1,500 Displaced Jews Demonstrate in Protest Against U.S. Order for Compulsory Transfer

“We demand the right again to enjoy family life! Give us the homes the Nazis stole from the Jews of Fuerth!”

These slogans predominated yesterday among those shouted by 1,500 marching Jews in two DP camps here when the United States Third Army began the removal of 350 people from the Or Chadosh camp, which Lt. Gen. Lucian K. Truscott had ordered closed.

On the basis of the recently issued order asking Jews themselves to select those to be moved into other DP barracks at Bamberg, but without any apparent effort to reach an understanding with these Jews, American soldiers yesterday moved into the two inadequate camp streets and began to crowd them into Army trucks.

Several hours later the total to be removed was far from complete while several who had refused to leave were arrested and are to be tried before the American Military Tribunal for disobedience of Army orders.

SUBMIT COMPLAINT TO U.S. OFFICER; CHARGE TRANSFER WOULD AFFECT FAMILY LIFE

When the Jews gathered on masse yesterday morning, they presented their complaints to an American officer, saying that they did not desire to put up resistance but that they believed their condition was not being improved but rather worsened because the new barracks would not permit family life, and would force as many as 50 individuals into one room.

The American officer’s reply was that the orders were not his but that he was required to carry them out. Besides, he remarked, the scheduled move was only temporary. The Jews’ retort to this was that they were tired of being moved around with no chance to settle down to a normal life.

The city of Fuerth once had one of the largest Jewish communities in Germany. Its people were all dispossessed by the Nazis and their belongings confiscated. Now a group which is one-fifth the size of the original Jewish population of this community is unable to find accommodations here except in the miserable and unhygienic Or Chadosh camp, from which, at this time, the Army wants them moved because officers are fearful of epidemics when warmer weather ferments the inadequate drainage.

But these Jews, tired of barracks living which is so reminiscent of past experiences under the Nazis, are resisting the pressure, thereby creating a nasty situation which could have been avoided under more astute handling of the whole problem. This situation must continue until there is a permanent settlement of the whole problem.

Most of the Fuerth Jews are survivors of concentration camps, and they present a sad picture. They claim that living conditions at Bamberg, where they are to live in the Juliana Kaserns, are even worse than those existing here. Here they have been living in small houses, which are more or less furnished and where they can approximate some degree of family existence. At Bamberg, on the other hand, they will be herded into large, barracks-like rooms where, in the past, far too many people have lived.

Those who have refused to go to Bamberg have insisted that they be given other houses near the second Fuerth DP camp or be permitted to stay where they were. Many of those in process of being removed wept and raised such cries as “We’ve been five years in concentration camps. We’ve had enough. Let us stay here quietly.”