The Nazi invasion of Scandinavia has created nervousness among refugees from the Reich domiciled in Belgium and the Netherlands–who would be the first to suffer if the Germans invaded the low countries–and has halted the scheduled emigration of a group of Polish Jewish refugees from Lithuania, it was learned today.
According to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, there are more than 20,000 Jewish refugees in the Netherlands and 22,000 in Belgium awaiting emigration.
The HIAS-ICA Emigration Association reported receiving a telegram from its Kaunas office which related that a group of Jewish refugees from Poland had been scheduled to leave Lithuania for Amsterdam via Scandinavia on the day the Nazis entered the peninsula. They were halted at the last minute when it was learned in Kaunas that communications between Scandinavia and Amsterdam had been out off.
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.
