Newspaper Page Text
Friday, February 21, 1958
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Pag* Elervea
Brotherhood Saga
A Refugee Story
A Fairy-Tale Ending
Special to Southern Israelite
Most fairy-tales begin “Once
upon a time” and end . . . “and
they all lived happily ever af
ter.”
But in real life such an ending
is almost impossible.
The Joint Distribution commit
tee came pretty close to it in
Vienna during the past year. In
1956 and 1957 more than 20,000
Hungarian Jewish refugees cross
ed the border into Austria. To
day there are only 1,500 left.
But during the same period
there was another Hungarian ref
ugee problem—and that one is
almost 100 per cent solved! In
large measure this is due to the
generous support given JDC by
American Jewry through the
United Jewish Appeal.
When the Austrian border was
closed by the Hungarians at the
beginning of 1957 the Hungarian
refugees turned south and cross
ed into Yugoslavia. By the end
of February 1957 almost 18,000
had poured into the country,
about 1,000 of whom were Jews.
The Yugoslav government gave
them temporary shelter in empty
hotels, in dis-used monasteries
and in army camps. With funds
provided by the JDC, the Yugo-
lav Federation of Jewish Com
munities did an amazing job of
locating the Jews in these camps
and providing them with relief.
The responsibility for the Jew
ish refugees was assigned to JDC
and United Hias Service. Miss
Beatrice Vulcan, a veteran JDC
worker, was sent into the country
to represent the two organiza
tions.
The problem was complicated
by the conditions prevailing in
the Yugoslav camps. As Miss
Vulcan wrote in her final re
port:
“The refugees were not allow
ed out of the camps without per
mission and the voluntary agen
cy representatives were not al
lowed into the camps without
permission. This meant that any
time an agency representative
wanted to visit a camp, his re
quest had to be submitted in ad
vance, through the UNHCR, to
the Ministry of the Interior. The
permission was usually granted.
Our visits to the camps were in
our role as representatives of the
UNHCR and we could not single
out any group for interviewing.
It was also not quite clear to the
authorities at the beginning what
we were coming to the camps
for, so that we usually had to
interview in the presence of the
camp officials, the police and the
Hungarian refugee committee
representatives. When repeated
experiences with us convinced
them that we limited our dis
cussions with the refugees to
questions of imigration and wel
fare, they allowed us to inter
view without a supervisory audi
ence.
“It is obvious that under such
circumstances I could not go into
a camp and ask to see only Jew
ish refugees, nor would it have
been desirable to single them out
in this way. What I tried to have
available when I visited a camp
was the name of one Jewish per
son living in it, and while inter-
... On Brotherhood
The time will come, and
soon I hove, when Brother
hood Week will he a re
minder, not of the presence
of discrimination in our
midst, hut of its eradica
tion.—Bernard Baruch.
The Olympic ideal of
sport for sport’s sake has
defied dictators, out-lasted
wars and risen above politi
cal struggles. It will contin
ue to do so. Sports are most
effective weapons against
prejudice and intolerance.
—Avery Brundage.
viewing him, try to get the
names of other Jewish families
in the camp, or in other camps
in the country. The search was
complicated by the frequent
moving of the emigrants from
camp to camp; I often visited a
camp with a list of names of
Jewish persons who, I had rea
son to believe, were living there,
only to find that most of them
had been moved before my ar
rival. It was even more aggra
vating to return to Belgrade
from such a visit and find let
ters from Jewish people in the
camps I had just visited but had
not seen because I had not known
they were in the camp.
“After our people were identi
fied and located they had to be
helped to decide where they
wanted to emigrate. Except for
a very few people with individ
ual emigration plans, the next
step was to get them presented
to the Selection Teams of the
particular countries of their
choice.
“When we were informed that
a Team was to start processing,
I used all the means at my dis
posal to get the refugees moved
to the camp in which the Mis
sion was processing, and ar
ranged for guarantees or spon
sorship if these were necessary.
“Had we not watched for all
the possibilities and initiated the
movements and paved the way
for the presentation to the Selec
tion Team, many more refugees
would have remained in Yugo
slavia than can be found there
today.”
Despite all these difficulties
the work went on. As of the
end of 1957, as far as is known,
only two Hungarian Jewish refu
gees were still left in Yugosla
via. The others went to 19
countries, including Israel. The
job was 99 and 98/100 per cent
finished.
JDC and United Hias Service
did their job. The Jewish refu
gees have been cleared out of
Yugoslavia. It can only be hoped
that, as in the old fairy-tales,
they will “live happily ever
after.”
Profit crltood Cjreelinyd
Mr.
and Mrs. Isadora M. Siegel
Alvin and Donnie
Mr. and Mrs. Jerome H. Siegel
MAKE EVERY WEEK
BROTHERHOOD WEEK
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Dixie Coverall Supply Company
“ Uniforming The South ”
MU. 8-3909
454 IRWIN STREET, N.
E.
Man To Man
By Philip M. Talbott, President
THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES
IT HAS ALWAYS SEEMED TO ME THAT BROTHERHOOD MUST
EXIST BETWEEN MEN—AS MEN—BEFORE IT CAN EXIST BE
TWEEN RACES, RELIGIOUS PERSUASIONS, OR POLITICAL
CREEDS IT FOLLOWS, THEREFORE, THAT BROTHERHOOD MUST
EXIST FIRST IN AN INDIVIDUAL’S OWN HEART, BEFORE IT CAN
EXIST IN A NEIGHBORHOOD, A COMMUNITY, OR BETWEEN NA
TIONS. SURELY THE ALMIGHTY HIMSELF AND THE ALMIGHTY
ALONE IS THE FOUNTAIN-HEAD OF BROTHERHOOD, AND OUR
LOVE OF HIM THE BEGINNING OF OUR LOVE FOR OTHERS.
HERE ARE THE GREATEST COMMANDMENTS AND THE MOST
DIFFICULT. BUT UNTIL MAN OBEYS THEM HE CANNOT FULFILL
HIS DESTINY ON EARTH.
This Message Sponsored as a Public Service by Ihese Men and Firms
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388 Edgewood Ave., N.E.
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TR. 4-1633
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