Friday, January 28, 1944

.

Roosevelt Selects Board
To Rescue Jews in Europe

Hull, Morgenthau and Stimson Named as Government's
Official War Refugee Board to 'Take Action
for Immediate Rescue of Persecuted Peoples'

By Executive Order, President Roosevelt last Saturday
set up a War Refugee Board "to take action for the im-
mediate rescue from the Nazis of as many as possible of the
persecuted minorities of Europe, racial, religious or political,
all civilian victims of enemy savagery."
Secretary of State Hull, Secretary of the Treasury Mor-
genthau and Secretary of War Stimson compose the board,
which is to have a full-time executive director.

A White House statement, announcing the selection
- of this new board, declared that the President stressed
"that it was urgent that action be taken at once to fore-
stall the plan of the Nazis to exterminate all the Jews
and other persecuted minorities in Europe."
Reams May Be Executive Director

Page Three

THE :JEWISH NEWS

Weekly Review of the News of the World

(Compiled From Cables of Independent Jewish Press Service)

PALESTINE

Palcor reports from Jerusalem that
187 Jewish immigrants from Algeria, the
first group from there since that territory
was liberated by the Allies, have arrived
in Palestine via Egypt. The group includes
65 Algerian Jews and 122 refugees from
Poland, Austria and Germany, who had
escaped from France. They arrived on
certificates allocated for them by the Jew-
ish Agency, and the Joint Distribution
Committee. participated in the arrange-
ments for their immigration . . . Most of
the group had served with the French
forces at the beginning of the war, and

after demobilization were recruited by the
Vichy authorities for forced labor in
North Africa.

OVERSEAS

Many Jews participated in the brave
stand put up by General Tito's guerillas
in the city of Jaiac before their retreat
in the face of superior Nazi forces, accord-
ing to the Nazis' own version of the battle.
The German government has establish-
ed a special commission, headed by Alfred
Rosenberg, to complete the confiscation of
Jewish property in Nazi-occupied Europe,
according to reports reaching London.

(See Also Page 15)

It is believed that R. Borden Reams of the State Depart-
ment, one of the four American representatives to the
Anglo-American Conference on Refugees at Bermuda last
Spring, may be available as executive director.
It has been estimated by the Foreign Policy Association
that 16,000,000 had been made refugees by the Nazis.

The policy of our government toward the refugee problem was
stated in the preamble of the President's Executive Order, as follows:
"It. is the policy of this government to take all measures within
its power to rescue the victims of enemy oppression who are in
imminent danger of death and otherwise to afford such victims all
possible relief and assistance consistent with the successful prose-
cution of the war."
A White House statement said that while the President "would
look directly to the board for the successful- execution of this policy,
the board, of course, would cooperate fully with the Inter-Govern-
mental Committee, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation
A dininistration and other interested international organizations."
More than being an isolated American move, the President said
that he expected to obtain the cooperation of the United Nations
and other foreign governments in carrying out what the White
House called "this difficult but important task."
Plan Havens of Temporary Refuge
The President's order said that the functions of the new board
"shall include, without limitation, the development of plans and
programs and the inauguration of effective measures for (a) the
rescue, transportation, maintenance and relief of the victims of
enemy oppression, and (b) the establishment of havens of temporary
refuge for such victims."
It said also that the State Department shall appoint "special
attaches with diplomatic status" on the recommendations of the
board, and that these shall be "stationed abroad in places where it
is likely that assistance can be rendered to war refugees."
"The board and the State, Treasury and War Departments are
authorized to accept the. services or contributions of any private
persons, private organizations, State agencies or agencies of foreign
governments in carrying out the purposes of this order," the Presi-
dent directed.
Zionists Hail President's Action
Addressing the national administrative council of the Zionist
. Organization of America, at its quarterly meeting in New York last
Sunday, Dr. Israel Goldstein, president, declared that establishment
of the War Refugee Board by President Roosevelt was an important
move toward saving thousands of Jews in Europe who are threat-
ened by the Nazis with extermination.
Dr. Goldstein declared that American Jews hoped that the new
board would receive sufficient power and put into action "a truly
effective . program on an international scale."
The action taken by President Roosevelt in establishing the War
Refugee Board has won commendations from the American Jewish
Conference and froin other national movements as well as individual
leaders.

$8,000,000 Will Be Spent on Projects for Refugees
LONDON (JTA)—The British and U. S. governments jointly
are prepared to appropriate $8,000,000 to the International Red Cross
for any project recommended by the Intergovernmental Committee
for Refugees, it was announced this week. The announcement con-
firms a similar statement made by Assistant Secretary of State
Breckinridge Long before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Seek War Prisoners' Status for Jews in Nazi Lands
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The Nazis are not discriminating
against American prisoners of war who happen to be Jews, Secre-
tary of State Hull has made clear in a letter to Rep. Emmanuel
Celler of New York.
The letter, inserted in the Congressional Record, was an answer
to one from Rep. Celler which suggested that the Allies seek favored
. prisoner of war status for European civilian Jews in Nazi hands.
Secretary Hull indicated his agreement that something should be
done, but did not say when he would be ready to seek action.

Reveal Rumania's Agreement with Central Jewish Agency

STOCKHOLM (JTA)—The Swedish press this week published
the terms of the agreement reached between the Rumanian govern-
ment and • the Jewish Central Office in Bucharest with regard to
the repatriation of deported Rumanian Jews from Transnistria, the
Rumanian-administrated section of the 'Ukraine. The agreement,
termed. by the Swedish newspapers as a "ransom deal," provides:
1. The Rumanian government puts at the disposal of the Jewish
Central , Office 10 trucks for transportation of Jews from Trans-
nistria.
2. Each Jew permitted to return from exile in Transnistria
must apply for an identification card. A sum up to 800,000 lei must
be paid for each such card in advance by the Jewish Central Office.
3. The Jewish Central Office is to supply clothes for every
returning Jewish deportee prior to his leaving Transnistria for his
home town.
4. The Rumanian government guarantees to each returning
Jew personal .security. This apparently includes also a guarantee
that he will not be molested by the Gestapo.
5. The Jewish Central Office undertakes to pay immediately
the arrears of the special tax imposed upon Jews in 1943 in addition
to 4,500,000 lei which are to go on the account of the same tax for
1944.

Halifax Non-Committal in White Paper Talk with Proskauer
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Lord Halifax, British Ambassador to
Washington, preferred to remain . non-committal on the future of
the White Paper during his meeting with Judge Joseph Proskauer
and Jacob Blaustein, leaders of the American Jewish Committee.
Lord Halifax thanked Mr. Proskauer for his memorandum and
said he would send copies of it to London. On the subject of the
White Paper, Lord Halifax could add nothing to ,previous statements
by . the British government. He drew attention to the announcement
recently made in Commons by the Colonial Secretary upon the
subject of Jewish immigration into Palestine, and pointed out that
any statement to the effect of such immigration being stopped next
March was totally without foundation.

Let's Obliterate

the

NAZI HEELS

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WAR BONDS

Let's stop the oppressive, venomous tramping of these
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American soldiers back home again.

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