840.48 Refugees/6399a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Switzerland (Harrison)95
2149. The cable below for Harrison and McClelland is WRB no. 36.
1. Reports reaching the Department and War Refugee Board indicate that a number of unquestioned nationals and persons claiming the nationality of the United States and of other American republics are held in camps situated in Germany and German-controlled territory to which the protecting Powers and the International Red Cross have been granted no access or else such strictly limited forms of access that they have been unable effectively to assist the individuals in question. Such camps are known to exist at Belsen-Bergen near Hanover, Bergau near Dresden, Drancy near Paris and at Theresienstadt. The camp at Tost in Silesia appears to have been placed in this category since late in 1943 and there may possibly be other camps of the same character.
Please ask the Swiss Government as protecting Power of the United States kindly to investigate this situation and request that it make efforts to have its representatives visit the camps referred to for the purpose of reporting upon the claims of individuals held in these camps to citizenship of the United States or in applicable cases of the other American republics represented by Switzerland. Similar efforts should be made in respect of camps and other establishments which may be established in Hungary, Bulgaria, Rumania or any other area under the control of the authorities allied with or dominated by Germany.
The request to visit such camps should be based upon Article 86 of the Geneva Prisoners of War Convention as applied to interned civilians by mutual agreement of the belligerents. It should be pointed out that the extraordinary restrictions placed by the German authorities upon communications with these camps have deprived the persons detained there and the protecting Power of normal means of dealing with their claims to the protection of foreign states—hence that visits to these camps are essential to protect the vital interests of such detainees. Reference is made in this connection to Franz Kahn (Department’s A–199, April 2496 and previous) the verification of whose claim to American citizenship has been unjustifiably impeded by the extraordinary regulations attendant upon correspondence.
2. The Department is informed that the International Red Cross Committee has exerted itself to visit the camps in question but has [Page 1078] so far been unsuccessful. Please express to the Committee the appreciation of the Department and of the War Refugee Board for these efforts and their hope that the efforts will not be abated.