Dr. I. Helfgott, Chief Rabbi of the Belsen DP camp in the British zone of Germany, was ordered out of the office of the British Food Controller in Hamburg, John B. Hynd, British Minister for Occupied Territories, admitted at a press conference today.
Rabbi Helfgott, who was calling at the office on instructions from British occupation officials, was told to leave by the official in charge of the office, who remarked in the rabbi’s hearing, “those bloody Jews again.” Hynd said the incident is under investigation.
He also admitted that there were other “isolated cases” of British officials displaying “unfriendly behaviour” toward displaced Jews. In an effort to eliminate such individuals from the British military government, a closer check is now being made on applicants for jobs in the occupied areas, Hynd asserted.
He also confirmed that displaced Jews in the British zone no longer receive preferential food rations, because the German civilian ration was recently raised to 1,500 calories daily, the same level as the DP’s. He declared that infiltrees from Eastern Europe will receive no food allowances as long as they remain in DP camps.
When it was pointed out to him that the refugees could not live among the German population, Hynd asked; “Why not?” He added that infiltrees who enter DP camps “illegally” and hide there must know the risks they run when they return to Germany from their countries of origin.
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.
