Train Carrying Jewish Repatriates from USSR Sent on Ten-day Detour by Unfriendly Poles

A train carrying one of the first group of Jewish repatriates to return to Poland from the Soviet Union was sent on a ten-day detour by an unidentified group of unfriendly Poles, it was reported here today.

When the train carrying the repatriates reached Wroclaw, the former German city of Breslau, the cars carrying Poles were uncoupled, while those carrying Jews were shunted around for ten days, until the train reached Rychbach, which is only 40 miles from Wroclaw. As a result of an immediate investigation by Government authorities, however, all subsequent transports have arrived in Rychbach without delay.

The Polish Press Agency reported from Warsaw that 26,000 Jews have been settled in the Lower Silesia pre-war German areas regained by Poland, and that 40,000 more Jews will come to the region. Among the cities in which the Jews have settled, it said, are Wroclaw, Rychbach, Walbrzych and Lignica. The dispatch said Jewish committees in Lower Silesia are helping the Jews build homes and obtain employment. However, as a result of resentment by Poles, the local Jewish committees are not only assisting Jews, but all repatriates.

Polish Minister of Industry Hilary Mine, in a statement issued in Warsaw, declared that the former German industries in Silesia can furnish a livelihood for many Jews. Jews who are interested in agriculture are being settled on farms.

Some of the repatriates from the USSR encountered at Rychbach Jews who had recently returned from Munich, to where they had fled because they feared they would be murdered if they remained in Poland, the report received here reveals. The latter group reported that living conditions in the U.S. camps in the Munich area were had, and that there was little hope that the Jews would be able to emigrate.

There are now 60,000 Jews in all of Poland, of whom 20,000 are employed, according to a statistical survey broadcast today by the Warsaw radio.