56107/186
Decided by the Board July 11, 1942.
Literacy — Exemption because of religious persecution.
An alien of Jewish faith who fled from the Nazis is exempt from the literacy requirement of the Immigration Act of 1917 as one avoiding religious persecution, whether the persecution was directed at him because of race or religion. It is impossible to separate the Nazi persecution of the Jewish people into aspects of religious persecution or racial persecution.
EXCLUDED BY BOARD OF SPECIAL INQUIRY:
(S---- M----.)
Act of 1917 — Illiterate.
(E----, Z----, R---- M----.)
Act of 1917 — Likely to become public charges.
Mr. M.B. Pershy, of New York City, for the appellants.
Mr. Joseph Minton, for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Mr. Richard P. Loft, Board attorney-examiner.
STATEMENT OF THE CASE: Appellants are a family of husband and wife and son and daughter, ages respectively 49, 44, 18, and 12. They are aliens, citizens of Rumania, which is the country of birth of the father and son. The wife was born in Poland and the daughter in Belgium. They seek admission for permanent residence in possession of appropriate documents. A board of special inquiry has excluded them on the grounds above stated on their arrival at the port of New York on June 10, 1942, and they appeal.
DISCUSSION: The family lived in Antwerp for 15 years until May of 1940 when they fled prior to the Nazi occupation of that country. They made their way to this country by Portugal and Cuba.
The father, a fur merchant, owns merchandise worth $20,000. We conclude that the wife, son, and daughter who are in good health are not in fact likely to become public charges with the husband-father the possessor of substantial assets.
The husband-father is unable to read. He can read some one-syllable words in Yiddish haltingly and can read some Hebrew words without understanding their meaning. Our conclusion is that he is unable to read sufficiently to satisfy the meaning of the reading test requirement found in section 3 of the act of 1917.
As before stated the family, including the husband-father, are Hebrews who fled from their last permanent residence just prior to the Nazi invasion of that country. Obviously, they fled to avoid persecution, and the only remaining question is whether the persecution that they faced would have been religious persecution within the meaning of the following provision of section 3 of the act of 1917:
* * * All aliens who shall prove to the satisfaction of the proper immigration officer or to the Attorney General that they are seeking admission to the United States to avoid religious persecution in the country of their last permanent residence, whether such persecution be evidenced by overt acts or by laws or governmental regulations that discriminate against the alien or the race to which he belongs because of his religious faith; * * *
The record in this case indicates that these Hebrews fled from Hitlerism. We take judicial notice of facts that persuade us that the aliens would have suffered persecution had they remained in Belgium, and that persecution was religious persecution which would have been evidenced by overt acts and laws and governmental regulations that discriminate against the aliens and the race to which they belong because of their religious faith. It may be argued that the Nazi persecution of Jews is a racial rather than a religious persecution. We are aware, however, that Nazism pretends to be a form of state religion in which all of the established religions meet state opposition unless they subserviently comply with whatever demands the state or its officials make upon them. The Nazi creed of race superiority is a manifestation of this Nazi religion and is in fact apparently its highest tenet. The Hebrew people are identified more than any other people as a religious group. It is impossible to separate the Nazi persecution or in fact any persecution of the Jewish people into aspects of religious persecution or racial persecution. The two are the same. Thus Nazism as a state religion in its doctrines of racial superiority persecutes other races through religious motives. And the Hebrew people, whose race and religion are one, are the victims of religious persecution whether persecution is directed at them on the pretext of racial inferiority or religious heresy. The act of 1917 implicitly recognizes this in referring to persecution of "the alien or the race to which he belongs because of his religious faith."
FINDINGS OF FACT: Upon the basis of all the evidence adduced at the hearing, it is found:
(1) That the appellants are aliens, citizens of Rumania, who seek admission as permanent residents in possession of appropriate documents;
(2) That the husband-father has assets worth $20,000;
(3) That the husband-father is unable to read;
(4) That the husband-father fled from his last permanent residence to avoid Nazi persecution of him as a Hebrew;
(5) That the Nazi persecution of Hebrews is religious persecution.
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW: Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact, it is concluded:
(1) That under section 3 of the act of 1917 the appellants, E----, Z----, and R---- M----, are not inadmissible as likely to become public charges;
(2) That under section 3 of the act of 1917 the appellant, S---- M----, though unable to read, is exempt from the operation of the literacy test as an alien who seeks admission to avoid persecution in the country of his last permanent residence.
ORDER: It is ordered that the appeal be sustained and the appellants admitted for permanent residence.