A total of 687 “illegal” residents of Fohrenwald, the last remaining camp for displaced Jews in Germany, registered in the special census ordered Sunday by the Bavarian officials, it was reported here today.
The nearly 700 who registered before last night’s deadline are men, women and children who left Germany after the war and have since returned to it from Israel and other countries. Because these Jews came to Germany a second time without entrance visas and residence permits they have been labelled “illegals” by the German officials. The DP’s come to Germany in the hope of being able to emigrate from here to the United States, Canada or other countries in the Western Hemisphere.
In an attempt to discourage the return of the Jewish DP’s, the authorities have arrested some of them and deported them. Last week, faced with the possibility of further arrests and expulsions, the returnees held a sit-down strike in the offices of the Joint Distribution Committee until they were promised that their expulsion would be held up temporarily.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.