Tens of thousands of Jews are reported “missing” in France, Belgium and Holland as a result of their hiding from the occupation authorities who seek to deport them, Allied circles here were informed today.
Special formations of the German police assisted by Gestapo units and by local police forces are constantly searching for these victims whose whereabouts cannot be established because of the aid which the fugitive Jews receive from the underground movement, backed by the bulk of the local populations. The search has been going on for weeks in towns, farms, villages and even on trains and in street cars, which are stopped at random while passengers are forced to show identification papers indicating that they are not Jewish.
In a number of French and Belgian towns, whole blocks are surrounded by the police in the hope that Jews will be found hidden in the houses. Non-Jewish homes suspected of sheltering escaped Jews are raided at night. None of these measures bring substantial results and most of the fugitives are still at large, leaders of the Allied Information Office here said, on the basis of information which they have received from France and Belgium.
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