Fiorello H. LaGuardia, Director-General of UNRRA, today visited the Foehrenwald and Feldafing camps for displaced Jews near here on his tour of inspection of relief and rehabilitation facilities in Europe.
LaGuardia would not comment on the reason for his visit, but it is known that it is in connection with the question of immigration and the eventual fate of the DP’s after UNRRA goes out of existence at the end of this year.
He questioned the occupants of the camps as to the places to which they wish to emigrate. The response was shouted loudly and repeatedly: “Palestine, Palestine.” At the Feldafing camp he asked the Jews whether they would be willing to go anywhere else–perhaps South America, Their answer was: “No.” It is estimated that at least 90 percent of the displaced Jews polled by LaGuardia elected to go to Palestine.
On his trip through the camps LaGuardia also asked the DP’s about the food they were receiving, and the general recreational and vocational facilities available to them. During a visit to a hospital a patient recognized him saying that he knew of him through Nazi propaganda which had termed LaGuardia “a typical Jewish leader in America.” A group of DP leaders commented afterwards that he was a great man because “not only does he know but he also feels our problems.”
At Foehranwald, when an Army officer attempted to force back a group of Jews crowding around the UNRRA chief, LaGuardia said: “Don’t push these people around, they’ve been pushed around more than enough.”
Following his visits to the camps, LaGuardia addressed a meeting of UNRRA officials in the Munich zone whom he urged to use kindness and patience in handling the DP’s, He pointed out that the refugees became emotionally upset because of their experiences, and that their outlook upon the future was one of hopelessness because they had been in camps too long. He emphasized that family groups were not to be separated.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
