Although UNRRA went out of existence as of midnight today, the 150,000 displaced Jews in the American one will not notice any difference as of tomorrow morning when the International Refugee Organization takes over responsibility for their care, UNRRA and voluntary agency officials today told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Actually, the status quo will continue to exist for the next three months with the same UNRRA personnel, and with operations continuing as usual, since the IRO has automatically assumed all of UNRRA’s functions. Everybody is agreed, however, that it is uncertain what will happen later, since the IRO will have less funds than UNRRA and will probably be forced to curtail its operations.
Rabbi Philip Bernstein, advisor on Jewish affairs to the U.S. command in Europe, left for Austria today where a tense situation is developing as a result of a move by the Army and the Austrian authorities to close down many of the Jewish DP installations and to incorporate the Jewish DP’s in other camps. The DP’s in some camps resisted orders to move and the authorities cut off their utilities, but reopened them after a few days. The food situation in these camps is also critical, since little food has been brought in during the past week.
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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.
