The Jewish population of Berlin has almost doubled since V-E Day, Eli Rock, JDC representative in the former Reich capital reported here.
Rock said that the community has increased from 8,000 men, women and children early in 1945 to 14,000 at present. A peak of 16,000 was reached during this past summer. More than 7,000 displaced Jews are living in two nearby DP camps. Among the Jews in the city about 1,700 are survivors of concentration camps and 1,300 were in hiding in Germany throughout the Nazi regime.
The Germans in the city display little open anti-Semitism, Rock declared, but he said that a good deal of deep-rooted anti-Jewish feeling persists and comes out in private conversations.
Among the Jews a greater emphasis on Jewish life and culture is evident. But Jewish education is a haphazard thing, chiefly because transportation is disrupted. A Jewish school has been established and children attend for two-week semesters, during which they are fed at school and do not have to return to their homes several times during the day. A new Jewish hospital was recently opened by the J.D.C.
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