51 Jews Cast Adrift by Nazis in Mid-danube

Vivid confirmation of exclusive Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports from Vienna in the past few weeks which told of merciless expulsion of hundreds of Jews from the east Austrian province of Burgenland, after being stripped of property and money, was published today by London newspapers.

The newspaper print a harrowing story of the experiences encountered by 51 Jews who had been cast adrift by the Nazis in mid-Danube, on a breakwater. Under date of Prague, the dispatch relates that on Sunday night the inhabitants of Thaben, on the Czechoslovak bank of the Danube, heard cries for help coming from the river. A rescue party found a group of 51 Burgenland Jews huddled on a breakwater.

In the group were an 82-year-old rabbi and many women and children, who had been dumped by Nazi storm troopers on the breakwater, without food or warm clothing. Thaben residents fed and sheltered them and dressed the injuries of those who had been ill-treated by the troopers. Refused permission by the Czechoslovak authorities to remain, the group was sent to the Hungarian frontier where they were forbidden to cross. Thence the 51 were driven back to the Austrian frontier, where 35 of them were immediately arrested and imprisoned in the Kittsee barracks.

A delegation of Bratislava Jews has gone to Prague to ask the Minister of Interior to modify the official attitude, which is that lenience in such cases will encourage further expulsions into Czechoslovak territory. Another delegation is proceeding to London with an appeal for aid.

Meanwhile, it was reported from Yugoslavia that two batches of Burgenland deportees had arrived here in the past week but were not allowed to enter. The reports said the refugees are being detained at the frontier, penniless, without food and adequate clothing, in failing health and without their passports.