Evening star., 1946-01-09
500 Polish Jews Flee
Red. Sector Of Berlin,
Turn Up in U. 5. Area
BY RICHARD KAsIsCHKE,


Associated Press Foreign Correspondent.
BERLIN, Jan. 9.-At least fourth
Of the 1000 Polish Jewish refugees
who fed the Russian sector of Ber-
lin Monday repeatedly to escape
evacuation into the Russian occupa-
tion zone of Germany, turned up
yesterday in the American sector of
the city, where they posed prob
lem of feeding and housing.
Col. Frank L. Howley, American
military governor of Berlin, said
about 500 of these people had an
nounced their presence in the Amer
ican zone borough of Wannsee,
where they we're reported to have
lodged themselves in an old pavilion.
Col. Howley said the refugees in
tend to come to him today to ask
for food. Col. Howley said he did
not know what the answer would be.
He assumed the Allied komman-
dantur would be asked to instruct
the Berlin mayor to grant the refu-
gees rations of about 1850 calories,
WlilSll ttlCy lido pCCh SCteLi6 WlilO
living in the Russian sector.
Col. Howley said he anticipated
more of these vanished" refugees
would turn up in the American sec
tor, though some are known to have
taken trains or highways westward
or to have gone into private homes
within the city. Having rejected
the Russian zone, they now have no
place to 60 because the British and
American zones have been closed to
any more unauthorized refugees.
Berlin Is Bottleneck.
Berlin is the bottleneck for these
people, whom Col. Howley described
as mot displaced persons, but most
ly well-clothed. well-fed people" On
January S there were about 5000 in
the city, including $500 in camps
in the French sector, 300 in the
United States zone ,and about 1900
"hoaters" in homes in various Sec
tors.
This bottleneck developed during
December after about 1000 passed
through Berlin going westward. On
December the British zone refused
to take any more, and a week later
similar orders came from the Amer
lean zone. At that time the
refugees were coming here from
the east at the rate of between 200
and 800 daily.
Col. Howley. said most of them
came from "Gemeinde," an organ
lied Jewish Communist community
in Lodz, Poland. Most Of them told
American investigators they were
fleeing persecution. Investigators
also found about IS per cent said
they wanted to go to Palestine and
Is per cent to the United States.
When they overcrowded their
Gemeinde quarters in the French
and Russian sectors, American mil
itary government authorities Of
fered bedding and medical supplies
for them. The Russians refused this
offer; they said they had de-
cided to evacuate their 1000 to the
Russian zone-first, according to the
Russians, to temporary camp at
Prenzlau, southwest of Stettin
then elsewhere in the zone where
they can be given work and food.
Charge Agreement Broken.
This evacuation was to have taken
place Monday, but when the Rus
slams came for them, the refugees
had fed. Now the Russians have
sealed up the former Gemeinde
lodgings, and Russian spokesman
charged that the refugees leaders
broke their voluntary agreement
that they would accept evacuation.
According to Jewish, spokesmen, the
refugees feared repatriation back to
Poland.
Col. Howley said the current influx
Of the refugees into the American
zone had been reduced to about Is
Polish Jews daily.
1t was learned that the Komman-
dantur discussed at length the re-
port that most of the 1000 Jews said
to have fed the Russian sector had
infiltrated into the American sector
There were unconfirmed and un-
official reports that several hundred
of the refugees had moved into the
American-controled boroughs of
Wannsee and Kreutzberg.