More on Burgenland Expulsions

(NOTE: This is an addition to the Vienna dispatch on page 2.)

Several case which have come to the attention of this correspondent are characteristic of the methods employed in Burgenland.

In one instance the father of a family was arrested after his house had been searched and his passport and money confiscated. He was kept in jail for a day and was told he would be released if he would emigrate within three days, leaving his property. The Jew protested he was a war veteran, but the Gestapo agent in charge declared this did not alter matters. The Jew then pointed out he, his wife and two children had no place to go, whereupon his passport was returned and he was told he could easily emigrate to Switzerland, Holland or Czechoslovakia. The family went to Vienna, but was unable to secure a visa for these or any other countries. The man is now hiding in Vienna suburbs and still trying to find a way to leave the country. He left property valued at 50,000 schillings.

In a second case a family whose ancestors resided in a Burgenland town for five generations was given three hours to leave, which eventually was extended to three days, with permission to take clothing and furniture. The father was forced “voluntarily” to yield to the State 100,000 schillings in property through a document in which he was forced to confess himself an “enemy of the State” and the Nazi Party. In this instance the Jew pointed out that if he was forced to leave immediately he would not be able to settle debts owed to “Aryan” business associates. He was told that the debts would be settled satisfactorily by the liquidation of part of his property.

In a third case a family bewildered and hopelessly in the dark as to where to go and what to do was advised sardonically not to worry, “because Jews always help each other.”