Jewish Dp’s Must Be Transferred from Germany As Soon As Possible, Judge Rifkind Reports

The Jewish survivors in the camps in Germany and Austria cannot wait much longer for the Allied powers to find a solution to their homelessness, Judge Simon H. Rifkind, former adviser on Jewish affairs to the American forces in the European Theatre, warned today at a press conference here. He returned this week from five months of service at U. S. Army headquarters in Germany.

In response to a question asking him to estimate when the Jewish DP camps might close, in light of Secretary of State James F. Byrnes’ statement that all except “persecuted people” camps would be closed by the end of August, Judge Rifkind said that he hoped that the Jewish DP’s would be moved to a permanent place of abode before then, because their morale and mental health could not hold up that long.

He reiterated his earlier statements that the majority of the Jews wished to go to Palestine, and must be helped in reaching there. The urgency of the situation caused him to “plead” with the Anglo-American Inquiry committee for an interim report recommending the immediate admission of the displaced Jews of Europe, Judge Rifkind declared.

(British and American newspapers today reported from Jerusalem that reliable sources say the Anglo-American inquiry committee will back President Truman’s request for the immediate admission of 100,000 Jews from Europe to Palestine. The report added that it was reliably learned that had the committee issued an interim report in Vienna, 11 of its 12 members would have voted in favor of admission of 100,000 Jews to Palestine.)

Judge Rifkind asserted that there were 55,000 displaced Jews in the American zone of Germany, and 100,000 Jewish DP’s in all zones of Germany and Austria. He emphasized that there was a total of 300,000 Jews either homeless or faced with imminent homelessness in Central and Eastern Europe. He termed any attempt at large-scale resettlement of Jews in Europe a “pipe dream,” pointing out that Nazi racialism still polluted the atmosphere and made the Jews “unwanted” anywhere on the continent.

Speaking of the Eastern European Jews, Judge Rifkind said that “relatively small numbers” of Polish, Hungarian, Rumanian, and Carpathian Jews were still filtering into the U.S. Zone in Germany. President Truman’s directive facilitating immigration into this country would provide the German-born Jews with a “reasonable opportunity” for migration, he stated, adding, however, that because of the small number of visas assigned to Eastern European countries, the Polish and Eastern European Jews in Germany had a very “slim” chance of being admitted to the United States.