The precarious position of Jewish community institutions in this city was described today by Heinz Galinski, representative here of the Jewish Community Council, at a meeting of a special committee of the Western Berlin municipality, which considered the situation of the various religious communities.
Dr. Galinski revealed that the Jewish Hospital here, which serves all sections of the population, still lacks linen and chinaware, stolen from the institution during the Nazis’ administration of the city. “The Jews,” the speaker said, “who returned here from concentration camps sick and unfit for work, and now must live in Jewish homes for the aged and incurable, cannot be given even that minimum comfort which is considered elementary in other institutions of the kind.”
Dr. Galinski protested that, in contrast to other religious communities, the Jews here had not so far received any subsidy for operating their religious and cultural institutions. He also pointed out that certain properties of the Berlin Jewish community were still occupied by Allied and municipal offices. “We cannot understand,” he continued, “that five years after the collapse of the Hitler regime, the Jewish community here is not yet in possession of its properties.”
The speaker disclosed that leaders of the local community intend soon to open negotiations with the German authorities in the Soviet zone, who have now purportedly taken over administration from the Russians, to obtain the return of the property of the former Jewish community to the present community administration. He said that he hoped that a final solution would soon be found after negotiations with the competent authorities in the Western and Eastern zones of Germany.
Mass inscription of a special “Weizmann Golden Book,” commemorating the 75th birthday last month of President Chaim Weizmann of Israel, is proceeding rapidly in this city. The movement was launched by a committee. of 28 Jewish community leaders in 19 cities in the Western occupation zones.
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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.
