Two thousand Jews imprisoned in a concentration camp at Bagna di Lucca, in the mountain fighting zone, were deported northward by the Germans after unsuccessful efforts to save them by the Intergovernmental Refugee Committee, it was learned here today. Only 30 of the camp’s inmates managed to escape.
Arthur Greenleigh, joint Distribution Committee representative in Italy, just prior to leaving for Paris, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent, that within the next fortnight all of Rome’s Jewish cultural, religious, welfare and educational institutions will have been reopened and will be functioning on a pre-war scale. Final plans for reopening the hospital and orphanage have been completed. Already in operation are a nursery, kindergarten, home for the aged, schools and religious institutions. Local committees are now operating in every city and town in liberated Italy. In Rome, local Jews have raised 800,000 lire to match the JDC’s contribution.
A similar campaign has been launched in Florence, where local Jews have already allocated 300,000 lire to reopen community institutions. It will cost 5,000,000 lire to repair Florence’s magnificent synagogue, which the Nazis mined. South African sappers finished clearing mines and time bombs from the synagogue several weeks ago.
Meanwhile, as a result of the efforts of the Intergovernmental Committee and the JDC 900, stateless Jewish refugees from Germany, Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia will leave for Palestine within a few weeks, it was announced here.
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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.
