Earl G. Harrison, United States representative on the Inter-Governmental Committee on Refugees, who recently returned from a six-weeks Presidential mission to Europe to inquire into the condition and needs of stateless and non-repatriable persons, including 100,000 Jews of all nationalities in Germany, presented a detailed report to President Truman today, recommending concrete improvements in their situation.
Declaring that the President manifested real interest in the report, Mr. Harrison said that the President will take whatever steps are necessary to bring about an improved situation. The Inter-Governmental Committee on Refugees has not yet begun to function on any broad basis, Harrison stated.
While in Germany, Harrison visited a number of camps housing displaced persons with particular reference to Jewish refugees. “Not over 100,000 Jews” remain in Germany in a total of almost two million displaced persons, he stated. “There are no more Jews, because they killed them, and I saw the places where that was accomplished, at Dachau, Belsen and other concentration camps,”
Inquiry into the desires of the displaced Jews as to their future destination revealed a definite trend, Harrison declared, but declined to name this destination which, he said, is named in his report to the President. Except for a small number with relatives in this country, no substantial number expressed a wish to come to the United States, according to Harrison, who said that “we are known as a restrictive country.”
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.
