Jewish Repatriates from U.S. S. R. Complain of Facilities in Poland

Jewish repatriates from the Soviet Union who are being sent to Lower Silesia, in Poland for resettlement, are complaining that local government authorities refuse to give them elementary assistance, passing them on to the local Jewish community for such aid.

These facts are revealed in the latest issue received here of Die Folkstimme, Jewish community newspaper published in Warsaw in Yiddish. The newspaper devotes a special article, written by one of its correspondents, who visited Liegnitz, not far from the former German city of Breslau to see how the Jewish repatriates are being treated.

Nearly 200 Jews who recently returned to Poland from the Soviet Union crowded into the Jewish Cultural Club at Liegnitz, according to the Folkstimme writer, to voice their complaints. One of the repatriates is reported to have informed the local Jewish residents that various governmental and communal officials have refused to help the newly-arrived Jews even to obtain housing for their families, and have refused to aid them in finding work.

“The repatriates were sent to the Jewish Cultural Association,” the Folkstimme report continues, “but the Association has no means of assisting these newcomers. All the Association can do is to intervene with government officials to see that something is done for these poor people. They are sent from pillar to post instead of being given the assistance to which they are entitled.”

The report states that some of the repatriates had attempted to secure housing in dwellings abandoned “by Jews who have left for Israel.” In many cases however, other claimants had already taken over the abandoned housing, according to Folkstimme.

SCORE LOCAL COMMUNITY FOR FAILING TO PROVIDE RELIGIOUS FACILITIES

Some of the complaints voiced by the repatriates, the Folkstimme reports, were directed against the older, local Jewish community which had failed to provide religious facilities for the Jews who had come from Russia. H. Goldfinger, speaking as a representative of the local Jewish Cultural Association, is reported to have assured the repatriates that all that is possible will be done for them. Mr. Goldfinger is said to have cited recent government regulations providing for care and assistance for repatriates, and to have promised that the Jewish community “will exploit every possibility for obtaining aid for the newcomers.” At Mr. Goldfinger’s suggestion, the repatriates at the meeting selected a group of representatives from their ranks to work with the older Jewish residents of Liegnitz for improvement of conditions.

“Moving expressions of their longing for Yiddish culture “came from many of the repatriates, the Folkstimme report declares. “They begged the Jewish community,” according to the report, “to arrange for them Yiddish lectures, meetings with Jewish writers and artists. Jewish newspapers and literature and perhaps even attendance ate Yiddish theatre.”