A demand that the Jewish DP’s at Foehrenwald Camp be given the same state assistance as “volksdeutsche” refugees expelled from Eastern Europe was voiced here today by Moritz Weinberger, president of the Association of Jewish Communities in Bavaria.
Conferring with Bavarian Secretary for Refugees Prof. Theodor Oberlaender after an official investigation of the camp, Mr. Weinberger threatened to institute legal proceedings against anyone who charge that there were “criminal elements” among the Jewish DP’s in the camp–a charge that had been made by Prof. Oberlaender, one-time high Nazi official in occupied Czechoslovakia and Russia.
Mr. Weinberger also denied Herr Oberlaender’s statement that there were some 3,000 to 4,000 Jews returning from Israel to Germany. He said that the few hundred returnees who are in the camp and who are termed “illegal” returnees by Prof. Oberlaender, are there because consular officials in Paris refused them immigration visas to Canada and the United States.
The German official, however, rejected Mr. Weinberger’s criticisms and insisted that the existence of “criminal elements” at Foehrenwald had been proved. He also told a delegation of the Jewish camp committee that verbal and written protests had been received from camp residents to the effect that the “illegal” had terrorized them. At this point, one of the delegates flatly accused Herr Oberlaender of being anti-Semitic.
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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.
