Chief Jewish Chaplain in European Theatre Naled Adviser to Eisenhower on Jewish Problems

Major Judah Neiditch, chief Jewish chaplain in the European theatre, has been named special adviser on Jewish problems to General Eisenhower, it was announced here last night by the headquarters of the United States Armed Forces in the European Theatre.

At the same time, Lt. Col. Charles Schottland chief of the processing section of the Combined Displaced Persons Executive of the USFET, announced that displaced Jews in Germany, exclusive of Soviet citizens, who do not wish to return to their home countries will be housed in special assembly centers until “they decide their futures.”

(In a report from Frankfurt today, the correspondent of the New York Times quotes Col. Schottland as admitting that conditions in any of the camps where Jews have been held up to now were not satisfactory, and not in accordance with Headquarters policy. Col. Schottland attributed the poor conditions to the speed with which the camps were organized and the rapid movement of displaced persons throughout the United States zones.

(Colonel Schottland’s section has begun a central tracing bureau, the first real effort to trace the tens of thousands of Jews who have disappeared in Germany, the Times says. All messages concerning vanished Jews are routed through his office, and, according to Col. Schottland, several families already have been reunited through this service. A special effort will be made to find missing parents and children.

CONFLICTING VIEWS STILL EXIST AS TO STATUS OF JEWS’ NATIONALITY

(There still are conflicting views on the present status of the Jews’ nationality, the Times reports. The Nuremberg laws in the countries of southeastern Europe performed the function for Hungary and Rumania. These laws have been abrogated by the Allies, but up to the present, legal experts have not figured out the status of German Jews under international law. It is the view of the Combined Displaced Persons Executive, it says, that Jews of all nationalities should have the option of choosing between a return to their old homes or assuming the status of stateless persons and migrating elsewhere.

(The correspondent quotes an officer of the Combined Displaced Persons Executive as stating, “we will move them where they want to go, provided they can obtain entry into the country.” The settlement of stateless persons is a function of the International Governmental Committee on Refugees, which already has asked for quotas. Australia and New Zealand have shown the greatest interest in receiving stateless persons up to the present, and delegates have arrived in the United States zone to interview prospective immigrants, he discloses.

(Since the organization of the Displaced Persons branch of the now defunct Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, that body and its successor at USFET, the Combined Displaced Persons Executive, have made every effort to provide adequately for the care and ultimate “resettlement” of “non-repatriables, stateless and victims of Nazi persecution by reason of race, religion or political affiliations,” the Times says.

(It quotes an administrative memorandum which sets forth the responsibilities of military commanders for stateless and non-repatriable persons and lays down the policy that such persons “will be accorded the same assistance granted to United Nations displaced persons” and that “enemy and former enemy nationals persecuted because of their race, religion or activities in favor of the United Nations will receive similar assistance.”)