Home Again

The millionth French repatriate returned from Germany to Paris last week. Most of the million wore ragged clothes and battered shoes. At first they stood gossiping, joking, exchanging experiences and sharing cigarets in front of the Maison des Prisonniers (Prisoners' Reception Center) in Paris' Quartier de l'Europe. But soon small raiding forces, guided by individual "reconnaissance units" of ex-prisoners, peeled off to obtain by "peaceful infiltration" of food and clothing stores the necessities promised (but still unprovided) by the Government. Minister of Prisoners & Deportees Henri Frenay and Food Minister Paul Ramadier had good intentions but lacked supplies.

So one large group of ex-prisoners swarmed into a department store, emerged later with the shop's stock of men's suits. A hungry group headed for the markets around the Hotel de Ville, raided peddlers' carts and grocery stores for food. Others marched through the streets demanding the resignations of Ministers Frenay and Ramadier. There was little belligerency, no revolutionary cries, but there was determination. For the goods they confiscated the prisoners often paid in I.O.U.s, which the storekeepers took to the Government for reimbursement. In many shops the shelves were bare. Several big shops, among them Paris' famed Cent Mille Chemises ("100,000 Shirts"), put up their shutters.

There were two bright spots in the situation: 1) the U.S. Ambassador's wife, Mrs. Jefferson Caffery, distributed several boxloads of sweaters, coats, evening dresses and bobby socks; 2) Food Minister Ramadier resigned.

There was also one ominous note. In the Rue d'Aboukir, the heart of Paris' Jewish business district, knots of former slave laborers from Germany raised the ugly Nazi cry: "A bas les Juifs!"--Down with the Jews!

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