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16 Arrested in France for Spiriting Jewish Boys out of Country

March 9, 1953
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A total of 16 persons, including two Catholic nuns and six priests, have been arrested in recent weeks in connection with the spiriting of two Jewish boys, Robert and Gerald Finaly, out of France to Spain, it was reported here today.

Meanwhile, a court in Bayonne released three priests, including a Father Ibarburu, who later said that he had escorted the boys across the Pyrenees to Spain. The court ruled that the priests had been involved in removing the children from the country, but that no criminal offense had been committed. The boys were left with a Catholic institution during the Nazi occupation of France by their Jewish parents who were murdered by the Nazis. They were baptized by the Catholic authorities who refused to turn them over to an aunt living In Israel, despite a court order to this effect.

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