Little success has attended efforts of the Polish Government-in-exile to obtain visas for Polish refugees, including Jews, from overseas countries, it was disclosed today by Dr. Ignacy Schwartzbard, member of the Polish National Council.
Intervention with Brazil, he said, may result in some exceptions from the immigration law’s “Aryan” clause and there was a possibility that a number of refugees mighty shortly be able to proceed to Palestine.
Dr. Schwartzbard revealed that there were 400 Polish Jews in Portugal, where they had arrived after escaping from France under difficult circumstances. He said 5,000 to 6,000 Polish Jews who formerly resided in Belgium were still in France.
Several hundred Polish Jewish refugees were reported by Dr. Schwartzbard still in Rumania, 200 in Yugoslavia, a few dozens in Hungary and other small groups in Greece, Turkey and French Morocco. All, he said, were most anxious to proceed overseas since anti-Jewish regulations were being tightened daily, making even the work of such humanitarian organizations as the HIAS-ICA Emigration Association, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the ORT Federation and the OSE, Jewish health society, almost impossible.
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