The Soviet authorities in Lithuania, have agreed to extend the permission for Polish Jews to leave Soviet territory until Feb. 10, it was learned here today.
The original permit was valid until Jan. 26. It provided that holders of Polish passports stranded in Wilno, Kaunas and other Lithuanian centers would be allowed to emigrate from Lithuania through Soviet Russia to Palestine, the United States, and any other overseas countries which would accept them. In view of the fact that only several hundred Jewish refugees from Poland were in a position to take advantage of the offer by Jan. 26, the permission was extended for another fortnight.
Several thousand Polish Jews at present in Lithuania are trying desperately to contact their relatives in various overseas lands by cable, appealing to them to facilitate their departure. The majority of them have relatives in the United States and in Palestine. Those who have prospects for receiving United States visas are given Soviet and Japanese transit visas to await their American visa in Tokyo. Those who expect to proceed to Palestine can secure Turkish transit visas only when they produce sufficient evidence that there is a Palestine entrance visa provided for them so that they will not remain stranded in Turkey on their way from the Soviet port of Odessa to Palestine.
Anxious to emigrate while the doors of Soviet Russia are still open, hundreds of Jewish refugees who hope to find their way to Palestine but who are not able as yet to secure their Palestine immigration certificates expect to leave Lithuania via Soviet Russia and Siberia for Japan to await their Palestine visas there. The Japanese authorities, it is reported, are willing to admit these refugees, but intend to dump them in Shanghai should they not secure their Palestine visas within a fortnight after reaching Japanese soil.
Among those permitted to emigrate from Soviet Lithuania are more than 1,000 rabbis and yeshiva students for whom efforts are being made in America to bring them to the United States.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
