ORDERED TO LEAVE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26045, 8 January 1946, Page 5

ORDERED TO LEAVE

REFUGEES IN BERLIN THE RUSSIAN SECTOR (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 6. The German Municipal Council yesterday informed the Jewish community in Berlin that the Russians had decided to tell Polish and Jewish refugees in the Russian sector that they must leave Berlin to-morrow for a camp at Prenzlau, in the Soviet zone, reports a correspondent. The decision, for which no reasons have been given, affects about half of 4000 Polish anc Jewish refugees in Berlin. Leaders of the Jewish community are apparently surprised by this decision and complain that conditions in Prenzlau are unsatisfactory and that the Russians intend that the refugees should be sent back to Poland. The Jewish leaders state that as a gesture of protest Jews from two camps in the Russian zone will to-morrow enter the Anglo-American sectors and have themselves arrested, and the Russians will find these two camps empty.

It cannot be said the Polish Jews in Berlin are in any desperate plight, says the correspondent. Many of General Morgan’s criticisms were justified. Most of the Jews are well-dressed and appear to be well-fed and healthy. Many admit they have plenty of money. It must also be conceded that Polish Jews, hoping to justify their action in leaving Poland to pave the way to Palestine and America, tended to exaggerate the position in Poland although recent impartial visitors to Poland report the existence of a definitely anti-Jewish tendency. In the last six months more than 8000 Jews arrived in Berlin from Poland, The rate of arrival has lately dropped, possibly because news has reached Poland that Berlin is at present a dead end. Jews believe the cause is stricter control by the Russians.