The demands of German officials for the speedy “liquidation” of the Foehrenwald Camp, the last Jewish DP camp in Germany, was opposed today at a press conference here by Samuel Haber, director of Joint Distribution Committee activities in Germany.
“Camp Foehrenwald cannot be closed until the DP’s living there have been helped to emigrate abroad, or arrangements have been made for suitable living and employment possibilities for them,” Mr. Haber declared. He pointed out that approximately 2,000 Jewish survivors of Nazi persecution still live in the camp near Munich.
“All of them want desperately to emigrate,” he said, “but most families in the camp have at least one member who has been barred from normal resettlement channels because of ill health, usually a chronic ailment. Thus the so-called ‘hard core’ group with their families account for the majority of Jewish refugees living in this grim and cheerless DP center,” Mr. Haber stated.
The JDC is concentrating its efforts on finding a “permanent solution” to the plight of the Foehrenwald refugees through special emigration and integration projects, Mr. Haber reported. In this effort, he said, JDC is working closely with international voluntary and intergovernmental bodies and has sought the cooperation of German authorities.
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