U.S. Jewish Representatives Seek Refugees at Hungarian Frontier

A total of 765 Hungarian Jewish refugees are registered with the Vienna Jewish Community and receiving assistance through the community, it was reported here today.

Although it is known that hundreds more have crossed the border, it is not possible to obtain a check on their number. Two factors are responsible for this situation: the almost continuous movement of Hungarian refugees from on part of Austria to another as camps are reconstituted and refugees leave for Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland; and the obvious hesitation of some refugees to identify themselves as Jews.

A delegation composed of representatives of the Joint Distribution Committee United Hias Service, American Jewish Committee and the Canadian Jewish Congress visited border points today across which refugees are moving. At one point they saw Soviet soldiers send the refugees back but, since the Russians cannot patrol the entire border, the refugees crossed elsewhere.

The delegation brought back three Jewish youths, two boys and a girl who quit Budapest two days ago. One of the boys had jumped off a truck which was taking a group of Hungarians to be deported to the East. This boy has a relative in New York, but the name has been withheld to protect members of his family remaining in Hungary.

Communist charges that Hungarian rebels engaged in anti-Semitic violence resulting in the death of Jews in Hungary was denounced here this week-end as a “complete fabrication” by Zachariah Schuster, European director of the American Jewish Committee All accounts by Hungarian Jewish refugees reaching Jewish organizations here are in full agreement that there was no organized anti-Semitic action of any kind, and that only occasional anti-Jewish remarks were passed by individuals, Mr. Schuster asserted.