Two small hotels here are housing about 120 Jews released from German concentration camps in the Tyrol who are being fed by a communal kitohen maintained by the Allied-appointed mayor and by donations from American soldiers, a special Jewish Telegraphic, Agency correspondent was informed today by Dr. Jacob Mendelssohn-Fischer, great-grandson of the famous composer.
Dr. Mendelssohn-Fischer, who was a teacher of history in the University of Warsaw before the outbreak of the war, and who was later deported by the Germans to Lublin and from there to the notorious Treblinka camp, is directing an improvised Jewish committee which is trying to handle the bewildering problems of the Jews who are reaching Innsbruck from concentration camps in the neighborhood. He is one of the few persons who succeded in escaping from Treblinks. Posing as a non-Jew, he worked in a Vienna factory as a porter for about two years.
The liberated Jews, as well as the surviving Innsbruck Jews who are now returning to their native city, are penniless and in great need of relief, especially food and clothing, Dr. Mendelasohn-Fischer told the JTA correspondent. He estimated that there are at present about 2,000 Jews in the Innsbruck area. About half of them went to go to Palestine. Most of the others, he said, hope to emigrate to the United States and to South American countries. Very few expect to remain in Central Europe, he declared, emphasizing that he himself hopes to emigrate to the United States and resume teaching there.
Of the 400 Jewish families who resided in Innsbruck before the war, the correspondent found that thirty families have either returned already or are in the process of returning.
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.
