Disease, hunger and freezing temperatures today menaced 3,000 refugees marooned on barges and small boats on the ice-locked Danube in Rumanian and Yugoslavian harbors. The refugees, driven by the Nazis out of Prague and Vienna, have been afloat on the Danube for more than three months without being permitted to land at any port.
More than 100 of 2,000 on unheated barges in the Rumanian port of Sulina are ill, according to a message sent to this correspondent by relief organizations. Virtually all the children, the message said, are suffering from frostbitten ears and hands.
Meanwhile, a delegation representing Yugoslavian Jewish communities arrived here with a plea for aid for 1,000 other refugees marooned in Yugoslavian waters of the Danube. They said food was being sent to the ice-bound steamer by sledges.
There is little likelihood that the refugees will be able to continue their journey in search of a haven until the ice melts and navigation on the Danube is resumed, which means at least another two months. In the meantime, the cost of their maintenance must be covered partly by the respective Jewish communities and partly by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
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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.
