Senate Committee Rejects Report Slandering Displaced Jews in U.S. Zone of Germany

The Senate War Investigating Committee today voted down a proposed inquiry into U.S. military government activities in Germany which had been urged by Republican members of the Committee following a report by George Meader, Committee counsel, suggesting stringent curtailment or discontinuance of American aid to European refugees and displaced persons. The Committee vote was strictly along party lines with the Democrats out voting the Republicans six to four.

Meader, who made his report following a two-week visit to Germany, said the displaced Jews were not fit material for immigration to the United States and that they were lazy and unwilling to work. He also charged that wish groups in America were organizing the movement of displaced Jews into the American zone of Germany.

Senator Kilgore of West Virginia, chairman of the Committee, in a letter to members of the Committee, sharply attacked the reliability of the report as based on “Depressions” and not “facts.” That section of the report dealing with displaced persons in general and the Jewish DP’s in particular, Kilgore criticized for casting discredit upon their feelings and motivations. He said it also discredited “humanitarian, religious and racial groups in the United States who sympathize with the plight of these unfortunate human beings.” The report, he continued, in “dealing with the minority of the DP’s, those of Jewish religion, questions whether they have been subject to persecution.”

Kilgore charged unquestioning acceptance in the report of opinions of persons lacking first-hand knowledge who assert that “pressure” from groups in this country has permitted DP’s to remain in camps in Germany. He said the report transgressed on the functions of the Foreign Relations Committee in prescribing orders for the State Department.