JEWISH REFUGEES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 112, 15 May 1939, Page 9

JEWISH REFUGEES

REFUSING OF ENTRY

SCENES At CROYDON

PILOT REFUSES TO RfSE

[By Air Mail, from "The Post's" London

Representative.)

LONDON, April 3,

Croydon airport has watched many pathetic scenes during the past few weeks when refugees from Europe have been refused permission to stay in England and have been forced to return by air to their own countries. The most unhappy of these episodes occurred last week when nearly SGO refugees flew to Croydon m one day from Vienna, Prague, Berlin, and other parts of middle Europe.

One party of eleven Czech Jews was absolutely frantic when ordered into a waiting aeroplane. They shrieked and screamed, fought and pleaded with the police, hurled themselves on the floor, and finally had to be carried to the machine. But once inside they began to pound the sides of the plane, and they hammered at the windows, breaking one.

"They are crazy," said the pilot to a police sergeant. And he refused to take off.

It was announced that the party would be taken back by boat and train. The following day, however, the German Jewish Air* Committee, a body which had hitherto taken no responsibility for refugees from Czechoslovakia, decided as a special measure to provide the necessary guarantees for them, ant? they were accepted into the country. BY WAY OF DENMARK. The party came from Cracow in Poland in a chartered aeroplane, and landed at Copenhagen. The Danish authorities, whose regulations are as strict as those in England, were told by these refugees that arrangements had been made by an international Jewish body in France guaranteeing their reception in England. The Danes communicated with the British authorities, and were told that nothing was known of them in London and that they could not be accepted. Nevertheless, the party chartered a Danish plane and flew to Croydon. The officers there consulted with the Home Office, who in turn got into touch with the refugee committees, who knew nothing of the party and were not prepared to sponsor them. The refugees were frantic when told they would have to return. A member of the Croydon aerodrome staff said: "As soon as an official told the refugees that the machine was waiting they began screaming. Porters and police started to push them towards the plane.

"By a dramatic chance, the man who started the screaming was 'reprieved* at the last moment. As he was about to enter the plane an immigration official hurried up with papers stating that the man could, after all, remain in the country. He was the second of the original party of thirteen to be allowed to stay

"Almost in tears with joy, the man [flung his arms around a very embarrassed policeman and kissed him soundly on both cheeks. "The screaminr was heart-rending, such as I never wish to * hear again. Passengers, police, and officials at the aerodrome were all deeply moved."

In the confusion police ordered a woman bystander to the plane. She had to prove her identity by producing an English passport.