While people throughout Europe will observe tomorrow the first anniversary of their liberation, the displaced Jews in Germany and Austria will have little cause for rejoicing.
The best indication of their feelings a year after V-E Day is their almost complete apathy towards the recommendations of the Anglo-American Palestine report. Their utter demoralization is illustrated by the recent events in the Landsberg camp.
Their discontent is expressed constantly in the simple statement: “Why are we still here in a country which caused all our troubles?” They have been repeating that statement for many months and receiving evasive answers, glowing promises and official tributes. They have filled out so many questionnaires and have had their hopes dashed so many times that their pessimism and cynicism have now reached the point where their demoralization may result in violence.
Meanwhile, the Army, whose chief job is to maintain law and order, has been cracking down harder each month. There have been, unfortunately, too many cases where the Army showed greater concern for the welfare and protection of the Germans than of the DP’s. The latest example is the incident at Landsberg, where the initial Army reports bent backwards to condemn the Jews.
The DP’s feel that military justice is swift where they are concerned, but slow and inept where Germans are involved. They, therefore, have come to believe that the military is hostile to them. They have, of course encountered many sympathetic officers, and, perhaps, this is the reason why there have not been more disturbances.
The situation has now reached the point where the general discontent is at its highest pitch because of the continued delays in their emigration and resettlement and the strong, and generally not sympathetic, military attitude. This discontent is bound to increase with each passing day, with a possible explosion in the offing if the 20 DP’s arrested following the Landsberg riot are punished by the military court.
UNRRA AIDES WORRIED; TRY TO PLACATE DP’S AS ARAY PROBE CAUSES UNREST
The UNRRA and voluntary agency officials at the comp are frankly worried and have been attempting to placate the DP’s, but the Army’s chief contribution to easing the tension has been intensified investigations by the counter-intelligence and the military government for evidence that the disturbance was really a general conspiracy and was incited by certain individuals or organizations, or both.
It was announced today that Monday has been set for the opening of the trial of the 20 arrested Jews before a five-man AMG court at Augsburg which can mete out sentences up to the death penalty. The defense is seeking the services of an Army lawyer to assist the two DP attorneys, and may seek a postponement if it is not able to secure one by Monday.
(The Associated Press reports today from Budapest that the American commender in Vienna, Maj. Gen. William S. Key, has protested to the Allied Control Council in Hungary against the continued infiltration of Jews from that country into the U.S. zone in Austria. In a letter to Lisut. Gen. V.P. Sviridov, acting chairman of the Central Council, Gen. Key said that approximately 2,700 Jews have arrived in Vienna from Hungary, and that such mass migrations could not occur if the Hungarian Government had made any attempts to halt the movements. On April 13 the Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent in Vienna reported that the U.S. authorities had closed the border between Austria and the American zone in Germany, stranding hundreds of Jews in Vienna.)
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
