Uneasiness prevails among the 10,000 Polish Jewish refugees in Soviet-occupied Lithuania as result of an order issued this week by the Soviet authorities requiring refugees to opt for Soviet citizenship, it was reported here today.
The report says the Soviet order indicates that non-acceptance of Soviet citizenship by the refugees will be considered as an act hostile to the regime.
Moses Beckelman. American delegate of the Joint Distribution Committee, who has been conducting relief work for the refugees in Lithuania ever since the outbreak of the war, was compelled to leave Lithuania this week and is now on his way to the United States. His relief activities in Lithuania were greatly restricted after the territory became a part of Soviet Russia and were limited chiefly to helping stranded Polish Jews to emigrate while still permitted to leave Soviet soil.
Beckelman will make a short stop-over in Japan, where many Jewish refugees from Poland are now congregated in Kobe and Yokohama awaiting emigration to the United States and Palestine.
The Soviet citizenship order came as a shock especially to more than 2,000 of the Jewish refugees who have made preparations to emigrate to overseas lands. About 1,000 of them are holders of immigration certificates to Palestine. It is expected that the Soviet authorities may still permit them to leave for Palestine via Odessa, provided that they secure the necessary Turkish and other transit visas to bring them to Palestine before March 31, when their immigration certificates expire.
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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.
