Another reason to like Ike

I commend Daniel Kra for posting the archived 1952 report of David Ben-Gurion’s message to Dwight D. Eisenhower on the latter’s election as president of the United States (From Our Archives, November 7). I am one who remembers that election very well.

Eisenhower has a special place in Jewish history that few are aware of. An order he issued as supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces had extraordinary consequences for the Jewish people.

After the end of World War II, there was a great push by the Allied victors to “rehabilitate” the large numbers of refugees found in Germany and in countries that had been occupied by the Nazis. They were sent back to their country of origin, losing their status as displaced persons as well as the special benefits that this status brought them.

When the first Jews returned to their original homes, they not only encountered antisemitism, but also pogroms and murder. They sought to return to the DP camps they had left, but were refused, as they had been “rehabilitated” and no longer were considered displaced persons.

When the reports of pogroms and murder reached Eisenhower, he issued an order stating that “rehabilitated” Jews were to be welcomed back to the DP camps in the American zone of Germany, with all their previous rights restored. This was not the case for rehabilitated non-Jews, who could not return. Also excluded were Jews who went to Palestine and wished to return to the DP camps for the benefits.

Because of this exclusion, I assume that there were some who attempted to do this. Of course, Eisenhower’s order did not apply to the French or British zones of occupation. Therefore, one finds that a large majority of the survivors of the Holocaust were located in the zone occupied by the American forces. SHALOM BRONSTEIN Jerusalem