Ira A. Hirschmann, special representative in Turkey of the War Refugee Board, revealed today that negotiations have been completed with the Turkish Government for the use of a Turkish passenger boat to take 1,600 refugees from the Rumanian port of Constanza to Haifa. He called it the largest single evacuation of the war.
Hirschmann, just returned from Turkey, told a press conference today that the S.S. Tari” would make the trip as soon as safe conduct has been granted for the voyage by the Germans. He disclosed that the Soviet Government granted a safe conduct for the Tari yesterday, and that the Turkish Government has already announced its agreement to the refugee mission.
Asked about possible Russian aid in rescuing Jews from the Balkans, Hirschmann declared that Soviet diplomats in Ankara had been very helpful and had further expressed a desire to do everything they could to assist in the current efforts. Hirschmann quoted Russian officials as having given full assurances that the USSR would do everything to assist those refugees who came into their hands in the course of the Red Army advances. He described the condition of refugees in the Balkans as indescribably bad and bordering on the catastrophic.”
“The Presidents action setting up the War Refugee Board,” hirschmann said, “came at about five minutes to twelve. But it had an electrifying effect on both the victims of Fascism and the people who are trying to deal with the problem.”
Before the conference got under way, John W. Pehle, director of the WRB, praised Hirschmann for the tremendous contribution he had made toward easing the tragic situation in the Balkans. Pehle said that Hirschmann’s leave of absence from Blooming-dale Bros., New York department store, is up and he is reporting back to his firm, but he indicated that every step possible is being taken to see that Hirschmann stays with the War Refugee Board.
Hirschmann listed as a major accomplishment of the Board, the safe removal of about 48,000 refugees from what he described as horrible, plague-ridden concentration camps in Transnistria to the interior of Rumania, where they would at least be free to shift for themselves and where the conditions were vastly improved. He expressed the belief that the mechanism which has been set up and put to work in recent weeks would result in the rescue of many thousands of more people, provided military events did not throw present plans completely out of gear.
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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.
