Vienna Socialist Mayor Leopold Gratz promised today to relocate a transit camp for Jewish emigrants from the Soviet Union from a densely populated area. The transit camp, established only last week in a former children’s home at the Vienna suburb of Simmering will be transferred to another site in the near future, a government spokesman said. Gratz’s decision followed protests from people living near the camp who feared possible Arab terrorist attacks.
The Austrian Red Cross, without previous announcement, had transferred the camp from a former army barrack at Woellersdorf to Simmering. Wide protests were the result. The camp is run under the supervision of the Austrian Red Cross which has been responsible for the emigrants since Chancellor Bruno Kreisky ruled the shut-down of the Jewish Agency-run camp at Schoenau last year in exchange for the release of a group of Jewish emigrants held as hostages by Arab terrorists.
Gratz who has promised a new transfer, although Interior Minister Otto Roesch said only last week that there was no danger to people living near the new camp, said he would try to find a new site within the next few weeks to house the Soviet emigrants, “Until then, the Simmering camp will continue to operate,” he said.
The camp is closely watched by steel-helmeted Austrian police. A two-meter wall and a barbed wire fence surround the whole area. Kreisky, in recent months has stressed repeatedly the site of the transit camp should be changed from time to time to prevent any Arab terrorist actions.
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