Vol. XVIII No. 2 February, 1963 INFORMATION ISSUED BY THE ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH REFUGEES IN GREAT BRITAIN a FAIRFAX MANSIONS. FINCHL£Y RD. (corner Fairfax Rd.). London, N.W.S Office and ConMuiting Hours: Telephone: MAIda Vale 9096 7 (General Ofhce and Welfare for the Aged) Monday to 7hursday 10 a.m.—1 p.m, 3—6 p.m. MAIda Vale 4449 (Employment Agency, annually licensed by the L.CC. and Social Services Dept.) fridaf 10 a,m.-1 p.m. ^- L. Lang (Paris) carry out even this emergency programme alone, either financially or with the welfare workers available in their communities ; and this difficulty brought about a joint Jewish drive, which must ALGERIAN JEWS IN FRANCE have been greeted with joy by every Jew. British Jewry, the Jewish communities in the Federal Republic, together with the Jews in all the other ,'n May, 1962. shortly before the departure of openings, too, owing to a lack of dwellings within West and North European countries, have begun jne European population from Algeria, the mem- reach of the place of work. The general short­ to collect funds for the Algerian Jews. In put­ Ders of the Central Jewish Welfare Fund of France age of houses is the greatest material difficulty in ting a uniform Jewish Europe on its feet for the aeiiberated how they might contribute to the the way of the reception of all the Algerian first time they have done something of extra­ .^^^Pt'on of the Algerian Jews in the motherland. returnees in the motherland. I tie few Jews of German origin at that meeting ordinary importance ; with a tragedy as incentive, were not a little surprised when the rapporteur, The arrival of 100.000 Algerian Jews within they have emulated and surpassed the general t^^'j "* of the Jewish communities in Alsace, a few weeks called for great exertions on the political trend towards the unification of Europe. introduced his statements as follows : part of French Jewry, for which its organisations This joint action by the European Jews has an could not be prepared, for it was impossible to extraordinary psychological significance, above all * In 1933 the Germans knocked at our gates. foresee either the time of departure from Algeria for those who have emigrated from one Euro­ We Keep our ears cocked in Strassbourg, or the numerical strength of the migration. What pean country to another. They feel they are in pecause our city is the entrance gate to France, alone was obvious from the start was that the a community whose framework stretches beyond ihat should signify the entrance to freedom, to reception by the Jewish communities and insti­ that of a single nation ; that they are no longer tolerance and to our hearts. tutions was a necessary complement of certain immigrants, but European Jews who, with all the 'When these German Jews came with their State measures, because the majority of the other elements of European Jewry, constitute the heel-clicking and their clipped speech, we were Algerian Jew? had led lives in accordance with receptionists of the newcomers. The new mass naively afraid that they would introduce a dis­ Jewish religious traditions that often cut them off emigration from Algeria having such varied crimination—a discrimination that indeed was from the surrounding world. Algerian Jewry has. components, even the Jews who emigrated from already there. in fact, a special character of its own and—far Germany in 1933 now belong to the "indigenous " Our conscience has been troubled ever since from the ideas of metropolitan France, with its French Jewish population, in the same way as then, when we think of all the human beings somehow secularised Judaism—the Algerian Jews did the German Jews in Israel when immigrants Whose lives we could have saved and whom, are closely tied to cult and religion. Apart streamed in after the State of Israel had been through our exaggerated nationalism, we in fact from their commitment to a purely Jewish founded. <i'd not save." way of life they need, as it were, a " human warmth" in their social relationships which As the word " Israel " has cropped up, let us th ^*i* *^enU of the Second World War have taught is not always shown them, particularly in deal briefly with the remarkable fact that only j"j. •'.«*s of France that Jewry is universal and the big cities of metropolitan France. In short, a few thousand Algerian Jews have made their •naivisible. The lesson was a bitter one, for the they need a Jewish " intrastructure " or, as it is way to Israel. The overwhelming majority of ti iF^^'^ '° destroy the Jews made no distinc- called today, a platform to enable them to adapt the refugees have elected to settle in France, and iion between French and foreign Jews, for they themselves. For this reason, when welfare cases for the following reasons: linguistic and cultural • Simply set out together as Jews on their last were being transferred to France for resettlement. alliance between Algeria and the motherland ; journey eastwards. the Jewish sector had to volunteer to look after material and social conditions, often comparable, 'h French Jews therefore resolved to receive them instead of the State. to which they were accustomed ; the attraction ijl^^f^^comers from Algeria as brothers, although of French culture and social life; and above all, ^* Were many differences between the two the subsidies of the French authorities, laid down ,j "'™"nities, not the least being the participa- Emergency Programme in ",'. °'"8otten today, of many an Algerian Jew Continued on page 2, column 1 c»«, '^^t desperate struggle for the pohtical ^'aius quo in Algeria. An emergency programme to meet this situation had to provide the Jewish framework for a large bv fh ^^*^ ^'^°'" Germany, who were reminded number of returnees, whether in the form of Alto President of the Jewish communities of children's homes or institutions for the solitary Council of Jews from Germany the 1 *'""^t the occasionally summary treatment aged. But uprooted families also needed con­ "j^ had received at the hands of the French, necting with the Jewish world. As a result of the Anglo-German Lawyers' Association het "°' ''^'P noting the basic differences preceding influx of Jews from other North Associotion of Jewish Refugees tween the conditions of their immigration in African countries, which may be estimated at th^ y"« 1935-1939 and the entry or return of 60,000 to 70.000 souls, big cities had to be '* Algerian Jews to the motherland. avoided, if possible, as settlement centres. Thus many Algerian Jews settled in smaller towns in MEETING Contrast to Immigrants of 1933 Southem France, where the once flourishing In Jewish communities had shrunk, or been dis- ^. .contrast to the immigrants of 1933, the !bandedi. Synagogues, rooms for the rieligious the i?" ^^*^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^'^ fortune of knowing instruction of children, facilities for obtaining MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18 naf '^t'*^'^ language and possessing French ritual food, etc., are therefore lacking. The situa­ den "^ " ^° '^^* '''^^ require neither a resi- tion is even worse in market-towns and villages, at 7.45 p.m. at thei "^'^ * labour permit; they can practise where accommodation or work is available, but 51 Belsize Square, London, N.W.S aia ^*^*lt]ired trade or profession without further where there had previously been no Jewish eco ^^^ ^^^ usually acquainted with French (BETWEEN BELSIZE PARK AND SWISS COTTAGE population. Here the Jewish framework has to UNOERGROUNO STATIONS) (j ""^"I'c and social conditions. French legisla- be created from scratch and without any previous all d'" '^^^ granted to Algerian "returnees" of pattern. jjf ^nominations, a number of whom had never Rectitsanwalt Martin Hirscti, M.D.B. mem * trodden on French soil. State reimburse- Moreover, special difficulties are presented by (CHAIRMAN OF THE INDEMNIFICATION land travel and transport co§ts to the mother- the younger generation, which was subjected in COMMITTEE OF THE BUNDESTAG) inc ^ monthly pension until a normal earned Algeria for seven years to conditions approxi­ resa'd* had been reached, preferential rights as mating to a state of war, could not remain unin­ will give a report on in«r accommodation, employment, social fluenced by the political activities of extreme sg,f a"ce and State aid for the settlement of parties and had witnessed innumerable acts of ^]^"*'!"P'oyed professionals. Furthermore, the violence. "DER GEGENWAERTIGE J, "^''•ans are arriving during a boom and a pro- We Will not go as far as to mention the diffi­ gg, "^ labour shortage and not. like the refu- culties which must be overcome before the STAND DER All N"' Germany, during a recession, Algerian Jews can be finally integrated in the life the same, the professional qualifications of of France, but merely the Jewish emergency pro­ the "^'.""""f^^ from Algeria often do not satisfy gramme, for the execution of which within one WIEDERGUTMACHUNG" a J selective demand in the labour market; year the amount of 13 miUion NF ($2.6 million) vantage cannot be taken of certain labour will be required. The Jews in France could not Page 2 AJR INFORMATION February, 1963 BERLIN JEWISH HOSPITAL TRANSFERRED FROM THE GERMAN SCENE TO TRUST As the result of long-standing negotiations WAR CRIMINAL TRACED IN CHILE TRIALS between the Berlin Jewish community and the City Hermann Julius Walther Rauff, a former official In Bamberg the jury in the trial of Georg of (West) Berlin, a Trust has been established under in the Nazi security bureau, was arrested in Chile Schlosser, charged with the murder of Jews in the name of " Juedisches Krankenhaus BerKn " to at the request of the West German authorities, the ghetto of Czestochowa, has ordered that the which the Hospita! Iranische Strasse has been sold who accuse him of having "' invented " the mobile trial be suspended so that a witness could be at a price of DM.