840.48 Refugees/5887a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Switzerland (Harrison)89
1269. From War Refugee Board. Information has been received by the Board that there are small groups of refugees from Poland claiming American citizenship who are interned at Bergen-Berzen [Belsen?], Germany and Vittel, France. It is further understood by the War Refugee Board that an inquiry concerning the validity of such claims may be made of the Swiss Government by the German authorities. In this connection you are instructed to advise the appropriate authorities of the Government of Switzerland at the proper time that in substance the following answer should be made to all such inquiries:
“The Department will undertake to fully investigate any claim to United States citizenship, asserted by any person within territory under enemy control, upon the receipt from the Government of Switzerland of all pertinent information available to the German authorities relating to such claim of United States citizenship. During the time that the Department is investigating any particular claim to United States citizenship and until such time as the Department specifically advises the Swiss Government to the contrary, it must be presumed that the claimant is a citizen of the United States and the claimant must be accorded all the immunities, rights and privileges to which such citizens are entitled with the exception that financial assistance may not be extended until such assistance is specifically authorized by the Department (refer Department’s 1151, April 5)”.
- The substance of this telegram was transmitted in a circular airgram of May 11, 7:30 p.m., to Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela; repeated in substance to Bolivia on June 2.↩