A fund of 20,000,000 zlotys for the establishment of co-operatives and other means of employment for Jews repatriated from the Soviet Union to Poland has been voted in the Polish city of Stettin, according to information received here today.
The fund was voted after a lengthy meeting of the Stettin District Commission on National Minorities, which heard bitter reports from Jewish representatives who complained about the mistreatment of the repatriates.
One of the Jewish representatives, I. Bialostocky, told the Commission that many of the repatriates are homeless, and some fear that, due to lack of housing and employment, they may be evicted from temporary housing. He told instances in which Jewish repatriates, who have been living in a reception camp for months, were denied dwellings vacated by Polish Jews who had emigrated to Israel, “while this free housing was allocated to people who had absolutely nothing to do with the repatriation program.”
Lack of housing, schools for the children, and unemployment were given as the problems facing the Jewish repatriates. In some instances, however, sanitation and hygiene are also grave problems, the Commission was told. The Commission voted to send a special medical-sanitation team to one reception center, where three cases of scarlatina had been identified by local physicians.
Another need is the provision of Jewish cultural facilities for the repatriates, the Commission was told.
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