Officers of Jewish Brigade Report on Jewish Position in Czechoslovakia

Ten officers of the Jewish Brigade, who have just returned from a three-week survey of the situation of the Jews in Czechoslovakia, today issued a report on the difficulties which Jews are encountering in applying for the restoration of their property and in establishing their legal rights. The group went to Czechoslovakia to secure the names of surviving Jews who have relatives in Palestine and other countries.

The report also disclosed that a number of Czech Jewish soldiers who joined the Czechoslovak Brigade in Palestine were demobilized in Prague despite a Czech army regulation which provides for demobilization in the country of enlistment. The demobilized Jews are now demanding that they be transferred to Palestine.

With regard to the restoration of property, the officers of the Jewish Brigade found that if a Jew returned to Czechoslovakia and claimed his real property, he usually recovered it after some difficulty, provided he registered as a non-German in the census of 1929. If he registered as a German he had to prove his national dependability even though he may have spent years in a concentration camp. Due to the pressure of public opinion, however, the Czech Government is tending to act more leniently now, but Jews who registered as Jews in 1929 are still regarded with suspicion in some districts and encounter difficulties in establishing their civil rights.

If an heir or heirs of a Jew who died in Poland returns, his most difficult problem is to establish his rights of inheritance, because deportees who have not returned are considered missing, and their property cannot be transferred. However, new legislation is pending that provides that if a person does not register within six months after a public order to appear at a given time and date, he will be declared dead, Legislation is also pending excluding inheritance by all but direct descendants. Providing the passage of these new laws, heirs can take the following steps.

1. Have themselves themselves appointed manager of the estate or designate someone else to fill this post.

2. Obtain certificate of liquidation from the liquidation office of the Jewish Council in Prague containing all the known particulars of the fate of the missing persons. (This provision applies only to Western Czechoslovakia.) Try to get statements from eyewitnesses who saw the missing relatives in Poland or in death transports.

3. Obtain a copy of accounts of relatives from banks where they had deposits, showing transfer of money to the “Emigration Fund,” in which the Nazis placed monies confiscated from Jews, or obtain certificate from the Jewish Council that the relatives’ account had been transferred to the “Emigration Fund.”

According to the findings of the Jewish officers, it is possible that a small percentage of these accounts may be paid in the future. At present, there is as possibility of transferring money abroad since the rate of exchange has not yet been set. However, the question of transfer of Jewish property abroad is being considered and future regulations may permit the transfer of capital to Palestine.