London newspapers reported today that Mussolini, in an effort to strengthen his position with the Vatican, is relaxing the anti-Jewish laws in Italy. No details were given.
Describing the entry of the British forces into Tripoli, the London Tines today emphasizes the undisguised pleasure and the eloquent feelings of relief which the Jewish population in Tripoli displayed. Other London newspapers in their reports from Tripoli state that a number of leading Jews there were executed by the retreating Axis armies a few hours before the British forces entered the city.
(Don Whitehead and George Tucker, two correspondents of the Associated Press who were the first Americans to enter Tripoli with the British forces, reported that they were hugged and kissed by the liberated Jews. In a joint despatch from Tripoli they described the emotions of the Jewish community in Tripoli as follows:
“Touring the city, we visited Tripoli’s ancient ghetto where some 16,000 Jews were crowded into a labyrinth of houses and cellars resembling a rabbit warren. We walked through an arched gate guarded by military policemen and the instant the people recognized us as Americans the outburst was all but riotous. Some threw themselves at our feet, offering gifts of not only wine and tobacco but of money. Men threw their arms about us and kissed our cheeks. Women kissed our hands. Children clung to our legs and kissed our shoes.
“They showed us photographs of President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, with cries ‘Viva America! Viva Inglesi!’. They produced skimpy loaves of bread, less than six inches long, the ration for two persons a day.
“A husky young fellow suddenly took us by the arms and shoved us through the crowds into a courtyard and down a flight of dark steps into a room where a white-robed patriarch sat at a bare table. A torrent of people crowded after us, hundreds clamoring for admittance until the doors were barred. They told us that a few hours before the troops entered the city some leading Jewish merchants had been dragged from their shops and shot, but they expressed no surprise at this because, they said, it was the kind of thing that had been going on since the days when this city was the seat of Mediterranean piracy.”)
The suggestion that Tripolitania, other sections of Libya and other Axis territories in Africa, now occupied by the British forces should be made available as soon as possible “as another home for displaced and oppressed Jews from Europe” was made today by Sir John Wardlaw-Milne, Conservative member of Parliament. In a letter published in the London Times, Sir John urges that the settlement of Jews in these territories should be conducted under the control of the United Nations, since Britain desires no territorial gains.a
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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.
