HOMELESS JEWS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 September 1938, Page 10

HOMELESS JEWS

SANCTUARY IN SWITZERLAND. FRONTIER EXPERIMENT. A new experiment in the housing of Jewish refugees from Austria is being attempted in a Swiss frontier town in the upper valley of the Rhine, says a Swiss contributor to the “Daily Telegraph.” About 130 Jews are now quartered here. They sleep in a disused lace factorq, hastily fitted out with straw sacks and blankets for bedding. The Swiss authorities are preparing to convert for living purposes empty buildings nearby and to concentrate all the refugees in the surrounding parishes here. Thus between 300 and 500 Jews will soon be gathered here. The factory premises are guarded by Cantonal police, and the refugees may go walking only within a prescribed area. The refugees include lawyers, doctors. carpenters, shop assistants, company directors, hotel servants and manual workers. Many have not even one spare suit. Some who slipped across the froniter arrived in a semi-clothed condition. With more than 2000 Jewish refugees now in Switzerland, the new regulations prohibiting the entry of further emigrants are being strictly enforced. Those now arriving by air are sent back in Swiss commercial ’planes. It is emphasised that the emigrants’ sojourn in Switzerland can be only temporary. Many of them hope to emigrate to the South American States within the next three months.