Anglo-american Inquiry Committee Invites Jews from Rumania and Hungary to Testify

The Anglo-American Inquiry Committee, which was refused admission to Hungary and Rumania to hold hearings there, today extended official invitations to Jewish organizations in Bucharest and Budapest to send representatives to Vienna for the purpose of giving testimony on Jewish life in their respective countries.

(A cable to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency from Bucharest today stated that Jewish representatives in Rumania fear that they will not be given visas to leave the country. All major Jewish organizations, including the Federation of Jewish Communities and the Zionist Organization, are therefore preparing memorandums for submission to the inquiry committee in Vienna.)

The sub-committee taking testimony in Vienna, consisting of co-chairmen Sir John Singleton and Judge Joseph Hutcheson, and Lord Morrison and Richard Crossman, met behind closed doors today with Deputy Bishop Kamprath.

Earlier, the members of the unit visited two Jewish institutions in the Russian zone of Vienna. The first was an old people’s home in Matz Street, where 101 old Jews from the age of 75 and up had few complaints to make. They pointed out that they were patiently awaiting death.

At the second institution where 45 Jews are at present residing, a number of the inmates asserted that they were being kept from their own homes, while Nazis were living there with the consent of the Government. One Jew declared that previous to the Nazi occupation he had owned three homes and now, “I am unable to even go inside one of them.” Another told of owning two homes in which Nazis were now dwelling, while “I go begging, without avail, for the smallest apartment.” Judge Hutcheson assured them that they must exercise patience, and that even in the U.S. the process of the law is slow.

LORD MORRISON THINKS YOUNG JEWS MUST RETURN TO VIENNA “TO BUILD IT UP”

In the course of the tour, Lord Morrison remarked, after being told that there was no future for the Jews in Austria, “I really think that young Jews must return to Vienna to build it up. They possess great talents, and this is a great opportunity.” In reply, a Jewish youth asserted that “we cannot remain in this graveyard of our people. This bloodied land is the cemetery of Jewry.”

The sub-committee, which was accompanied on its visits by Ralph Seigelman, representative of the Joint Distribution Committee, also learned today that there were only 137 Jewish children left in Vienna, where previous to the Hitler Anschluss there had been some 30,000. Jewish Community Council spokesman told the sub-committee that 60 percent of the children had returned to the city direct from a concentration camp, and the remainder had lived in hiding during the occupation. Of the pitiful total, 31 were definitely known to be suffering of tuberculosis, and every other child was considered a likely tuberculosis suspect.

JEWS IN AUSTRIA ARE CONSIDERED “STRANGERS,” ANGLO-AMERICAN COMMITTEE IS TOLD

Representatives of the Jewish Community Council, testifying before the subcommittee, sharply disputed the statement made by Chancellor Leopol Figl on the situation of the Jews in Austria. They emphasized that the Jews are considered “strangers and foreigners” in Austria, and that they are advising Austrian Jews abroad not to return. They pointed out that little had been done by the Government to improve the

The sub-committee heard David Brill, chairman of the Jewish Community Council; Bernhard Braver, its director; and Rudolph Brown, a member of the Council’s board. Apparently as a result of correspondents’ dissatisfaction with the closed sessions held earlier this week, the testimony of the Jewish leaders was public. In a formal statement to the committee, the Jewish spokesmen said:

“Not a single Austrian Jew has succeeded in re-establishing himself in Austrian economy. Strong anti-Semitism prevails in the Austrian population. If there are not any outbursts of anti-Semitism, it is only that they are still intimidated by their defeat, and because the country is still occupied.

“Dolfuss started the economic boycott against Jews in 1934, and the Viennese population took an active part in the pogroms of Nov., 1938. Jews in Vienna do not have any confidence in the Austrian population, which not only participated in the barbaric acts against the Jews, but encouraged the activities of the Gestapo.

“We, ourselves, are alive only by a series of lucky events, and we are speaking for the 4,014 Jews in Vienna, all who survive of 185,000 Jews.”

AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT CHARGED WITH LACK OF GOOD WILL TOWARDS JEWS

Brill and Braver asserted that the position of the Jews in Central Europe was unbearable. The majority of them, they said, must seek new homes elsewhere where they can live in peace, “which means Palestine.” Most of the Vienna Jews, they added, were penniless and without adequate clothing or homes. Half are supported by the Council.

“We appeal to the Government, which appears friendly, but its encouraging oral statements are later revoked in curt letters,” Brill said. “Only the older Austrian Jews wish to remain. They do not have enough energy to move. The younger wish to emigrate to Palestine.”

When Hutcheson asked if the Jews’ feeling would change, if their property was returned, Braver replied: “We are now fighting for our life. We do not know what the Government told you, but we feel that we are not getting the good will of the Government.” He promised to furnish the committee with a list of instances of anti-Semitism in connection with attempts to obtain return of Jewish property.

Hutcheson said that “you know that justice moves slowly. Sometimes so slowly that, fearful of doing wrong, it fails to do right. If you want something, you must stand up and push for it.”

Braver answered: “You must remember that in other countries you have citizens and nothing else. Here they say all are citizens, but they leave the Jews in the same position as Hitler did. We try everything always, but the Government refuses to recognize the fact that we are living in the streets. We see Nazis living in flats stolen from us, and nothing is being done.”