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State Department Says It is Interceding in Behalf of JDC Official Arrested in Hungary

December 19, 1949
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The State Department confirmed last night that it is interceding in behalf of Israel Jacobson, director for Hungary of the Joint Distribution Committee, who was arrested Thursday night on the Austro-Hungarian border when he was proceeding in an automobile toward Budapest.

United States Minister Nathaniel P. Davis asked for permission to see or talk with Mr. Jacobson, but this was refused. Mr. Jacobson has been held incommunicado since his arrest by the Hungarian police. Word of his detention became known in Vienna yesterday.

The Hungarian Government has refused to disclose to United States authorities why they are holding the J.D.C. official. Mr. Jacobson 37, had just returned from a six-weeks’ vacation in the U.S. and had driven from Paris to Vienna where he waited a week for a Hungarian visa. When it finally was granted, he drove to the Hungarian border and has not been heard from directly since.

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