Anti-Semitism in Poland
General Morgan, the Chief of U.N.R.R.A. operations in Europe, must be-shocked by the effects of his recent speech on the refugee question in Germany ; fortunately he has not yet resigned, and it is to be hoped that he will not, for U.N.R.R.A. cannot easily spare so gifted and able an officer. The attention which has been concen- trated on his remarks on a planned Jewish exodus from Europe obscures the real value of his speech, which was to emphasise that eight months after the end of the war against National Socialism,
anti-Semitism still flourishes in Europe and especially in Poland, where the insecurity of their life is forcing the Jews to emigrate, even into Germany where they may hope to find better_conditions. It is a fantastic fact that the Poles, who of all people should have learned the evils of racial persecution, should now persecute the Jews ; but there appears to be a spontaneous and violent outbreak of anti- Semitism among certain sections of the Polish population which the Polish Government is powerless to prevent. Once arrived in Germany, the refugees become yet another burden to an already over-burdened administration ; they are not a liability of U.N.R.R.A.'s because, having left their country of their own accord, they are not "displaced persons," who include only those compulsorily removed from their countries. The fate of these Jewish exiles has been given a dramatic emphasis this week by the escape of 2,000 of them from their camp in Berlin, from which the Russians proposed to remove them to a camp in the Russian zone. As General Morgan rightly emphasised, some long-term arrangements for their resettle- ment are necessary ; his words have been endorsed this week by the first witness before the Palestine Commission which is now sitting in Washington.
