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Foreign Jews in Italy in Rush for Visas As Emigration Deadline Nears

March 7, 1939
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With only six days left before the edict for expulsion of foreign Jews goes into effect, hundreds of Jews were today trying desperately to obtain visas for any country while hundreds of others fortunate enough to have obtained their visas were leaving daily. Following an announcement that the port of Tangiers has been closed to refugees, who up to now were permitted to enter without visas, Siam became the last hope for many of the foreign Jews. Hundreds of them have been applying for Chinese visas as well.

Hopes that the March 12 expulsion deadline would be prolonged are vanishing. Thousands of applications for extension of stays in Italy, filed since last September when the expulsion edict was issued as one of a series of anti-Jewish measures, have gone unanswered. Only a handful of extensions have been granted, including one for a German girl employed for many years by the Rome Consulate of the United States.

While those without prospects of a place of refuge have abandoned hopes of escaping, most American and British Jews have declined to apply for extension, refusing to accept the discrimination. United action by the American and British embassies on these individual cases is considered probable. There is not, however, any indication of general foreign intervention on behalf of Jews scheduled for deportation.

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