American Jewish servicemen stationed at or near Rheims, France, raised 75,000 francs for a fund to put the revived Jewish community of Rheims back on its feet, the Jewish Welfare Board reported today.
Rheims, with about 140 Jewish families before the German occupation, had three left when the U.S. armed forces got to the city. In the succeeding five months, that nucleus increased to 75 families, both French Jews and those who had migrated to France from central and Eastern Europe. Most of the returning heads of families were able to repossess homes and other properties formerly theirs and turned over to “Aryans” during the German occupation. Others, however, and some of these as well, needed help to re-establish themselves in the community, and the GIs’75,000 francs was set up as loan fund for that purpose.
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