The number of German Jewish refugees in Czechoslovakia has decreased from 3,800 to 350, only 100 of whom, however, require assistance, Mme. Marie Schmolka, one of the leaders of the Jewish refugee work in this country, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency here. Only fifty can be permanently assisted; the rest given help only from time to time. Of the fifty given assistance, thirty are able to work, leaving only twenty who will be obliged to depend on assistance.
The Jewish Refugee Aid Committee has stopped its relief activity, and the Praha Jewish Community has taken over the work of helping those who are in need, within the general limits of its own social and welfare work. The Refugee Committee is confining itself to legal assistance for the refugees and the representation of their interests to the authorities and the various institutions abroad.
The work of occupational retraining of the younger refugees has been taken over by the Czechoslovakian Hechalutz, Madame Schmolka declared two hundred and sixty refugees are now being trained in agricultural and technical schools.
Forty hundred and seventy refugees have so far been placed by the committee in various countries of settlement, the great majority in Palestine.
“It is, nevertheless, still impossible to think of liquidating the refugee aid work in Czechoslovakia in the near future, Mme. Schmolka concluded. “The future of a considerable number of refugees is still doubtful. The stream of new refugees from Germany has indeed been stemmed, but has by no means stopped.”
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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.