Following an appeal sent over the week-end to the Big Three conference at Potsdam, urging that the Allied leaders take steps to save the remnants of European Jewry, the World Jewish Congress released a report on the condition of the “liberated” Jews in German camps, declaring that in some camps former Nazis have been placed in charge.
The camps, the report said, are “scandalously unsanitary” and the detainees are ravaged by disease, and many die daily. There is an acute shortage of doctors, nurses, medicines, food, bedding and clothing, it added. The report also charged that many of the persons held under these conditions, awaiting transport to their home countries, do not wish to be repatriated, because anti-Semitism is still rampant in their homelands.
The Congress revealed that in a letter sent on May 5, Prime Minister Churchill said that the care of the Jews found in camps was a military matter and that he was referring a request by the Congress to the War Office, expressing the hope that it would be given sympathetic consideration. Jewish leaders feel that the situation in the camps is not a result of any deliberate policy of the military authorities, but reflects their failure to grasp the seriousness of the situation.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
