With nearly 20,000 Jews facing expulsion from Lorraine, among the entire French-speaking population, a new and grave situation has been created for Jewish organizations.
While Jewish refugees benefit from the general Government assistance for the deportees, the task of Jewish organizations will be to provide possibilities for permanent settlement of the refugees, who have no prospects of ever returning home.
The task is aggravated by the fact that the Jewish population of Lorraine is mainly urban, including more than 14,000 residents of Metz and Nancy, most of them traders and peddlers.
Jewish organizations are already assisting more than 15,000 Jewish refugees from Alsace who were expelled last September and also 6,000 German Jews expelled from Baden and the Bavarian Palatinate, who have now been removed from occupied France to to the free zone and placed in camps. Altogether the Germans have expelled nearly 30,000 German Jews from various German territories, who were gradually directed to the unoccupied zone.
Jewish organizations are attempting to provide relief for the new wave of refugees and are appealing for funds.
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