Rosensaft Charges That German Girls Exert Anti-jewish Influence over British Officers

Joseph Rosensaft, head of the Central Jewish Committee for the British zone in Germany, returning to Bergen-Belsen from a visit to the U.S., has submitted a memorandum to British military authorities charging that German girls are exercising anti-Jewish influence over British officers, and that the Jews in the Bergen-Belsen camp for displaced persons are supervised “by armed Polish guards of the type that are carrying out anti-Jewish excesses in Poland today,” the London Daily Mail reports.

“The main fault,” Rosensaft said, “is that in most British administrative offices there are German girls who act as interpreters and they exercise anti-Jewish influence over certain officers.” On his American visit, he pointed out, he had corrected “many misconceptions and false statements” which have been published in the American press concerning the treatment of Jews in the British zone. Specific complaints made by Rosensaft include:

At Dusseldorf, the regional minister, Doctor Philip Auerbach, was suspended from office allegedly for prosecuting a too vigorous denazification policy. He came into conflict with the Rhine Province Ober-President, Doctor Leer, who is said to have tolerated anti-Jewish measures and a Jewish boycott when he was Oberbuergermeister of Tussaldorf before the Nazis came to power.

At Lubeck all displaced persons – and therefore many Jews – are forbidden to ride in trams, buses or cars after dusk though Germans are not similarly penalized. At Celle displaced persons are forbidden to go to cinemas and theatres though Germans are not banned.

At Cologne 78 Jews from the Resianstadt concentration camp are crowded, five and six in a room, while Germans are allowed better accommodation. At Bergen-Beloon the Polish guards made no attempt to protect the camp synagogue from desecration last December, nor to protect a rabbi who was beaten recently.