In what would appear to be a reversal of his recent statement concerning the barring of fleeing Eastern European Jews from the U.S. zone in Germany, Gen. Joseph T. McNarney today announced that he expected 2,000 Polish Jews to arrive within the next two months and that they would be admitted.
“We will give them haven, house them and feed them, as we have done in the past,” he said. He stated that it was American policy to aid the refugees even though they had entered the U.S. zone illegally. He pointed out that the majority of Jews fleeing Poland are now entering American-occupied territory through Vienna, rather than Berlin.
Estimating that 100,000 Jews were still preparing to leave Poland, he said that he did not believe that the British request to several nations along the emigration route that they tighten their border controls would have much effect. “The great majority of Jews who have been selected–by whom I don’t know–to board vessels at Marseilles or other ports, get there by some means,” he added.
UNRRA Director-General Fiorello LaGuardia, who has been sharply critical of the Army’s policy towards DP’s, said here last night that he considered Jews entering the U.S. zone to be entitled to UNRRA aid until they could be resettled. He declared that he did not anticipate that any Jews would be among the Poles, Yugoslav and other nationals of Eastern European nations whom UNRRA hopes to persuade to return home.
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