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Hias Urged to Appoint Commission of Social Workers for Post-war Work in Europe

May 25, 1943
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The appointment of a special commission of experienced immigration experts and social workers, to be sent to Europe at the earliest possible opportunity to study the situation there in order to facilitate the emigration of those persons for whom visas and transport facilities will be available, was suggested today in a report submitted by Dr. James Bernstein, European director of the Hias-Ica Emigration Association, to a session of the board of directors of the Hias.

Dr. Bernstein, who has just returned from Lisbon, where he directs the activities of the central office of the Hias-Ica, also recommended the re-establishment of the Hias Immigrant Bank. This bank, which was a department of the Hias for several decades, handled the transfer of huge sums sent by American Jews to their relatives abroad.

Dr. Bernstein estimated that there are now about 5,000 Jewish refugees in Spain who succeeded in crossing over from France. He said that the Spanish Government is extending its cooperation to the Consular Service of the United Nations and to representatives of refugee aid organizations working on the Iberian Peninsula. In Switzerland, he stated, the refugee population has increased by five to six thousand since the Nazi deportations from Southern France began in the summer of last year.

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