U.S. Filers Contribute 50,000 Francs for Jewish Children; “jewish Visas” in Belgium

Fifty thousand francs were contributed by members of the U.S. Ninth Air Force stationed here to a fund initiated by chaplain Rabbi Robert S. Marous for the education of Belgian Jewish children who have been hidden in the countryside during the German occupation.

The funds were turned over to prof. Chaim perelman of Brussels University for the Committee to Aid Jewish Victims of War. Prof. Perelman and his wife were the leaders of the Comite de Defense des Juifs, which united all Jewish groups into a powerful underground organization which succeeded in saving thousands of adults and children from deportation.

At present, the Comite de Defense des Juifs is performing an important Function in issuing “Jewish visas” to German and stateless Jews in liberated Belgium testifying to their status as Jewish refugees. Thousands of German Jews here are seeking such “Jewish visas” since having come originally from Germany they are considered German nationals by the Belgian authorities and are subject to arrest as enemy aliens.

An example of this situation is the story of a Belgian police commissioner who being anti-German, winked at the known hiding places of several German Jewish refugees during the occupation, and neglected to turn them over to the Gestapo during the occupation. But no sooner were the Germans gone, than the same commissioner dutifully arrested these Jews as Germans.

Only about fifty such refugees from Germany have been detained. It is estimated that there are about 6,000 German Jews in Belgium of the 15,000 who fled here from the Reich, Some of the fifty have already been released upon certification by the Comite de Defense des juifs.