The Wilmington morning star., 1947-02-01
REFUGEES CROWD
AMERICAN ZONE.
Three Million Displaced
Persons Cling To Amer
leans In Germany
BY DICK CLARK
United Press Staff Correspondent

L ~ 11144A1o1l 4SAt5Sos
persons and hombed-out families
are jammed into the shattered
villages and cities of the American
zone of Germany.
They may provide the spark II
there is serious unrest or disorder
in this, "the most critical occu-
patton winter, occupation officials
fear.
Skinny rations, WORKOUT cloth
ing, a black market which keeps
extra necessities and luxuries al
fabulous prices, shortages of Goa
and wood and the packing of more
people into already o~vercrowdec
living quarters have been listed
repeatedly as the points Of friction
which might bring an explosion.
More than 1000 men, womer
and children have been shipped by
boxcar from the Sudetenland OIL
Czechoslovskia into the American
Zone, under the transfer agreement
which ended last Dec. l.
To see what happens to these
people, this correspondent toured
the village of Dauborn just as 81.
year-old Ludwig Hermann, the
burgomeister. finished settling s.
expellees who had arrived the
night before.
Conditions Worse Elsewhere
Hermann takes care of his vii
layers. Rooms for the sxpellees
were prepared in advance and mil
itary government officials told US
later that Dauborn could not be
considered typical in its treatment
of Sudeteners. In many places they
fare worse.
The individual cases of these
people ripped from their homes
add little to Europe's story Of mis-
cry. In a land smashed by war
where survivors of concentration
camps have been spilled into {
hostile world, the plight of the
Sudeten German who is shipped
back home" to a Germany he
never knew, is inconspicous.
Sixty-three-year-old Franz Stohr
from port Fleiben, near Eyer,
Czechoslovakia, was not at home
when we climbed to the 14-by-l4
foot room he was givenon the sec
ond floor of an old village farm
house. But his elderly wife anc
his ~54-year-old widowed sister
were there among their pots, pans,
boxes and huge bags of belongings
they brought on their ten-day trip
by box car.
A hole had been cut in the chin
ney that morning and. the square
rusty stove they had lugged hun
dreds of miles was heating two
pots of stew.
Fine In One Room
Frau Stohr, a sWarthy, stocky
woman with a blue apron and G
blue shawl wrapped around hel
head, sal dher family had lived il
the Sudetenland for three genera
lions. But she spoke no Czech. Hell
two daughters, aged 10 and %
were out and she still had not fig.
ured how all five of them coule
sleep in the room. They slept or
their bags of possessions the frs
night.
The Czech, she said took al
their money except 500 marks
apiece. This according to the bur
gomeister, can keep them for
year. Stohr ran a small grocery
store in Czechoslovakia, and the
rest of the family worked in tex
tile mills.
"They can't stay here perma-
nently," Hermann said. There are
no mills near here, and there will
He asked if the old man coulo
just be nothing for them to do"
cut wood in the forest and if the
women could do homework in the
Village. After listing their respec-
tive infirmities, and insisting the
husband was too old to cut wood
on a cold day, they reluctantly
agreed that perhaps they could dc
the work.
Down the muddy street and up
another flight of stairs led to the
two rooms given to Herman Reinl.
from Asch.
Rooms Badly Crowded
Reinl, a lean, healthy-looking
man in his late thi-ties, brought
his wife and four children, aged
two to seven. Two of the young
sters we're under the blankets in
bed in the far corner of the room
as we entered, as if to make room
on the crowded floor for the dishes,
onions, slippers, pans, and other
items spilling food from opened
boxes and bags.
The family of six will occupy a
12-by-15 and an 8-by-9-foot room.
The furniture totalled three beds,
four chairs and a small, round
stove.
Military government officials ex-
planned that as soon as possible, a
tremendous relocation Of expellees
must be accomplished to fit skills
to community needs. For the time
being, these people have been put
in whatever towns or villages could
take them.
In the 81 received here the night
before there were 20 men, mostly
old men; 81 women, and 10 chill
dren up to IA years. Most adults,
when they can find no jobs for
their skills, turn to farm work. II
husbend and wife work for their
landlord, they should receive room.
board, social insurance and DUR
ing the farming months from SO
to go marks (half of a day labor.
er's monthly wage) in cash.