The Austrian Government has decided to draw the attention of the Allied authorities to the steadily increasing influx of Jewish refugees from Eastern European countries, it was learned here today. Representations will also be made to the Rumanian, Bulgarian and Hungarian Governments to prevent further immigration.
Minister of the Interior Oscar Helmer stated that the Austrian Government would like to admit the refugees for humanitarian reasons, but that the country could not afford to accommodate and feed additional thousands of persons.
A group of 116 Rumanian Jewish refugees stranded on the Austro-Hungarian border when the frontier patrols of both nations refused to permit them to move was finally taken to Sopron, Hungary, yesterday. The transfer was accomplished by Russian troops based in Hungary. The Joint Distribution Committee and the Committee for Jewish Refugees were permitted to send medical supplies to the group after it was reorted that three children had died of exhaustion.
A similar incident is reported to have occurred on the border near the town of Heiligenkreuz when a band of 123 Rumanian Jews were chased across the frontier by Hungarian troops. The Austrian police, under orders from the local Soviet authorities, refused to permit the Jews to continue on to Vienna and kept them in a field for six days. The Austrians were said to have fired at the Jews to prevent any of them from escaping.
Jewish leaders here fear the development of a serious situation as refugees continue to arrive daily. Within the last few days several hundred have been forced to camp at various spots on the border. With the closing of DP camps in the American zones to new infiltrees, the burden of their support falls completely on the J.D.C.
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.
