Two hundred and sixteen Jews, including 16 women and nine children, who crossed into Italy from Austria through difficult mountain passes have been returned to the latter country, the Daily Express reports today from Merano, Italy.
The report says that Merano police rounded up the refugees, who were near the point of exhaustion, and shipped them back in trucks. The immigrants, who had hoped to emigrate to Palestine, had been sleeping in windy mountain passes and most had not eaten for three days. Their feet were cut and blistered.
Twenty-nine-year-old Abraham Schutzman, from Vienna, told the Express correspondent that the group had started hitch-hiking on May 10. They spent five days and nights in the Alps, and had hoped to reach Genoa on Friday to board a ship for Palestine. “If I am sent back to Austria, I’ll try again,” Schutzman said.
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