867N.01/1–1746: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé in the Soviet Union ( Kennan )
96. Members of Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry are proceeding to Europe immediately and desire to visit Soviet zones in Germany and Austria as well as Bulgaria, Rumania and Hungary to study position of Jews in those areas. Purpose of Committee is to examine position of Jews in European countries where they have been victims of Nazi and Fascist persecution and practical measures taken or contemplated in those countries to enable Jews to live free from discrimination and oppression and to estimate number who desire or will be impelled by their condition to migrate to Palestine or other countries outside Europe.
Please communicate foregoing to Foreign Office and state that direct requests will be submitted to Control Commissions in Bulgaria, Rumania and Hungary and to Soviet authorities in Soviet zones of Germany and Austria. Stress Dept’s earnest desire that necessary instructions be issued to Soviet representatives in these areas to grant permission for Committee representatives to make contemplated visits.
Committee representatives desire to visit Soviet zone in Germany during first half of February and other areas in last half of February.
Personnel of Missions to various areas follows:
[Here follow lists of Committee representatives and their proposed destinations in Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Roumania, and Hungary.]
Dept understands that similar instructions are being sent to British Embassy in Moscow. Please concert with your British colleague in approaching foreign office.6
- In telegram 216, January 24, from Moscow, Mr. Kennan reported that on the previous day he had addressed a letter on the matter to Vladimir Georgiyevich Dekanozov, Assistant Commissar for Foreign Affairs in the Soviet Foreign Office, and that the British Embassy had also done so (867N.01/1–2446).↩