Anti-Semitism is rampant in the American zone of Germany and a program of counter-indoctrination of the German population must be instituted immediately, a spokesman for the Central Jewish Committee of Germany declared today. He asserted that the denazification laws intended to wipe out anti-Semitism had had little effect.
He announced that more than 132,000 displaced Jews, at 231 meetings through out the U.S. zone of Germany, participated in Monday’s demonstration to protest the fact that they are still behind barbed wire nearly two years after liberation. The spokesman said that further protest demonstrations would be held unless plight of the DP’s improved.
David Treger, chairman of the committee, commenting on the present DP situation, declared that it is “covered with a blanket of despair penetrated by occasional rays of light such as the report of the Anglo-American Inquiry Committee and the recent statement by President Truman.” Treger insisted that the major demand of the Jews was liquidation of the DP camps. He termed the Palestine situation in reference to the displaced Jews “dark,” asserting that the constant postponement of a decision was most disheartening to the Jews. He estimated that if all countries including Palestine were to open their doors to refugee immigration, about 95 percent of the Jewish DP’s would choose Palestine.
Leon Retter, secretary of the committee, declared that the group deplores the fact that some displaced Jews take part in black market operations. However, he said that a serious shortage of food and consumer goods and a lack of a full employment program were chiefly responsible for this situation.
He pointed out that the Germans had all the farm produce and that if Jewish parents desired to obtain milk, aggs and fresh vegetables for their children, it was frequently necessary for them to enter the black market and obtain search consumer goods which they bartered to the Germans. He said that he hoped the unemployment situation would shortly be relieved with the inauguration of a DP work program which the auspices of the U.S. Army, Jewish relief organizations, the control permitment the UNFRA.
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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.
