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3 Deportees, Including Child, Die; Government, Red Cross, Join Jewish Bodies in Relief Work

November 1, 1938
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Three Polish Jewish deportees, including a two-year-old child, died during the journey from points in Germany to the frontier, it was revealed here today as the polish authorities joined with the red cross and Jewish organizations in alleviating the suffering of the several thousand of refugees dumped into Poland’s frontier cities. The child, named Ehrlich, had been taken from a sick bed in Frankfort suffering from an ear inflammation.

Government officials, railway authorities, the Red Cross and Jewish organizations cooperated in helping the refugees. The red cross was particularly active in administering first aid and distributing clothing and food, while scores of Jewish doctors were mobilized to assist the various relief units.

At all frontier stations where deportees had been admitted, the authorities dealt liberally with the passport problem and turned waiting rooms and railway coaches into sleeping quarters.

The authorities, however, have refused to permit 4,000 refugees quartered in the frontier town of Zbonszyn to leave for points in the interior, it was learned today. Lack of accommodations there is resulting in grave hardships for the polish-Jewish deportees from Germany. Earlier, the railway authorities had decided to distribute to social welfare organizations free tickets for the Zbonszyn refugees and had instructed all subordinate authorities to grant them every possible assistance.

Warsaw communal buildings were prepared today to accommodate 12,000 refugees. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee has launched energetic action throughout the country, particularly in the frontier districts, in behalf of the deportees. Redistribution of the refugees was meanwhile proceeding satisfactorily from Kattowice and Gdynia.

The Polish authorities at Kattowice, where a great number of the deportees are concentrated, provided free railway passage for those desiring to go to the interior. Polish miners and the red Cross fed and sheltered Jewish children in the town of Radzonkowa. Miners and the Red Cross fed and sheltered Jewish children in the town of Radzonkowa.

Contributions to the relief work were pouring in today from all over Poland, many of them from non-Jews. Meanwhile, special trains began distributing the deportees to various parts of the country. The first group, numbering 700, arrived in Warsaw last night and were provisionally housed in social welfare institutions.

Further details were received here depicting the suffering of the refugees. Victims of the German expulsion drive, now halted pending outcome of the Warsaw-Berlin negotiations on the status of polish Jews in Germany, included aged women, children and disabled persons, who were ruthlessly maltreated on the trip to Poland.

Among the exiles arriving at Kattowice, it was learned, were 80 children who had been dragged from a Jewish orphanage in Frankfort, many of the deportees were dragged from trains en route and abandoned in open fields. It is estimated that 700 were left in fields near Dworskymlyn. Of 1,500 who arrived at choice, a majority were from berlin and Koeninger.

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