Urgent action by the Allied countries to save several hundred Jewish refugees possessing either South American citizenship certificates or Palestine visas was urged today by a British internee who arrived in Lisbon this week from Germany in the transport of British citizens being exchanged for German nationals.
This informant, who was confined together with the refugees in the Vittel camp in France, said that they were deported to Poland during April, May, and July of this year following failure by the South American countries to recognize their citizenship certificates and alleged failure by Britain to ratify the Palestine visas held by some of the internees.
The arriving internee disclosed that although information finally arrived to the effect that both the South American certificates and the Palestine visas would be honored, the camp commandant continued with the deportations. It is believed that the deportees are now confined in ” Jewish extermination camps” in Birkenau, Oswiecim, Sosnowitz, Kattowitz, Frodorf, Innsbruck and others, and are in danger of execution unless the Allies can prevail upon the Germans to allow the Red Cross to assume jurisdiction over them.
The British internees in Lisbon confirm the report that many of the refugees committed suicide when they learned they would not be exchanged. Among them was Mrs. Tamara Schorr, widow of former Chief Rabbi Moses Schorr of Warsaw. In the group of 281 Jews who arrived in Palestine early last month were some who had been interned at Vittel and had witnessed the deportations.
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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.
