One of the very first licenses the WRB approved–the one the Vaad Hatzala was bragging about in the Yiddische Kemfer article that I showed a few weeks ago–was for money to help people escape from Poland into Hungary. If you know your 1944 history, you wince at this, because in about six weeks, Germany is going to invade Hungary and a massive deportation of Jews, mainly to Auschwitz, is going to begin.
But for now, the WRB is encouraging the escape of Jews in hiding in Poland into the perceived safety of Hungary. Today’s document is a letter from Gerhard Riegner, the World Jewish Congress rep in Geneva, to Paul Squire, a member of the American consulate staff in Geneva. The consulate had received a report that there had been a deportation from Hungary and asked Riegner if he knew anything about it. Riegner says no, there’s no reason to suspect there were any recent deportations of Jews from Hungary. Life for Jews is terrible in Hungary, but no deportations.
