V-MAIL
438th AAA AW BN
APO 513 % Postmaster, N.Y.
31 August, 1945
Nancy
My dearest fiancée –
This will really be a shortie because I’m already almost late for General Court which meets today – dammit. I was all set to go down to Lake Gérardmer to stay overnight and get out of at least one morning of sick-call. I’m getting so darned bored and irritated with the latter – it’s alarming. There’s only one thing I want sweetheart, and that is to go home to you and love you, love you and love you. I’m champing at the bit, I’m tugging at the tether – and oh yes – I’m impatient, too. Excuse me for now, darling, I’ve really got to go. Love to all –
This will really be a shortie because I’m already almost late for General Court which meets today – dammit. I was all set to go down to Lake Gérardmer to stay overnight and get out of at least one morning of sick-call. I’m getting so darned bored and irritated with the latter – it’s alarming. There’s only one thing I want sweetheart, and that is to go home to you and love you, love you and love you. I’m champing at the bit, I’m tugging at the tether – and oh yes – I’m impatient, too. Excuse me for now, darling, I’ve really got to go. Love to all –
and
All my love for always
Greg
* TIDBIT *
about Truman's Communication with Atlee
and his Concern for Resettlement
of Jewish Refugees
about Truman's Communication with Atlee
and his Concern for Resettlement
of Jewish Refugees
The Harry S. Truman Library and Museum has published the Public Papers of Harry S. Truman which contain most of President Truman's public messages, statements, speeches, and news conference remarks. The letter below, found on the museum website, tells Britain's Prime Minister about the Harrison Report. Click here to see his Executive Order Abolishing the War Information Office, also published on this date.
31 August 1945
My dear Mr. Prime Minister:
Because of the natural interest of this Government in the present condition and future fate of those displaced persons in Germany who may prove to be stateless or non-repatriable, we recently sent Mr. Earl G. Harrison to inquire into the situation.
Mr. Harrison was formerly the United States Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization, and is now the Representative of this Government on the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees. The United Kingdom and the United States, as you know, have taken an active interest in the work of this Committee.
Instructions were given to Mr. Harrison to inquire particularly into the problems and needs of the Jewish refugees among the displaced persons.
Mr. Harrison visited not only the American zone in Germany, but spent some time also in the British zone where he was extended every courtesy by the 21st Army Headquarters.
I have now received his report*. In view of our conversations at Potsdam I am sure that you will find certain portions of the report interesting. I am, therefore, sending you a copy.
I should like to call your attention to the conclusions and recommendations appearing on page 8 and the following pages--especially the references to Palestine. It appears that the available certificates for immigration to Palestine will be exhausted in the near future. It is suggested that the granting of an additional one hundred thousand of such certificates would contribute greatly to a sound solution for the future of Jews still in Germany and Austria, and for other Jewish refugees who do not wish to remain where they are or who for understandable reasons do not desire to return to their countries of origin.
On the basis of this and other information which has come to me I concur in the belief that no other single matter is so important for those who have known the horrors of concentration camps for over a decade as is the future of immigration possibilities into Palestine. The number of such persons who wish immigration to Palestine or who would qualify for admission there is, unfortunately, no longer as large as it was before the Nazis began their extermination program. As I said to you in Potsdam, the American people, as a whole, firmly believe that immigration into Palestine should not be closed and that a reasonable number of Europe's persecuted Jews should, in accordance with their wishes, be permitted to resettle there.
I know you are in agreement on the proposition that future peace in Europe depends in large measure upon our finding sound solutions of problems confronting the displaced and formerly persecuted groups of people. No claim is more meritorious than that of the groups who for so many years have known persecution and enslavement.
The main solution appears to lie in the quick evacuation of as many as possible of the non-repatriable Jews, who wish it, to Palestine. If it is to be effective, such action should not be long delayed.
Very sincerely yours,
HARRY S TRUMAN
My dear Mr. Prime Minister:
Because of the natural interest of this Government in the present condition and future fate of those displaced persons in Germany who may prove to be stateless or non-repatriable, we recently sent Mr. Earl G. Harrison to inquire into the situation.
Mr. Harrison was formerly the United States Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization, and is now the Representative of this Government on the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees. The United Kingdom and the United States, as you know, have taken an active interest in the work of this Committee.
Instructions were given to Mr. Harrison to inquire particularly into the problems and needs of the Jewish refugees among the displaced persons.
Mr. Harrison visited not only the American zone in Germany, but spent some time also in the British zone where he was extended every courtesy by the 21st Army Headquarters.
I have now received his report*. In view of our conversations at Potsdam I am sure that you will find certain portions of the report interesting. I am, therefore, sending you a copy.
I should like to call your attention to the conclusions and recommendations appearing on page 8 and the following pages--especially the references to Palestine. It appears that the available certificates for immigration to Palestine will be exhausted in the near future. It is suggested that the granting of an additional one hundred thousand of such certificates would contribute greatly to a sound solution for the future of Jews still in Germany and Austria, and for other Jewish refugees who do not wish to remain where they are or who for understandable reasons do not desire to return to their countries of origin.
On the basis of this and other information which has come to me I concur in the belief that no other single matter is so important for those who have known the horrors of concentration camps for over a decade as is the future of immigration possibilities into Palestine. The number of such persons who wish immigration to Palestine or who would qualify for admission there is, unfortunately, no longer as large as it was before the Nazis began their extermination program. As I said to you in Potsdam, the American people, as a whole, firmly believe that immigration into Palestine should not be closed and that a reasonable number of Europe's persecuted Jews should, in accordance with their wishes, be permitted to resettle there.
I know you are in agreement on the proposition that future peace in Europe depends in large measure upon our finding sound solutions of problems confronting the displaced and formerly persecuted groups of people. No claim is more meritorious than that of the groups who for so many years have known persecution and enslavement.
The main solution appears to lie in the quick evacuation of as many as possible of the non-repatriable Jews, who wish it, to Palestine. If it is to be effective, such action should not be long delayed.
Very sincerely yours,
HARRY S TRUMAN
Note: The Harrison Report was discussed in a *TIDBIT* on 13 August 1945.
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