A = i. • Page Two + • r I. 7- Friday, September 12, 1947 THE JEWISH NEWS Exodus Saga Ends in Reich Prison Camps British Use Truncheons To Drive Jews Off Vessels Heil. Bevin! Special Cable to The Jewish News The saga of the 4,400 passengers of the "Exodus 1947", who were captured by the British off Palestine, returned to France where they went on a sit-down strike and refused to leave the British prison ships, ended Monday in Hamburg, Germany, when the first 1,206 Jews returned to German soil, from which they had tried to escape, while the rest were disembarked Tuesday. Clubs, truncheons and water hoses were used by the British to forcibly remove the prisoners from the vessels, while an indignant world sent cries of protest over this treat- ment accorded the survivors of Hitler's death camps. Hundreds of troops cordoned off the dock area, and evenlGer- International Relief Organization, man police were used to enforce will provide medical assistance the disembarkation of the ref- during the first few weeks of the ugees. efugees' internment in the camps. The landings began early in They will extend material aid the morning and correspondents only after clarification of the saw at least 50 Jews manhand- status of the Jews. The agencies led on the gangplanks. The ref- which participated in the confer- ugees coming off the boats ence with the British are the shouted defiance and denounced Joint Distribution Committee, the the British who forced them to Jewish Agency and British Jew- come to "this land which is a ish Relief Organization. bloody graveyard of millions of The agreement reached with Jews." The first train carried approx- the British adopts the view point imately 700 refugees to Camp of the Jewish groups. Poppendorf in iron-barred coach- The camps to be occupied by es. The unloading there took the refugees were inspectRd ear- place without.incident. her by Robert Gary, Jewish Tele- The next task, the British an- graphic Agency Correspondent, nounce, will be to screen the ref- who reports that they are the ugees for the purpose of "rooting worst he has seen during two out agitators" among them. years in the American zone Ger- many. Relief Agencies Go To Work Camp With Rat Holes Earlier, Jewish relief organiza- tions had reached an agreement Poppendorf, he writes, located with the British occupation auth- in the forest of the same name, orities on extending aid to the consists of 56 small Nissen huts, Exodus Jews, after defying a 35 by 16 feet, each of which is British ultimatum either to coop- intended for the use of 25 per- erate unconditionally with them sons. There are also 14 big huts, in the refugees' disembarkation, accommodating 60 persons each, or else "leave the British zone of 125 huts holding 10 people, which Germany". are eight feet in diameter, and The agencies, together with the five huts planned to hold six peo- Purely Commentary By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ The Role of 5708 — It May Well be for The Good Six million Jewish lives sacrificed on the altar of Nazism, the tragedies of anti-Semitism throughout the world and the complexes which have affected our existence in a world too sick to heal itself, long agohave earned respite and the beginning of a new era of peace for our people. It may well be that the year 5708 is destined for the role of seeing the end of evil and the beginning of better days for Jewry. The world needs to be guided to decency. The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine may have shown the way for decency the world. in UNSCOP's recommendations for the establishment of a Jewish State and its proposals that the doors to other lands be opened for the settlement of displaced Jews in Europe are steps in the direction of a return to humanitarian practices. The direction is good. It remains to be seen how it will be fol- lowed by a calloused world that needs to be stimulated for a return to normal living. • • • Jews Find Basis for Unity in UNSCOP Plan In spite of the many flaws in the UNSCOP plan, we hope that its acceptance will not be delayed and that the United States Govern- ment will fight to a finish for its adoption. We would be blind to reality if we failed to recognize the ob- stacles in the path of its being approved. British authbrities, refusing to sacrifice power, are against it. The Mufti-controlled faction among the Arabs threatens war. For the first time on record, the Jewish communities, with only a fractional exeception, are in agreement that the recom- mendations of the UNSCOP majority are the most acceptable ever proposed as a solution to the Palestine problem. The battle in support of the recommendation has begun. If our government takes the lead in urging its speedy adoption, there is the possibility that the new year will be written down in history parallel with the rule of Cyrus and the first return of Israel to Eretx Israel. If the United States compromises, there will be endless debates and squabbles and we may have more tragedies on all fronts and a resumption of despair in Jewish Victory for Jewish State Idea One thing is clear, as a result of the activities of the United Nations Committee in dealing with the Palestine problem: The idea. that only a Jewish State can solve the Jewish problem definitely has triumphed. Arthur Krock, brilliant New York Times Washington corres- pondent, writing for his newspaper from the nation's capital, sum- marizes it in these words: "An aspect of the two reports to the United Nations by its Special Committee on Palestine that has impressed high officials here is that both the majority and the minority groups concede great merit to the case for a Jewish homeland. "This is implicit in three recommendations that are common to both reports: that a Jewish state be established; that a liberal quota of Jewish immigration into the area be authorized; and that, after a transition period, the British mandate over Pales- tine shall terminate." By its acceptance of the principle that Jews have a right to a State of their own, where they will be able to control their own immigration and be masters of their own destiny, the world—assum- ing that the UN will approve and enforce the majority UNSCOP opinion—is about to right a 2,000-year-old wrong against Israel. At the moment, we must fight for the implementation of the UNSCOP report. If it is fully adhered to, we shall indeed have a good year in 5708. THIS IS BEVIN Britain's Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, upon whose shoul- ders blame is being placed by people everywhere for the hor- rible Exodus incident, is being greeted by correspondents and radio commentators with the sal- utation: "HEIL BEVIN!" Two years after the end of World War II, the survivors from Nazism are not only languishing in detention camps but are forced to endure indignities at the hands of German police in Germany. Now, truncheons and fire hoses are used to send them back to Nazi-land after failing to reach the Jewish National Home. Hence, the salutation: "HEIL BEVIN!" ple. In all, about 3,000 of the refugees will be sent here. Potato sacks filled with straw cover the steel stretchers in the huts which have been sprayed with DDT. Rat holes are visible inside and outside the huts. The only good point which can be made for these barracks - is the fact that, because they have been newly painted, their appearance from the outside is satisfactory. Barbed wire barricades and watch towers are now under con- struction by a staff of - Germans and Yugoslays. Contradictory to the statement issued last week by Maj. Gen. William Bishop, deputy commander of the British zone, that no Germans would be used in the centers, this correspondent learned from the German super- intendent of the camps that there will be more than 100 Germans working as maintenance men. The medical staff, including six doctors, will be completely Ger- man. Unfit for Humans The superintendent expressed the opinion that *he camps were not fit for human beings. One official serving as a guide de- clared that Poppendorf was worse than Oswiecim, where he had been, except for the gas cham- bers. The other camp, AmStau, al- though a little better than Pop- pendorf, contains double-decker metal beds covered with potato sack mattresses which seem ready to collapse momentarily. It is expected to house 1,500 of the refugees. According to a JTA cable from Jerusalem, the Jewish National Council has called a nation-wide strike to protest the landing of the Exodus refugees in Hamburg. Whereas Palestine, as a whole, was quiet, two young Jews in Tel Aviv who said they represent- ed the Stern group, called on 18 Jewish officials of the govern- ment's Income Tax Department in their homes and warned them that unless they resigned within four days "the consequences would be drastic". The officials will ignore the threats, and it is believed that the warnings are the first in a psychological war- fare campaign to scare Jews em- ployed in the administration to resign en masse, thus crippling the Palestine government. In a Hamburg radio broadcast, Dr. Norbert Wollheim, president of the Jewish community in the Refugees Protest Landing On Soil of Nazi Murders British zone, said that the de- portees "would have every assist- ance and every help" from Jew- ish organizations in Germany, but "only if they ask for it ex- pressly. , Hamburg Jews Promise Aid -"We know that Gen. Sir Alan Cunningham, Palestine H i g Commissioner, is now in London appealing to the British Govern- ment against disembarking the Jewish immigrants in Hamburg," Dr. Wollheim said. "We hope with confidence that the British government will do everything at this hour to alter the fate of our unhappy brothers and sisters. "As far as we know, the Jews will be taken to two camps which have been prepared like prison- ers' camps, surrounded with barb- ed wire and guarded by armed sentries. The accommodation it- self, as well as the sanitary con- ditions, are entirely insufficient. We will refrain from everything which cotild create the impres- sion that we agreed with the treatment as prisoners of these men, women and children." The British Foreign Office an- nounced that the parents of 13 Hungarian Jewish children who are believed to be among the Exodus refugees have appealed to the British Embassy in Budapest to assist in the repatriation of the children. A spokesman said that the screening of the Exodus Jews might reveal 200 cases in which the "families were deliberately broken up by Zionists." He re- vealed that preparations were be- ing made to repatriate all such children. The spokesman also accused Hungarian Zionists of a deliber- ate campaign to traffic in chil- dren in which "the Marxist Zion- ist youth movement, Hashomer Hatzair" was mainly involved. The Foreign Office statement went on to enumerate particulars of individual cases of children Who were allegedly taken to em- barkation c en t e r s without the knowledge of their parents, on the pretext of being trained for legal immigration to Palestine. Disguested Briton Resigns A British purser on the Runny- mede Park, one of the three pris- on ships carrying the Exodus ref- ugees to Germany, announced that he is resigning as "a moral protest against the conditions un- der which the immigrants are be- ing transported to Germany," the Reuter correspondent aboard the vessel reports. The purser, Peter Seamen, a Briton, said: "I am in no way qualified to criticize the British government's policy, but I intend to have no further part in this degrading treatment of homeless refugees. It most certainly re- -fleets no credit on us." A Foreign Office spokesman re- vealed that two ships "believed to be carrying visaless Jewish immigrants to Palestine" are be- ing closely watched on the high seas. The ships left Bayonne, France, in August, and are flying the Panamanian flag, the official; said. "It is known that a party of Jews was assembled in Romania 1 with Uruguayan passports des-1 pite the fact that there is no Uruguayan diplomatic represent-. ative in Romania," the official continued, disclosing that one of the ships is now at Varna, Bul- garia, after passing through the Dardanelles. The British press reports from Italy that a mine blew a large hole in the forepart of a ship be- lieved to be destined to carry Jewish immigrants to Palestine. The 4,500 ton vessel. was moored in the Biudecca Canal, Venice. A letter signed by an underground Arab organization, received by Reuter's in Rome, claimed that the ship had been mined by this organization. Protests All Over The World AMSTERDAM (JTA)—A meet- ing called by the Dutch Zionist Federation sent a telegram to the British Ambassador at The Hague asking that the Exodus Jews not be returned to Germany and appealing to the British gov- ernment to "open the gates of the National Home to all Jews wishing to enter." MONTEVIDEO (JTA) — The Jewish Agency office in Uruguay has appealed to the Foreign Min- istry to intervene with the Brit- ish authorities to prevent the re- turn of the Exodus refugees to Germany, it was announced here. HELSINKI (JTA) — The Jew- ish communities of Helsinki and Abo attended special services for the 4,400 Exodus refugees. SYDNEY (JTA)—The Execu- tive Council of Australian Jewry appealed to the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Rela- tions in London that the Exodus Jews be allowed to enter Pales- tine. Heard in the Lobbies . By ARNOLD LEVIN (Copyright, 1947, Independent Jewish Press Service, Inc.) Washington Wire People in the know advise against over-optimism regarding the American representatives' attitude towards the UNSCOP majority report when it is brought up for discussion at the General Assembly this month. It is true, as Arthur Krock reported to the New York Times, that even Loy Henderson's boys have come around to the view that the U. S. cannot do less than ten of the eleven UNSCOP members have done—support some form of Jewish sovereignity. But remem- ber, there is quite a gulf between the recommendations submitted by the minority and those submitted by the majority. Despite its seem- ing endorsement of Jewish sovereignty, the minority proposal actually proposes an Arab state with Jews freezed as a permanent minority. There is no true indication where the State Department's heart belongs, whether with the majority or minority report. We can be certain, however, that the State Department, perhaps not openly, perhaps behind-he-scenes only, may propose, however, a compromise merging the so-called "best features" of both plans. The State Department has always shown a predeliction for anti-Jewish compromises. You will recall President Truman's statement of a year ago, implying endorsement of partition, but also implying a compromise between the bambini Morrison Fed- eralization Plan and the Jewish Agency's viable state plan. The Jewish Agency's viable state plan was the absolute minimum on which the Jews could agree, and yet President Taman implied that it might serve as a basis for further comptomise and did not realize that the Agency's plan and the Morrison plan were irre- concilable. The same thing may very well happen again. The Loy Henderson lads may advise the President that it would be in order to point out to the Jews that since they have always described immigration as the crux of the, problem, it should not be overlooked that the UNSCOP recommendations offer the Jews 50,000 more immigrants than had been approved by the Anglo- American Inquiry Committee and by the President himself in his letter to Prime Minister Attlee. They might further argue, the Henderson lads, that an autonomous region, for that is what a state in a smaller area than that proposed by UNSCOP would mean, is better than the international trusteeship proposed by the Anglo- American Committee. In other words, there are many possibilities for a grand double-cross, and Jewish leadership and U. S. public opinion will have to be on guard. The U. S. must go on record for the imple- mentation of the UNSCOP report as is, without any deletions ex- cept such as would involve exchanging Jaffa for western Galilee.