Bartley Crum and Sir Frederick Leggett, who, together with Judge Simon H. Rifkind, have been touring the U.S. zone of Germany as a sub-committee of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine, have completed their survey in Germany, and are now en route to Prague, from where they will go to Vienna on Friday.
The last camp they visited was one at Furth, 50 miles from Nuremberg, where the 1,500 residents, most of them from Poland, repeated the now familiar demand that they want to go to Palestine. In fact, when the Furth DP’s were polled on their preference of countries of emigration they listed Palestine as both first and second choices.
The sub-committee also visited a farm originally owned by Julius Streicher, which now houses 100 young Jews, who have established a “kibbutz” along the lines of the collective farms in Palestine, to which they wish to emigrate. The young farmers, most of whom are in their twenties, are raising pigs, cows, chickens and crops, and have taken over all the activities which had been carried on by Streicher’s employees. Crum and Leggett tasted some of the choose produced at the “kibbutz” and pronounced it excellent.
They also looked on interestedly while boys and girls performed the “Hora,” and heard the dancers plead that they be allowed to dance it on the soil of Palestine. Voicing their wish to settle in Palestine, a spokesman said: “This is what we are preparing for now. This is where all our deepest hopes lie.”
Yesterday, the sub-committee had an opportunity to see Streicher himself, when they attended the war crimes trial at the Palace of Justice here. They also saw a special showing of the atrocity films, which are part of the prosecution evidence. Later Crum and Leggett were guess of Francis Biddle, U.S. member of the court.
In Prague, the sub-committee expects to speak with spokesman of Jewish organizations. Their program has been arranged by the Czechoslovak Government, in cooperation with the American and British ambassadors. It is expected that the other ten members of the committee who have been split into three groups, touring the British zone, French zone and Poland, respectively, will also be in Vienna this weekend.
While in Frankfurt, the sub-committee heard testimony by Ilya Di jour, HIAS representative in Germany, who said that at best, a maximum of 15,000 Jews will be able to emigrate from Germany this year to places other than Palestine. Political consideration aside, he added, there is no other solution but to send the remainder to Palestine. “It is a shameful thing,” Di jour continued, “that the Big Three and all the United Nations together cannot find a solution to the problem of some 60,000 Jews.”
To a question as to whether the Zionist youth movement was not organized after a Nazi pattern, Judge Rifkind replied: “Not at all. It is more like the Boy Scout movement.”
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