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    "localId": "269703418",
    "label": "Summary of First and Partial Report of Earl G. Harrison",
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    "id": "269703418",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Summary of First and Partial Report of Earl G. Harrison",
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        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
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            "logicalDate": "1945-08-01",
            "month": 8,
            "year": 1945
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{
    "seq": 5,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750318/750318-04-005.jpg",
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    "ocrText": "-5-\ncannot escape responsibility for what they have brought upon themselves,\"\nthen it is difficult to understand why so many displaced persons,\nparticularly those who have so long been persecuted and whose repatria-\ntion or resettlement is likely to be delayed, should be compelled to\nlive in crude, over-crowded camps. while the German people, in rural\nareas, continue undisturbed in their homes.\nAs matters now stand, we appear to be treating the Jews as the\nNazis treated them except that we do not exterminate them. They are\nin concentration camps in large numbers under our, or British or French\nmilitary guard instead of s.s. troops. One is led to wonder whether\nthe German people, seeing this, are not supposing that we are following\nor at least condoning Nazi policy.\nIt seems much more equitable and as it should be to witness the\nvery few places where fearless and uncompromising military officers\nhave either requisitioned an entire village for the benefit of the re-\nmaining displaced persons, compelling the German population to find\nhousing where they can, or have required the local population to billet a\nreasonable number of them. Thus the displaced persons, including the\npersecuted, live more like normal people and less like prisoners or\ncriminals or herded sheep. They are in Germany, most of them, and\ncertainly the Jews, through no fault or wish of their own. But in too\nmany instances, military government officers manifest reluctance or\nindisposition to inconvenience the German population and give them\npreferences over the displaced persons both in housing and in employment.\nFor the Jews who camot be evacuated or properly billeted,\nTREMAN\nARCHIVER INATIONAL AND NEW\nseparate camps should be established for those who wish them and the\nRECORDS\nSERVICE'\nCo\ngreat majority do. This is not a case of singling out a group for\nspecial privileges. It is a matter of raising to a more normal level\nthe position of a group which has been depressed to the lowest depths\nconceivable by years of organized and inhuman oppression.\nAs quickly as possible the actual operation of such camps should\nbe turned over to UNRRA for this is really a task for a civilian agency\nand"
}