Leaders of the Committee of Liberated Jews in the British zone of Germany were today informed that a plan to move Jews out of one section of the Bergen-Belsen camp and devote it to Germans repatriated from territory now in the hands of Allied nations, will not be put into effect in the near future.
The announcement of the contemplated action was made yesterday by Brigadier A.G. Kenchington, chief of the DP division of the British Control Commission in Germany. Today’s assurances were given the Jews during a conference with high ranking British officers who said that they would wait until enough Jews had emigrated from the camp so that a section of it could be turned over to the Germans without displacing the Jews.
They also denied persistent rumors to the effect that a number of small camps for Jews, scattered throughout the zone, would be closed soon and their inmates sent to larger camps such as Belsen. However, the officers refused to guarantee that such action would not be taken sometime in the future, in line with Anglo-American policy to consolidate camps in the joined zones.
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