The German demand that the Czechs clean up anti-Nazi nests seemed nearer to fulfillment today with reports from Paris that 5,000 visas for European countries will be made available to refugees here within a few weeks.
Responsible circles state that the visas will be used to evacuate Jews, Communists and Social Democrats whose past political activities would put them “on the spot” if they were returned to Sudetenland. Apportionment of the visas among the various groups will be determined by negotiations among their representatives.
The allotment is reported to be in addition to 550 visas for Britain, France and Scandinavian countries previously announced under which 50 non-Jews yesterday left for Finland. A second group, reportedly including 50 Austrian Jewish families, will leave this week-end for Gdynia, Poland, where a ship will be waiting to transport them to French, British and Scandinavian ports.
Sir Ronald MacLeay, former British Minister to Czechoslovakia, arrived here tonight and was expected to meet Jewish and other groups soon to discuss allocation of British funds for emigration assistance.
The Jewish population of “no-man’s land” on the Austrian-Moravian frontier was increased from the Czech side for the first time, according to unconfirmed reports from Brno, when the authorities escorted 50 Austrian Jewish families to the frontier and forced them to cross the line. Formal investigation of the “no-man’s-land” problem will be undertaken soon.
From an official view the Jewish aspect of the refugee problem, involving between 2,000 and 3,000 refugees from the Reich and between 20,000 and 23,000 Jews from the Sudetenland who once were Czechoslovak citizens but are now technically German aliens, is only one part of the general refugee problem.
a number of decrees that have been passed apply not only to Jews but to all refugees, These include a ban on opening of Nev. businesses and admission of doctors and lawyers to practice for one year,” registration of refugees,’ prohibition on migration from town to town without permit; impounding of bank accounts. Under consideration is a measure establishing refugee camps along the Slovak-Moravi an border.
An order for refugees to return to the Sudetenland was tacitly withdrawn last week after only a few hundred were forced to go back to nazi soil, although the government is now trying to induce them to return voluntarily. One exception is the plight of Jewish refugees from the Reich, whose position is most acute. Seven hundred now at Brno have been threatened with deportation Oct. 271 the group, living in a collective dwelling maintained by the Praha Jewish Social Institute, was arrested last week and released only after the most urgent pleas, but the dwelling was closed down.
Unwanted Jewish refugees are subject to police raids. Those permitted to stay are living from hand to mouth on the charity of friends or the bounty of the Jewish community, For those from the occupied Sudeten areas, the outlook is completely bleak. Hope for an opportunity to opt for Czechoslovak citizenship under the Munich pact is considered a chimera. Government spokesmen who are anxious to decry anti-Semitism make no bones about this.
The Czech University here, it was learned today, is not admitting Jews who affirmed Jewish nationality in the 1930 census. Also under ban are Jewish and German refugees from the Sudetenland, while non-refugee Jews who affirmed Czech nationality in the census are admitted apparently without restrictions. The union of Czech medical students has barred Jews as members.
Representatives of 34 Jewish communities in Sudetenland districts have organized a general body to replace the union of Jewish communities existing before the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. Committees for welfare, emigration and legal questions were appointed. The new body will function within the framework of existing Jewish organizations. Spokesmen for the group stated that Jewish refugees from Sudetenland, contrary to original estimates, did not exceed 15,000.
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