[H.
Reactions
abroad to the Reichskristallnacht / crystal night and
to the split of CSSR]
[6.21. Belgium's anti-Semitic threats - but no
measures taken]
[Nov 1938: About 13,300
Jewish refugies in Belgium]
Another country of immigration in Europe was Belgium.
Prior to November 1938 there were about 13,300 Jewish
refugees in the country, of whom some 3,000 in Brussels
required help.
(End note 114: R12, 1938 report)
The government declared that all those arriving illegally
after August (p.265)
27, 1938, would be expelled. But in actual fact there seem
to have been no expulsions. Between November 10 and the
end of the year about 3,000 more refugees arrived, all of
them illegally. By the end of January 1939 there were
7,500 people who had to be supported - 3,000 in Antwerp
and 4,500 in Brussels.
[Belgium: JDC help to the
Jewish refugees]
JDC action in Belgium was much more speedy than elsewhere
because it was obvious that, of all the West European
countries, Belgium had the relatively poorest
community. In December 1938 JDC gave $ 20,000 to meet the
rising costs of maintaining the refugees; but this covered
about one-sixth of the actual cost, and only $ 20,000
could be raised locally per month. In January, JDC gave $
20,000. But that was not enough, and Professor Max
Gottschalk, head of the Brussels Jewish aid committee,
told Troper that he might have to tell the government that
his committee could no longer look after the refugees.
[Reduce of the help -
undernourishment and tuberculosis]
This insufficient help had to be further reduced, and that
at a time when JDC estimated that 95 % of the refugees
were undernourished and that tuberculosis was on the
increase.
[Since March 1939:
Belgium: Flow of refugees - appeal and government's
help]
In March [1939] the Belgian government was told that the
committee's resources were at an end. At that time there
were already 25,000 German, Austrian, and Czech Jewish
refugees in the country, of whom 10,000 had to be
supported; 400 more were entering the country illegally
every week. The government's attitude was hardening, and
even legal entrants who overstayed their time faced
deportion.
(End note 115: AC [Administration Committee files], Troper
report, 3/31/39 [31 March 1939])
However, possibly as a result of Gottschalk's
intervention, the government relented to a considerable
degree. It increased its budget by 6 mio. Belgian francs
(about $ 20,000), which enabled 3,000 refugees to receive
a government allowance. Camps were opened to house the
newcomers. The principle that Jewish organizations were
the only ones responsible for Jewish refugees was, at
least in Belgium, overcome.
[Since 15 July 1939:
Belgium: Deportation threat to new refugees]
Until July 15, 1939, all those fleeing from Germany were
allowed to remain; after that date, they risked expulsion
unless they were political refugees.
JDC increased its allocations to $ 40,000 in April, $
60,000 in (p.266)
August, and $ 80,000 in September. As a result, JDC
expenditure rose from a mere $ 106,000 in 1938 to $
694,000 in 1939.
(End note 116:
-- R21;
-- 30-Germany, refugees in Belgium (Bruxelles);
the figures in these two sources are contradictory; file
30 has a figure of $ 94,000 for JDC expenditures in
Belgium in 1938. The discrepancy might possibly derive
from the inclusion of JDC's support for the Belgian HICEM
in the higher figure).
By the summer of 1939 two-thirds of the refugee
expenditure in Belgium was covered by JDC.
