German local authorities in the American zone are sabotaging the transfer of displaced Jews from camps to permanent housing in cities and towns; it is reported today in the Manchester Guardian.
The paper reveals that the majority of the displaced Jews are still confined in camps not because they want to remain there, but because they have not obtained permission to move into private dwellings. The moving of displaced persons into towns depends upon permission of the local mayor.
About 15,000 displaced Jews live in town in the American zone, and many more would like to move, but permission is usually withheld on the ground that “the Germans do not wish to increase their burdens,” the correspondent reports. He also points out that more farms should be given to displace Jews. “This,” he says, “is one of the concessions which U.S. Army authorities are least willing to make, although the result achieved on collective farms, both mentally and physically, are far more superior to in any other community.”
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