Catholic Would-Be Refugees' Plight
Week by week, day by day, the Catholic Committee for German Refugees are receiving applications from non-Aryan Germans and Austrians for help to leave their Fatherland which has no further use for them.
But no one else seems to want them . . and the Catholic Committee finds it hard enough to support those it has already succoured. " The Committee's expenditure for the upkeep of those already in England is about £50 per week," I was told by one of the committee, " this money comes to a large extent from the poorer Catholics, who are sending us their pennies and sixpences, whereas, on the whole, richer Catholics are not sending their equivalent 10s. and £1.
" Here are one or two typical applications," my informant went on.
" Take, for instance, Dr. and Frau Dr.
X. Husband Aryan, wife non-Aryan; both Catholics, have three children, aged six, five and three years. Both parents are highly qualified medical doctors with distinguished professional records, but now Dr. X. has been dismissed from the clinic of which he was in charge, on the ground of his wife's non-Aryan origin.
" He might have retained his position, being himself racially unimpeachable. if he had been willing to divorce his wife, but this he was, naturally, not prepared to do, they are therefore now faced with destitution for themselves and the three children, as it is out of the question for him to obtain any other appointment in Austria.
" They are willing to accept work of any kind and have actually applied for domestic service in England, but it is clearly impossible to obtain this for them unless some provision can be made elsewhere for the children.
Widow of Black-and-White Artist " Frau Z., aged 72, is the widow of a well-known black-and-white artist and was formerly in receipt of a State pension in recognition of her husband's distinction; this has now been stopped on the ground that she, although a Catholic, is of nonAryan origin; she has no other means of subsistence and is begging, at the age of 72, for a permit to work in England as a domestic servant."
Contributions will be gratefully received by the Catholic Committee for German Refugees, 120, Victoria Street, London, S.W.I.