A conference of American Military Government officials, representatives of the Central Committee of Liberated Jews of Germany, and Dr. Philip S. Bernstain, Advisor on Jewish Affairs to Gen. Joseph T. McNarney, was held here last night to consider the Central Committee’s request that it be granted legal status by military authorities in the U.S. zone of Germany.
Colonel Stanley Nickelsen, head of the Displaced Persons Division of the U.S. Forces in the European theatre, and Dr. Zalman Grinburg, head of the Central Committee, discussed the functions and purposes of the group. At present the Army recognizes the committee as spokesman for the displaced Jews, but has not granted it legal status. It is expected that such a status will be achieved shortly. After the conference, Rabbi Bernstein left here for a tour of the DP camps in and around Stuttgart.
Isako Gottlieb and Wolfs Straus, two of the 19 displaced Jews from the Landsberg camp who were sentenced to prison terms May 22 after conviction by a U.S. military court of participation in a riot with Germans, arrived here today to settle their affairs and those of their 17 comrades. Both Jews, who were sentenced to two years imprisonment, were granted 48-hour passes.
They reported that conditions at the Bayrouth jail, where the group is imprisoned, are very poor. They live in a dormitory with 70 German prisoners and their daily food ration consists of less than one-quarter of a pound of bread and some thin soup. The prison guards are Germans.
The Jewish community in Bayrouth, which is forced to live on the meager German diet because UNRRA has not begun operating in the area, is helping the Jewish prisoners by sharing the little available food. When Gottlieb and Straus return to jail tomorrow they will carry back food and other necessities and reading material to help members of the group continue their studies. They said that the entire 19 are hopeful that the petition for review of their case, which was submitted last week, will be acted upon favorably in the immediate future.
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