Police in West Berlin have embarked on a major operation of processing all the personal papers of nearly 2000 Jews, some of whom came to this city with forged entry documents. A police spokesman said in response to a question that the investigation is far from being closed and that every day new details are disclosed.
In the past few months authorities in West Berlin were confronted with an unprecedented wave of Jewish families who left the Soviet Union and turned up here. Most of them claim that they are of German origin, and thus entitled to German citizenship and to financial benefits.
An investigation by police uncovered a bond of forgers with branches in various countries who supplied the would-be immigrants with forged documents. The immigrants are said to have paid up to 5500 Marks for false personal papers letting them to enter West Berlin and substantiating their claims of being ethnic Germans.
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.
