The Joint Distribution Committee has announced here the inauguration of an emergency aid program providing cash relief, food, clothing and shelter for all Jewish refugees arriving in West Berlin from the Soviet zone of Germany.
Samuel Haber, Joint Distribution Committee director for Germany, told newsmen that the overseas welfare agency had granted a special fund to West Berlin’s Jewish community to open hostels, establish feeding facilities and a registration center for Jews in flight from the East. He estimated that 400 Jews had reached West Berlin since the recent “purge” trial in Prague.
Most refugees now arriving in West Berlin are aged and will survivors of Nazi concentration camps,” Mr. Haber reported. Some had been living on small pensions granted to them as victims of Fascism. Some of them stated that they were removed from pension rolls in recent weeks for refusing to join Communist-sponsored activities. The JDC director estimated that 2,500 Jews remain in Soviet-occupied Germany, of whom 1,800 are in East Berlin, and 700 in the Russian zone of Germany.
NEW HOSTEL TO BE OPENED IN BERLIN TODAY; AIR LIFT PLANNED
The JDC uses the West Berlin Jewish community building as headquarters. Here the community has opened a registration office where all new arrivals are enrolled. Every registrant receives an immediate cash grant and is given emergency shelter. Large numbers have been placed in furnished rooms throughout the city, with JDC paying their rent. A special ward in the Jewish community hospital accommodating 30 persons has been set aside as a special shelter and is now fully occupied.
A new hostel will be opened tomorrow in Wannsee, a suburb of Berlin, for 60 refugees. During the summer months this hostel serves as a vacation camp for Jewish children under a special JDC grant to the community. JDC’s feeding program consists of providing three meals daily for every refugee registered on the community rolls. Special distributions of clothing will be made as necessary and all the medical needs of the refugees will be met, Mr. Haber said.
The JDC director emphasized that there is no future in overcrowded Berlin for Jewish refugees. He disclosed plans for their transfer to Western ###ones via the Federal Republic’s air-lift, which flies refugees out of Berlin regularly.
A number of West German Jewish communities assured their readiness to receive and absorb the Berlin refugees. The JDC will make special grants to communities to help them provide housing and employment opportunities to absorb refugees. JDC will also provide emigration aid for those refugees able to secure visas, Mr. Haber said.
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