Hungary Plans Ghetto for Jews in Budapest, Commissioner for Jewish Affairs Announces

The Jews of Budapest will shortly be segregated within a ghetto “to prevent Jews residing with non-Jews,” it was announced today by Lazlo Endre, Under-Secretary of the Hungarian Ministry of the Interior who has been named Commissioner for Jewish Affairs.

In a broadcast by the Budapest radio, Endre is quoted as stating that all Jews in the Hungarian capital will be concentrated within a separates “Jewish quarter.” in the meantime certain houses will be reserved for occupancy only by Jews, while Jews will be barred from others.

Meanwhile, leaders of the Jewish community in Budapest are faced with the problem of re-housing Jews who have been ousted from their apartments which have been taken over for Hungarian and Germans whose homes have been destroyed in Allied air raids. In an attempt to cope with this problem, the “Central Jewish Council,” the government-controlled body which was established to replace all other Jewish organizations, which have been dissolved, is placing two or more families in whatever apartments are available.

The Ministry of the Interior also announced today that property owned by Jews must be registered by April 30. According to a decree issued over the week-end, the “registration” is a prelude to confiscation of all valuables in the possession of Jews.

The Federation of Jewish communities in Switzerland today organized a special committee “to coordinate the salvation of the remnants of European Jewry, especially the Jews of Hungary.” The committee is headed by Rabbi Brom of Lucern. The liberal Swiss newspaper Basler National-Zeitung, in an article today asks whether dignitaries of the Hungarian churches who are ex-officio members of the Hungarian Upper House, will speak out in Parliament against the anti-Jewish measures adopted by the puppet government.