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Bavarian Commissioner for Persecutees Warns Against Rebirth of Nazism in Germany

June 10, 1947
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“Neo-fascism and anti-Semitism are daily growing more dangerous in Bavaria,” Dr. Philip S. Auerbach, Bavarian Commissioner for Political and Religious Persecutees, warned here last night at a meeting of the American Veterans Committee.

He censured both the military government and the Bavarian authorities for failing to arrest the growth of the new Nazism, charging that most of the members of the Bavarian Government are prepared to rehire known Nazis the minute the denazification courts clear them. “The Nazi spirit is more deeply rooted than the Allies realize,” Dr. Auerbach declared, citing the existence of one poster which he saw in a Bavarian town and which read: “Hitler Lives, He Will Return.”

The morale of the Jewish displaced persons “has dropped 3,000 percent” in the past year because nothing has been done to solve their problems, Carl Atkin, retiring adviser on Jewish affairs to the UNRRA administration in the U.S. zone of Germany, said here yesterday just prior to leaving for the U.S. Since the failure of the British Government to follow the recommendations of the Anglo-American inquiry committee, the DP’s have lost faith in all future committees and investigations, he added.

Atkin said that his contract had been terminated by UNRRA, because the organization felt that its Jewish department was not accomplishing anything. Atkin criticized the refusal of the International Refugee Organization’s Preparatory Commission to establish a special IRO Jewish department, as requested by Jewish organizations.

A three-day HIAS conference on emigration problems concluded here today. Delegates stressed that emigration can be handled most effectively on an individual basis rather than on a “mass, unorganized basis.” They emphasized that immigrants must be selected on the basis of the skills and trades they have and on the basis of the needs of their new countries, otherwise serious economic problems will result. Lewis Neikrug, HIAS European director, and Abs Grossman, director for Germany and Austria, reported that between 15,000 and 18,000 Jews in the two countries have registered for emigration during the past six months.

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