Nazis Shipping Rhineland Jews to Lublin Area, Paris Hears

A French broadcast reported today that the German authorities had begun expulsion of Jews from the Rhineland to the Lublin Jewish “reservation” in Poland. Many of the ousted Jews “are already on their way to Lublin,” the broadcast said.

At the same time it was reliably reported that the Gestapo was summoning Jews in Berlin and other parts of the Old Reich and warning them that they would be transported to Lublin unless they “voluntarily” emigrated from Germany very soon.

A desperate appeal to Jews and Jewish organizations abroad to provide immediate assistance to Jewish emigration from the Reich was published in the March 22 Juedisches Nachrichtenblatt, Gestapo-supervised organ of the German Jews, copies of which reached Paris today.

Further indication of the Reich Jews’ plight was contained in a flood of letters from German Jews to relatives and friends in neutral countries, many of which said that the Jews faced expulsion to Lublin unless they could emigrate in the near future. The letters were passed by the German censors.

Jewish organizations in Amsterdam received information that the Gestapo had suddenly intensified its drive against the Jews. One Jewish organization in Amsterdam advised Jewish groups here: “German Jewry seems to be again in an exceptionally dangerous position, to which attention must be paid not only by Jewish organizations and the Jewish press abroad, but also by the non-Jewish world.”

The appeal in the Juedisches Nachrichtenblatt was signed by “Editorship of the Juedisches Nachrichtenblatt, Berlin.” It follows: “To Jewish emigrants overseas, to the Jewish organizations overseas: The Jews who have been able to emigrate from Germany proper into overseas country received, at the time of their emigration, assistance from welfare organizations or from Jewish persons ready to render aid. This imposes an obligation on those who have already emigrated to render assistance to those awaiting emigration.

“Every Jew overseas must make himself responsible for the eventual emigration of a few still living in Germany proper. (The German word for emigration used in the appeal is “Nachwanderung,” referring to the bringing over of relatives or friends by those who have already emigrated.)

“This can best be done by obtaining landing money or by remitting passage in foreign currency. Those not in a position to contribute either the one or the other may address themselves to emigrants who are in a position to contribute. Precisely now the idea of mutual aid must find its practical and urgent confirmation as far as emigration is concerned. Only in this way will it be possible to facilitate emigration of further thousands of Jews. The Reichevereinigung des Juden in Deutschland will be grateful for any offer that will make possible emigration of further Jews. Its migration department is at all times in a position to designate suitable emigrants.”