A number of German Jews, all holding German passports, were summoned today to headquarters of the Gestapo (State secret police) and ordered to leave the Reich within 24 hours although they pleaded they had nowhere to go.
No reason was given for the deportations. Most of those ordered expelled are businessmen, who said it was impossible to liquidate their enterprises within the given time. They also declared it was impossible to obtain requisite visas for traveling abroad.
Gestapo officials replied that unless they left the country within the specified time they would be placed under arrest.
One of the deportees is a Jew who had been promised a visa for Palestine within three days. Since the Gestapo insisted he get the visa immediately or leave the country without it, the British Consulate issued it after office hours.
It was learned that all those ordered deported had left the Reich at one time or another as tourists. But they had not traveled as emigrants, and were presumably not classified as persons who had left the country for good who might not be permitted to return.
Jewish circles feared today’s deportations marked the beginning of a new campaign to expel Jews by administrative order. It was learned that the authorities have started a thorough examination of the passenger lists of all German foreign traveling agencies to ascertain names and addresses of people who left the Reich this year as tourists.
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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.
