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Austria Agrees to Establish a Camp for 1,300 Hungarian Jews

December 13, 1956
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The Austrian Government has agreed to establish a camp for some 1,300 Hungarian Jewish refugees at Bad Kreutzen, in Upper Austria, in view of the inability of the Jewish community and Jewish welfare organizations to find quarters for the newly arriving refugees.

The Joint Distribution Committee, which has mobilized top staff members from other European countries and put them to work on the Hungarian refugee problem, has merged its staff with that of the Vienna Jewish community here to better coordinate welfare activities. The Agudas Israel organization here is providing 2,000 kosher meals a day for Orthodox refugees.

Although 90 percent of the refugees now want to leave Austria for permanent settlement elsewhere, less than 1,000 have left for Israel Britain, Canada and the United States. Immigration moves so slowly that no more than 3,000 to 4,000 of the Jewish refugees are expected to leave Austria by the end of the year.

The stream of refugees continues to flow from Hungary. As of now an estimated 6,500 Hungarian Jews are in Austria. About 5,000 are in Vienna and the others are in small cities and towns and in camps.

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