800.4016 DP/10–945
The Department of State to the British Embassy
Memorandum
Reference is made to the British Embassy’s aide-mémoire of October 9, 1945 with reference to the segregation of Jewish displaced persons (including persecuted German Jews) on a racial basis in the United States zone of occupation in Germany.
The assumption of the British Government that Jewish displaced persons in the United States zone in Germany are considered non-repatriable and are segregated on a racial basis in separate camps is not, according to information available to the Department, borne out by the facts. The pertinent military directive repeats an earlier SHAEF directive5 and provides that persons of Jewish faith who desire repatriation to the country of which they are nationals are to be treated as citizens of that nationality and placed in the same centers as other displaced persons of that nationality, and that Jews who are without nationality or those who do not desire to return to their country of origin will be treated as stateless and non-repatriable persons.
Stateless Jews and those who do not desire to return to their country of origin are free to decide at any time whether they will return to their former homes, as conditions in their home countries become more stable and their individual rights and liberties are more likely to be assured.
In the view of the Government of the United States, this policy contains no suggestion that there is no future in Europe for persons of the Jewish race, nor does it imply acceptance of the Nazi contention that there should be no place for Jews in Europe. The United States Government believes that Jewish nationals will have the same rights and opportunities as other nationals in European countries. This policy has no other significance than that of an administrative method of providing care for these persons in the United States zone in Germany, and of assuring their freedom of decision with respect to return to their home countries or emigration elsewhere if such return is not feasible eventually. The mere fact that those who are unwilling at present to return to their home countries are housed in separate camps for purposes of more convenient living arrangements does not constitute a decision as to their repatriability.
[Page 1200]The United States Government does not consider that the policy indicates a reversal of the decision of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration Council at its recent meeting in London that UNRRA should encourage the repatriation of displaced persons and that it be authorized to care for them for a temporary period. The policy under question was adopted by the military in the United States zone in Germany after careful consideration of the problems involved in the light of military experience to date. It is not believed that sound reasons exist for a modification of this policy and no embarrassment for UNRRA is foreseen if this policy is maintained.
It is difficult for this Government to understand the implication drawn by the British Government that the military directive in effect in the United States zone in Germany with respect to the housing of certain displaced Jewish persons has any relation to “the wholesale removal of European Jews to Palestine”. This conclusion, taken in conjunction with paragraph four of the aide-mémoire under reference, raises an issue which has never previously been presented to the United States Government and appears to lack relevancy in respect to previous communications between the two Governments.
The American Embassy in London is being instructed in replying to a letter from the Foreign Office dated August 3, 1945,6 to suggest that the two Governments explore the possibility of a more positive approach to the problem of those groups of displaced persons which have expressed unwillingness to return to their homes.