A shorter route for emigration of Jews from Baltic countries to Palestine was opened today when it was learned that the Turkish Government has decided to grant transit visas to citizens of these countries. Instructions to this effect have been sent to the Turkish consulate in Moscow by the Ankara Government.
The new route, by way of the Black Sea, obviates the necessity of the long voyage to Moscow, Baku, Teheran, Baghdad, Amman and Jerusalem. The first family of a group of 80 traveling by the old route has arrived here from Lithuania, and the rest are expected soon. They include Lithuanian Zionist leaders and persons in the capitalist category.
Meanwhile, the number of Jewish illegal immigrants who arrived here in November and were transferred to the Athlit internment camp reached 3,600 when the last of a group of refugees who reached here on the S.S. Atlantic were interned today. Under a ruling of the Palestine Government all face deportation to a British colony for duration of the war, except for the approximately 1,600 survivors of the sinking of the S.S. Patria who have received special permission to remain.
One of the previously-unidentified dead among the 41 victims thus far recovered from the Patria, which was sunk by an explosion in Haifa harbor on Nov. 25, was ascertained today to be a former judge of Hindenburg, German Silesia. He was Dr. Bernhard Bergmann, 55 years old. Another identified today was Kurt Halfeld, 50, of Nordhausen, Germany who wife was among those rescued and interned at Athlit.
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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.
