Ten Percent of Jews in British Zone of Germany Expected to Emigrate in Six Months

Nearly ten percent of the Jews in the British zone of Germany will emigrate within the next six months, officials of the Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad estimated today. Of the present total of 4,934 Jews in the British zone, the Committee estimated emigration figures as follows:

From Cologne, whose Jewish community has a population of 680, a total of 60 are expected to emigrate; the North Rhine area, which has a Jewish population of 1,050, will lose 100 by emigration; Westphalia, with a current population of 920, will emigrate 90; Niedersachsen, whose Jewish community” now numbers 290, will lose 20 by emigration, Braunschweig, with 146 Jews, will lose 20; Hamburg, with 1,300, will see the “departure of 130 and Schleswig-Holstein, with a Jewish population of 475 will lose 50 by emigration.

The Committee also disclosed that a restitution law in the British zone was signed by the military government and went into effect June 12, containing some proposals suggested by the Committee’s legal adviser. Because of the intervention of the adviser, the British authorities agreed that persecutes who were resident in Hamburg on Jan, 31 last, and who are about to emigrate, will receive compensation of, approximately 300 to 500 Deutschemarks, thus enabling them to buy clothing and other essentials.

This compensation was obtained under the law providing pensions for victims of Nazi persecution which had previously applied to claimants living in the British Zone but not to those intending to emigrate. The committee said it now hoped to obtain the transfer of those pension rights to the emigrants, particularly in the case of older people who are in financial difficulties in the country to which they are emigrating.