740.00119 Control (Germany)/12–646
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (Hilldring) to the Secretary of State
The Counselor of the Danish Legation18 has handed to me a note19 dated November 21 referring to his Government’s desire to repatriate to Germany the 200,000 German refugees who have been in Denmark since the end of the war. Specifically the Danes now ask that, pending a general settlement of the problem, the U.S. zone accept 12,000 of these refugees. The Danish note mentions that recently the British and French have agreed to accept in their zones a similar number (12,000) from Denmark.
I believe that more detailed background on this problem was sent to you several days ago in a memorandum20 for your use when you see the Danish Foreign Minister.
I understand that you may have already discussed this question with the Danish Foreign Minister. In any case I think you should know that I gave the Danish Counselor a sympathetic hearing and that I informed him that I would be glad to recommend that the U.S. authorities accept in the U.S. zone the 12,000 refugees requested by the Danes. I also pointed out that the main problem confronting the Danes was the disposition of the large number of the refugees in Denmark who came from east of the Oder-Neisse line. I reminded [Page 193] him that this problem was one which the Russians and the British were more directly concerned with than the U.S. authorities.
I imagine you have discussed the problem of the German refugees in Denmark with General Clay. We are getting a pretty bad press reaction in Denmark as a result of our present refusal to accept in the U.S. zone more than the exact number of refugees who were domiciled in that zone. I appreciate the U.S. zone is already over-crowded but 12,000 is not a large number and the goodwill which we would obtain in Denmark seems to me to offset the physical difficulties of making room for these people in our zone.
Unless I hear from you to the contrary I shall recommend to General Clay that he take steps to admit a total of 12,000 German refugees from Denmark in the U.S. zone.