferred to live in the bombed
who wish to leave Germany.
buildings and in the cellars of ruined
"But it is evident that they are con- houses. Frankfort .had made 'arrange-
vinced that racial hatred and social and ments to take care, of the German Jews
economic persecution have been so firm- but it lacked the resources to care for
ly established in Germany and Poland non-German Jews as well.
by the Nazis that their future would be
Organized Jewish GIs
difficult in either country and they want
" 'I organized the Jewish GIs around
to \ start life afresh elsewhere.
Headquarters. Everyone contributed
Few Wish to Remain
food, rations or whatever we could beg,
"Mr. Trobe's views Were verified by borrow or steal. Lots of non-Jews chip-
most of the German Jews with whom ped in, too.
this correspondent has talked. Most of
" 'Some of the Polish Jews organized
them wish to go to the U. S., Palestine a committee of their own and we all tried
and the United. Kingdom, in that order. to find places for them to live in Frank-
Only a few of the old people, a very fort. G-5 at headquarters was sympath-
small group, wish to remain in Germany. etic, but there didn't seem to be much
"There still are conflicting views on in the lower echelons. Naturally the
the present status of the Jews' national- military government looked on me as a
ity. The Nuremberg laws in the coun- busybody.
tries of southeastern Europe performed
" 'Finally I found a camp at Zeilsheim,
the function for Hungary and Romania. near here, and room for 350 more. We've
These laws have been abrogated by the done something, anyhow.' "
Allies, but up to the present, legal ex-
"Maj. Judah Neditch, chief Jewish
perts have not figured out the status of chaplain in the European theater, has as-
German Jews under international law. sumed his new duties as special adviser
It is the view of the Combined Displaced on Jewish problems to Gen. Eisenhower,
Persons Executive that Jews of all na- according to announcement made at
tionalities should have the option of USFET headquarters."
choosing between a return to their old
In his cabled report from Berlin,
homes or assuming the status of stateless Gladwin Hill writes:
persons and migrating elsewhere.
"In Berlin, where in 1939 it was esti-
"According to an officer of the Com- mated there were 79,000 orthodox Jews,
bined Displaced Persons Executive, 'we there are today only about 3,000, plus
will move them where they want to go, 5,000 others who through extraction or
provided they can obtain entry into the marriage fall into the Jewish commun-
country.'
ity. Of the • 3,000 orthodox Jews, 2,000
"The policy of allowing Jews to as- have come out of concentration camps
semble in their own camps was laid down and 1,000 have been in Berlin through the
in a memorandum of June 29 directing war, many in hiding.
"The Allied policy, -which appears
that displaced persons who did not wish
to or could not be repatriated should be uniformly subscribed to by the Ameri-
collected into special assembly centers. cans, British and Russians, is that the
Teams such as the JDC teams /for Jewish Jews should be treated the same as oth-
centers and special UNRRA teams for er Germans. The reasons cited are: To
other centers would be requested for avoid reviving anti-Semitism by differ-
these special camps, the memorandum entiating in favor of the Jews and to
stated. Another memorandum from avoid, giving preferential treatment to
USFET stated that reports had been re- any religious group.
"The latter is palpably unrealistic be-
ceived that former enemy displaced per-
sons, that is Jews or anti-Fascists releas- cause the Jewish community Is not strict-
ed from concentration camps, were in ly a religious group and because by im-
some instances being treated as former plication it ignores the fact that it was
enemy nationals and were being denied the Jews—and not the Catholics or Lu-
care as United Nations displaced persons. therans— who were singled out by the
"Army commanders were directed to Nazis for 12 years for physical extermin-
inform all those dealing with misplaced i ation.
Under Theoretical Benefit
persons that 'the frequently stressed
policy of this headquarters is that for-
"The -Allied policy, of course, is to
mer 'enemy nationals released from con- give special aid to all victims of Nazi
centration camps, such as Hungarian, persecution, and the Jews come under
and German political leaders. and Jews, this theoretical benefit. People whose
are to be treated on the same basis as property was confiscated were supposed
United Nations displaced persons.'
to get it back. People who wasted away
Increase Food Rations
in concentration camps were supposed
"Let us turn to the situation in which to be rehabilitated. People without mon-
the Jews find themselves today as U. S. ey or jobs were supposed to be assisted.
policy is implemented, considering first But it is a long way from the Allied
the German Jews outside the camps. Control Council's policy .table to the
There are only a few thousand of them, buergermeister's office, and in the pres-
survivors of a religious body which, ac- ent scramble to rationalize the general
cording to Rabbi Leopold Neuhaus of stringent conditions in Germany people
Frankfort, numbered 610,000 in Ger- with special woes are lucky if they get
many.' According to Dr. Neuhaus, a spe- due consideration—and many are un-
cial adviser to the Military Government lucky.
detachment in • Frankfort in charge of
"The restoration of confiscated Jewish
Jewish welfare here, there are about 500 property, along with other confiscated
German Jews now living in a city where property, awaits the setting up of com-
34,500 lived in 1933.
plicated administrative and judicial ma-
"The daily caloric ration of Jews in chinery, which will take many months,
Frankfort recently was raised to 2,000 a probably years.
day. Beginning Monday, those Jews who
"The occupation policy is that every-
were in concentration camps, approxi- one shall get a basic subsistence—if the
mately 95 per cent of the number, ac- community has it—even if he has no
cording to Dr. Neuhaus, will receive money; it is up to the local German Gov-
2,250 calories a day.
ernment to care for indigents. But in
"Dr. Neuhaus, who spent three years this respect, someone who suffered for
in the concentration camp at Theresien- opposing Adolf Hitler may get no more
stadt, said that although he had not not- than someone who supported him.
ed any resistance by the Germans to the
Not Too Bad Elsewhere
Americans' orders to feed the Jews sup-
"In other parts of Germany, the Jews'
plementary rations, he felt it was a case circumstances are not as hard as Berlin
on the Germans' part of 'I must do it because general conditions are not so
but I won't do it with my heart.'
bad. However, through the irony of the
" 'Not in this generation, not for 30 Allied policy, Jews, while admittedly as
or 40 years, will we wipe out the evil a group victims of Nazism, are thrown
feeling against the Jews which the Nazis in with the people responsible for Naz-
brought upon Germany,' he said.
ism, toward whom the official attitude is
Dr. Neuhaus' Son a Bronx Rabbi
that if things are tough, it is their own
"Dr. Neuhaus, whose son, Ralph, is fault.
a rabbi with a synagogue in the Bronx,
"There is a general feeling among ob-
New York, reported. frequent difficulties servers that anti-Semitism is less dead
had been encountered in moving Jews than unfashionable, and that a lot of
who had returned from concentration anti-Semitic propaganda remains im-
camps into the homes of Nazis in Frank- planted in German minds. One even
fort.
hears it subconsciously parroted by neu-
"On July 21 Dr. Neuhaus returned trals who were in Germany under the
from Theresienstadt and conducted the Nazis.
first Jewish religious ceremony held in
"Synagogues have been re-opened and
Frankfort since before the war.
religious education in public schools san-
"One of the newest camps in the U. S. ctioned for Jews as for other sects. The
zone is that at Zeilsheim, eight miles Jews in various parts of Germany still
from Frankfort. The establishment of have no communication with each other,

but some Zionists already have applied
to U. S. authorities in Berlin for per-
mission to organize. They were auth-
orized to carry on their work, but formal
permission was withheld because the of-
ficers were unable to classify Zionism as
a strictly religious political or welfare
movement."
John MacCormack, Viennese corres-
pondent of the New York Times, reports
that 6,900 Jews remain of the 206,000
Jews who lived in Austria when it was
annexed by Germany. He states that
the number of those returning "is grow-
ing, but very slowly." He cabled in part
as follows:
"On the road back to the capital the
Jews had to endure many, hardships. An
investigation recently showed that inade-
quate provision had been made for their
return by the victorious powers or by
the Austrian authorities. For the Jews,
coming from the miseries and depriva-
tions of concentration camps, short ra-
tions and no beds were added to the
hardships of the long road back.
Hundreds Return Weekly
"Some improvement in the conditions
has now been achieved and every week
hundreds return from camps. Not all of
them come as far as Vienna. Some have
stayed in Innsbruck or Linz, preferring
to be in French or American rather than
in Russian territory."
In his report from Rome, Milton
Bracker cables to the N. Y. Times that
"the situation of Italian Jews is at pre-
sent identical with that of all other Ital-
ians" and that the Italian population had
received with dissatisfaction Mussolini's
"infamous `aryan manifesto' " of July 14,
1938. He declares that anti-Semitism
"was something imposed on the Italians
from without" and that it is "in no sense
representative of their personal feelings."
"Italian Zionists," Mr. Bracker writes,
"although never important numerically,
have reorganized." He refers especially
to the part played by the Pope in offer-
ing aid and comfort to the Jews and to
the interview the Pope had with . Moshe
Shertok of the Jewish Agency for Pal-
estine. His cable states:
"No Jew is a member of the present
Government—but Signora -Ester Verrua
Parri, wife of the Prime Minister, is Jew-
ish. So is Luigi Einaudi, governor of the
Bank of Italy. Members of the Jewish
community and outside observers agree
that no trace of anti-Semitism remains."
Spain's Treatment Good
-
Paul P. Kennedy's report from Mad-
rid declares that "Spain's treatment of
Jewish refugees is generally good, with
only isolated cases of discrimination and
no evidences of actual persecution, ac-
cording to relief authorities here."
He points out that "between 2,000 and
3,000 Jewish refugees entered Spain clan- -
destinely between 1942 and 1943" and
that while they were questioned there is
no proof of the existence of prejudice.
Upon release from concentration camps
internees were declared stateless and
were called upon to register weekly. His
report states:
"Until May this year the living ex-
penses of Jewish refugees here were paid
by the American JDC. Since May liv-
ing expenses, plus a large part of the
emigration cost, has been paid by the
inter-governmental committee on refug-
ees:-
"About 800 Jewish refugees in Moroc-
co, coming from central Europe and the
Mediterranean basin, settled, for the most
part, in Tangier. The only noticable
discrimination there came at the request
of the Gestapo when about fifty were
expelled to Spain.
"While they did not receive work
cards there, the majority are reported
to be employed. Funds are supplied
through the Tangier Jewish Community
and through the American Joint Jewish
Distribution Committee."
French Jews Need Help
Thousands of Jews in France who sur-
vived the Nazi ordeal depend upon con-
tinued American help if they are to sur-
vive the coming winter, Arthur D. Green-
leigh, director of the JDC program in
France, said upon his return to the U. S.
Nearly 50,000 war-impoverished Jews,
8,000 of them children, are being aided
in France by the JDC. Operating through
local committees and established Jewish
organizations in France, the JDC is
granting aid in the value of 35,000,000
francs monthly for outright relief, child-
care, medical care, retraining, loan pro-
grams and other reconstruction activities.
An American welfare executive who
once helped speed the adjustment of
refugees from Nazism to this country as
executive director of the National
Refugee Service, Mr. Greenleigh has just
returned to New York after 13 months
in Europe, where he helped inaugurate
JDC programs for Jews in Italy, France,
and in the liberated concentration camps
of Germany.