About 20,000 refugees, mostly Jews, fled from unoccupied France to Spain last week, just before the Nazi occupation of all of France, the Daily Herald reports from Lisbon today, adding that the only refugees who were not permitted to cross were those possessing visas for Britain or the United States.
Trains from the interior of France to the Spanish frontier were crowded and every facility was extended to the refugees until the closing of the French frontier, the Herald states, Even the German inspectors who entered the trains did not attempt to halt any of the refugees except these with the American and British visas.
Since the Nazis assumed control of what was hitherto Vichy-ruled France, however, the Gestapo has placed men at the frontier stations, and all Jews are taken from trains reaching there, the report states.
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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.