The two camps being prepared for the 4,400 Exodus refugees now en route here in three British prison ships are the worst this correspondent has seen during two years in the American zone of Germany.
Poppendorf, located in the forest of the same name, consists of 56 small Nis(##) huts, 35 by 16 feet, each of which is intended for the use of 25 persons. There were also 14 big huts, accommodating 60 persons each, 125 huts holding 10 people, which are eight feet in diameter, and five huts planned to hold six people. In all, about 3,000 of the refugees will be sent here.
Potato sacks haphazardly filled with straw cover the steel stretchers in the huts which have been sprayed throughout with DDT. Rat holes are visible inside and outside the huts. The only good point which can be made for these barracks is the fact that, because they have been newly painted, their appearance from the outside (##)s satisfactory.
Barbed wire barricades and watch towers are now under construction by a staff of Germans and Yugoslavs. Contradictory to the statement issued last week by Maj.-Gen. William Bishop, deputy commander of the British zone, that no Germans would be used in the centers, this correspondent learned from the German superintendent of the camps that there will be more than 100 Germans working as maintenance men. The medical staff, including six doctors, will be completely German. The superintendent said that Poppendorf was formerly a camp for German refugees from the East who stayed only one or two days.
One British officer with whom this correspondent spoke, commented: “I don’t think my children, or anybody else’s, would like it here.” A German doctor who stated that there was a sufficient supply of medicines on hand disclosed that British public health officials had inspected the camps during the last few days. He quoted them as saying they were satisfied with conditions “except for a few small details.”
The superintendent expressed the opinion that the camps were not fit for human beings. One official serving as a guide declared that Poppendorf was worse than (##)swiecim, where he had been, except for the gas chambers.
The other camp, Amstau, although a little better than Poppendorf, contains double-decker metal beds covered with potato sack mattresses which seem ready to collapse momentarily. It is expected to house 1,500 of the refugees.
On a visit today to the Hamburg pier, this correspondent observed about 75 Germans working overtime to complete the special arrangements being set up for the refugees’ reception. Pier 29, where the Jews are expected to disembark, is heavily barricaded and patrolled.
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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.
