Unrra Session Opens in London; Jewish Groups Ask Decision on Stateless Jews in Europe

A demand that the Council of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, which opened its session here today, should clarify UNRRA’s position with regard to the fate of the thousands of stateless Jews held in camps in Germany who cannot be repatriated to their native countries, is made in the London evening press.

Action on behalf of the displaced Jews in Europe is also asked in memorandums submitted today to the UNRRA by Jewish organizations. One memorandum was submitted jointly by the American Jewish Conference, the World Jewish Congress and the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and another memorandum was presented by the World Agudas Israel Organization. The joint memorandum of the three major Jewish organizations requests:

1. Adequate care should be given to displaced persons who cannot or do not wish to be repatriated, and no displaced person should be repatriated against his freely expressed will.

2. Insure close cooperation by UNRRA with the Intergovernmental Committee for Refugees in the task of finding new homes for displaced persons.

3. Since the vast majority of Jewish displaced persons prefer to immigrate to Palestine, the Director General of UNRRA is requested to enlist the cooperation of the Mandatory Power and of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, whose assistance is vital to the resettlement of Jewish displaced persons in that country.

The memorandum of the Agudas Israel asks for UNRRA’s appointment of Jewish liaison officers “with a wide knowledge of Jewish religious and cultural requirements; the transfer of Jews from “death camps” to special centers, affording them facilities for a full Jewish communal life; the reuniting of displaced Jews with relatives in the United States, England, Palestine and elsewhere. The Agudas Israel also stresses in its memorandum the strong desire of many of the displaced Jews to proceed to Palestine.