The Hebrew newspaper Davar reported today that there were at least four steamers plying the eastern Mediterranean with approximately 2,000 Jewish refugees on board under “appalling conditions.”
The newspaper said one of the vessels, the Italian ship Breslau, had been permitted to put in to Beirut temporarily when the captain reported by wireless that a plague had broken out and two of the passengers had died. The 650 passengers were placed in quarantine and were to be re-embarked after fumigation of the ship.
Fate of a second vessel, the Osiris, and its 600 refugee passengers, was being considered by the Syrian High Commissioner, Davar reported. The Beirut Jewish community has raised 12,000 francs to help the refugees.
An Istanbul report said the captain of a small Greek steamer bearing 60 refugees from Germany had wirelessed the Turkish Government for assistance, declaring the passengers were without food, water or money. A fourth vessel, the S.S. Thessalia, with 650 refugees on board, was stopped by the Lebanese coast guard off Beirut, Davar reported, and forced to put out to sea.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
