A move which would restore the professional status of physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists and others among the displaced persons who lost all records of their skilled backgrounds as a result of the dislocations of the war, was made today by the Preparatory Commission of the International Refugee organization in Austria.
Hundreds of Jews with professional skills have been able to resume their work among the DP camps, but the IRO is concerned with what will happen to them after the problem is solved. Few of them were able to hold on to their diplomas and other such records during the war years, which were spent by many of them in concentration camps.
Under the new arrangement, these workers will appear before special boards representing their countries of origin and experts in their particular skills.Two professional examining boards will be established immediately at Salzburg and Linz and, under IRO auspices, they will soon begin examining the professional DP’s. First to be examined are some 500 physicians and 500 nurses who have been actively engaged in practicing their professions in the DP camps.
When they have established, their skills and their educational backgrounds to the satisfaction of the examining boards, they will be given a “certificate of professional status.” With the agreement of the Austrian Government, such certificates will not only be the equivalent of pre-war diplomas in this country, but IRO officials here say they are optimistic over obtaining the same concessions from the governments of whatever countries In which these professional DP’s eventually resettle.
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.
