Four thousand Jews, the entire population of the Landsberg camp for displaced persons, went on a hunger strike today to protest the continued detention of 20 of their comrades who are being held in connection with the battle between Jewish DP’s and Germans on Sunday.
Army authorities have clamped a blackout on the camp, and correspondents and photographers have been warned that they would be arrested, if they attempted to enter.
Early today a crowd of about 1,000 marched to the camp gates shouting demands for the release of the 20. On several occasions, it appeared as if the DP’s would clash with American soldiers guarding and patrolling the camp, but violence was averted. The Jews were permitted to erect a huge banner at the camp entrance, which read: “We demand that the 20 arrested Jews be released.”
(In a cable to the World Jewish Congress today, Chaplain Bertrum Klausner, who is stationed at Landsberg, reported that the mystery of the two missing Jewish camp guards, which helped to precipitate Sunday’s disturbance, has still not been solved. The men are still missing and there are continued rumors of foul play.
(Chaplain Klausner pointed out that the recommendation that the camps be evacuated immediately, which was made by the Anglo-American inquiry committee, must be carried out immediately, since the morale of the DP’s is at such low ebb that “the smallest incident will call out similar reactions. The Jewish Committee is powerless to control the which of the people.”)
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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.
