Page Twenfy-Four
THE JEWISH
NEWS
The Plight of the J.D.C. Is The
Plight of the Jews in Europe
By ISIDORE SOBELOFF
Executive Director,
Jewish Welfare Federation a Detroit
HE MAGNITUDE and the complexity
of Jewish needs overseas make it necessary to appraise
what has been done thus far this year; to see clearly
what the Jews of the United States are called upon
to meet in the immediate present, and to plan for
1946. In 1944 the J. D. C. received from the commun-
ities of this country, through the U.J.A., pledges
amounting to about $14,500,000. The needs mounted;
possibilities for rescue were enlarged through the
War Refugee Board. Therefore, the J. D. C. was ob-
liged to go beyond its income and entered the year
1945 with a deficit of about two and a half million
dollars.
The victory over Germany for the first time re-
vealed the extent of the tragedy inflicted on the
Jews in Europe. It brought to the fore their enor
mous new needs and little by little it opened up before
our eyes the scale of their most essential requirements,
if the Jews of Europe are to survive. Now, for the
first time, they are free to tell us of their suffering
and their problems. Now, for the first time we can
meet with their delegations and study their needs.
Now, for the first time we can actually extend, and
in some places have been able to extend, direct assist-
ance to those who up to five months ago were com-
pletely cut off from direct contact with the Jews of
the United States.
Task of Unprecedented Magnitude
The limited help we were able to bring in the
face of the most monumental obstacles is now suc-
ceeded by a new condition. Instead of dealing with
hundreds, or with tens of thousands of Jews here and
there, who up to this time could be reached only
through special and limited or underground channels,
we now have to deal with the problem of the great
bulk of about 1,300,000 to 1,400,000 Jews, including
those Polish Jews evacuated to Asiatic Russia, who,
it is stated, are •to be brought back in due course to
Poland.
Most of the Jews who managed to survive are
paupers. They have been undermined in their health,
physical and mental, by the years of deliberate under-
nourishment. They were made vulnerable to many
diseases. In many parts of Europe the tuberculosis rate
among adults and children is unusually high. Many
Jews are shattered in their mental health as the re-
sult of the horrible and unimaginable strain of living
in daily fear of being discovered and dragged • off to
cruel death. There is hardly an intact Jewish family.
Thousands saw their own kith and kin killed before
their eyes. Thousands of surviving Jewish children
knoiv' neither father nor mother. The whole structure
of Jewish organization, Jewish community welfare
and economic assistance was swept away. The task
of putting the sorely driven Jews back on a basis of
decent self-support, of restoring their mental and -
spiritual health, is an enterprise of unprecedented
magnitude. This will tax the best thought and the
utmost effort of Jewish leaders and communities of
the United States, who must bear the major share of
responsibility at this most tragic juncture.
Statistics of Survival
The degree to which Hitler kept his promise of
physical extermination of Jews is reflected in the num-
ber of survivors in:
Number of
Out of
Survivors
Previous Total
France
175,000
300,000
Holland
25,000
145,000
Belgium
23,000
100,000
Germany
15,000
240,000 (in '39)
Poland now
80,000-100,000
3,300,000 (of whom
300,000
fled to
Russia)
Romania
300,000
700,000
Hungary
280,000
600,000
Yugoslavia
12,000
75,000
Greece
8,500
75,000
Czechoslovakia
12,000
Bohemia &
Moravia
25,000 Slovakia
360,000
The number of the Russian Jews trapped by the
Nazi occupation of the western provinces is unknown.
All told, executive of European Russia, out of a Jew-
ish population of almost seven million who came un-
der Nazi domination, since 1939 no more than a mil-
lion and a half survive in Europe.
What Is Their Condition?
Practically all the survivors were dislocated. They
were torn from their homes and deported. This goes
back in varying degrees to 1933 and includes thousands
of Jews who had been persecuted even before the
war. Most Jews were deprived of their homes and
businesses and all sources of livelihood. When after
the war they emerged from their' hiding places, they
found their homes destroyed or occupied by others,
their businesses and their stores non-existent or taken
over by "aryans",. their jobs filled by their neighbors.
Though they hoped that the reconstituted governments
would, as a matter of right and elementary justice,
immediately restore Jews to their homes, to their
jobs, this has proved illusory. In principle all gov-
er nts promised restoration. Some even passed
appinriate legislation. Much property had been lost
irretrievably. Even when the legal claim can be es-
tablished, the return of Jewish property is often
blocked by social resistance to unpopular court de-
cisions.
European Jewish Children
One of the most pressing and difficult problems
is that of the Jewish children left in Europe. Before
the advent of Hitler there were over one million Jew-
ish children in Europe. Today barely 150,000 survive.
In France we estimate 15,000 surviving children; Bel-
gium 3,000; Holland 4,000; Poland about 10,000, with
larger numbers in Hungary and Romania. Their
plight is worse than that of the adults. Tens of
thousands have been orphaned. Many are without
any living relatives. Thousands were hidden by their
own parents in hospitable Christian homes and in-
stitutions. To reunite these children with surviving
relatives and to gather those without kin into special
Jewish children's homes is difficult and costly. The
care of Jewish children claims top priority in the
J. D. C. program. In France alone, some 9,000 chil-
dren are looked after by institutions, subventioned by
J. D. C. The shape of Jewish life in Europe for genera..
tions to come may well be affected by what we can do
to restore the surviving children to a sound and nor-
mal existence.
Foreign Jews and Refugees
The problem of the Jewish population is immea-
surably complicated because a considerable propor;
tion of Jews are not citizens of the countries where
they live. This comprises two groups: First, long-
time residents who fled to many countries after the
last World War and did not become naturalized; sec-
ond, refugees on temporary stay. The latter are
usually without the right to engage in self-supporting
work. In many countries both groups are generally
barred from public relief. Likewise; as many of the
refugees are stateless, they receive neither the pro-
tection nor relief afforded by respective governments
to their nationals. How large the problem is can be
seen by the fact that in France about 80,000 Jews, al-
most one-half of the Jewish population, are not na-
tionals. In Belgium it is even worse; four-fifths of
the Jews are not nationals. In Holland, about one-
fourth are non-nationals. Switzerland harbors about
25,000 Jewish refugees.
Thousands of non-Italians, freed from German
and Austrian labor camps, are pouring over •the border
into Italy. In recent weeks some 13,000 penniless de-
portees entered that country to aggrevate the needs
already existing, with thousands of foreign refugees
who had been there since earlier days. Thousands of
ex-deportees found temporary stay in Sweden. In
faraway Shanghai there are some 21,000. Over 12,000
have been dependent completely on the J. D. C. for a
number of years.
Deportees in Germany
It is estimated that over 75,000 to 100,000 Jews are
now in former labor and concentration camps . in
'United States, British and French . zones of occupa-
tion and an undetermined number in the Russian
zones. The press has reported the pitiful condition of
these inmates. The recent New York Times survey
reveals that much needs to be done for these people.
Here let it be emphasized that they are a primary res-
ponsibility of the military government and of the
UNRRA, which should provide basic relief and shel-
ter. The fact remains that the Jewish deportees who
suffered years of starvation, who worked under un-
speakable conditions, who often witnessed with their
own eyes parents, husbands, wives gassed and tor-
tured and who for years have felt forsaken, need in-
finitely more than the 2,000 calories of food and the
primitive barrack-like shelter administered by imper-
sonal frequently unsympathetic, Allied Army officers.
They need supplementary assistance in body-building
foods. They need a change from their Nazi prisoner
garb. They require special medication. They ask
for the elementary comforts of a cake of soap, a tooth-
brush, a comb, a razor. They are eager to resume reli-
gious and cultural life. They want prayer books and
articles of Jewish ritual. They demand secular, Yid-
dish, Hebrew, and other books. They ask for a chance
to learn new vocations. They plead for a means of
communication with their loved ones. They are anx-
ious to plan their future under free surroundings and
not behind camp walls.
Above all, they need the understanding, guiding
hand of Jewish leaders and workers to help them to
regain confidence in themselves and in the world.
Jewish Chaplains and G. I.'s, who were among the
first to enter these camps, complained bitterly about
the plight of the Jewish inmates. They stress the
urgent and immediate need of sending in supple-
mentary material help, clothing, food, medicines.
They urge the need for a constructive
program to restore the moral of the Jewish
victims, if they are ever again to become
healthy, normal members of society. J.D.C.
teams are now in the camps and are serv-
ing* the refugees in many ways.
Destruction of Jewish
Communal Life
The task of rehabilitation of European
Jewry is aggravated by the almost complete
destruction of Jewish organizations, institu-
tions and leadership. Tiflis is unlike the
period following World War I. Then, in
spite of Jewish suffering, large parts of
community life and leadership remained
intact. Today, virtually all welfare insti-
tutions, schools and synagogues were liter-
ally destroyed. In a country like Poland,
where one-third of the Jews of Europe
had lived and which had been the center of
Jewish tradition and learning, hardly a
Friday, Ocfoher 26, 1945
synagogue remains standing. There are virtually no
rabbis available nor any religious or secular books.
It is clear that the full task of physical restora-
tion of the lives and health of the Jews of Europe is
impossible without large understanding and sympa-
thetic aid of governmental and intergovernmental or-
ganizations. These include the UNRRA, the Inter-
governmental Committee on Refugees, and the various
national governments. Some persons in this country
have believed that the entire program of relief should
be a public responsibility, and that once Europe was
liberated from the control and iniquities of the Nazi
regime, the problem of European Jewry would be
solved automatically as a part of general postwar re-
construction.
These good people believed that since UNRRA
was expected to care for the needy, all Jews in all
countries would be assisted by UNRRA; they were
certain that since the Intergovernmental Committee
on Refugees were designed to resettle stateless people,
the IGCR would be in a position promptly to under-
take this task.
- Unrealistic Expectations
These optimistic expectations have proved highly
unrealistic. The operations of UNRRA are subject to
serve statutory and limited legislation. UNRRA may
not initiate operations in any country without the
invitation of the government in question. "Paying"
countries, like France, Belgium and Holland, extended
no such invitation.
In former enemy countries UNRRA has no right
to operate at. all except on behalf of displaced persons
but not in behalf of people who remained in their
own homes. In Italy a full program of assistance will
be carried on. If additional funds are made available
to UNRRA, a program is now contemplated for Aus-
tria. UNRRA does operate in Czechoslovakia, Greece,
Poland and Yugoslavia. UNRRA has an obligation to
help liberated deportees in Germany. Where UNRRA
administers general relief, of course, needy Jews should
benefit from such help, provided the Government dis-
tributing agencies administer such relief fairly.
It
should be remembered that UNRRA is a temporary
agency at best, and limits its assistance to certain
basic emergency aid.
Its operations of necessity must be standardized.
Needy Jews in theory are treated on the basis of equal-
ity but the difficulty of the Jew's condition inheres
in the fact that merely equal treatment or assistance
to the Jews, in the face of greater suffering and har-
sher disabilities, is in itself a form of inequality. In
essence, the assistance granted by public authorities is
seldom' adequate, and is wholly unsatisfactory and in-
adequate in the case of most Jewish deportees. Neith-
er the military government nor the UNRRA are
equipped alone to deal with the special problems in-
volved in the care and the rehabilitation of the Jewish
survivors.
Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees
This committee was established in 1938 to deal
with the problem of stateless persons. It has limited
funds and limited authority. It has utilized the ser-
vices of the J. D. C. and other welfare groups. Recent-
ly it assumed . some financial responsibility for small
groups of stateless refugees in Portugal, Spain ) Bel-
gium and France. To that extent, the J. D. C. found
it possible to utilize equivalent sums for other neces-
sary programs. The IGCR has found it possible to
do very little, if anything, in the field of resettlement.
When it came to general emigration, such emigration
as proved feasible under present world restrictions,
was undertaken and financed by Jewish effort. Thus,
in the past few years the J. D. C., in the main, has
financed the emigration of Jews to Palestine.
The J. D. C. has pressed UNRRA and the Inter-
governmental Committee to give the maximum con-
tribution toward the needs of refugees and displaced
persons. Likewise, it has exerted every pressure pos-
sible on national governments to satisfy the needs of
their Jewish population. Unlike the non-Jewish pop-
ulation the Jews in the liberated countries have a
major task, not only in earning their livelihood under
more difficult conditions, but also at the same time
in rebuilding the welfare, religious and economic aid
institutions which were completely obliterated by the
Nazis.
It follows from the above that there are distinct
areas of vital and inescapable Jewish needs in which
the only assistance possible is that which can come
from the Jewish communities of the world—notably
the Jewish communities of the United States.
J.D.C. Financial Situation--1945
At the end of 1944 the J. D. C. projected an ag-
gregate of estimated requirements of $46,570,000 for
the year 1945. These estimates were based on reports
and applications of European Jewish leaders and of
Amercian and other representatives of the J. D. C.
This did not include certain areas for which no ap-
plication at the time was pending, nor did it provide
for large new contingencies. In the light of actual
needs revealed since the liberation of Europe these
estimates proved an understatement. -
It has become increasingly clear; however, that
even the most optimistic appraisal of anticipated in-
come from welfare funds in this country and in other
communities, cannot begin to keep pace with the
mounting requirements overseas. In consequence, the
J. D. C. has been obliged to curtail some operations
and to conduct all activities on a scale lower than the
obvious and incontestable needs. Through mid-Sep-
tember 1945 the J. D. C. has appropriated $19,821,775.
For the last part of 1945, continuing program which
cannot be reduced, amount to $8,735,000. Additional
requests for one-time grants and for increased budgets,
particularly in Hungary, Romania, Poland, Yugo-
slavia, the camps in Germany and Austria, France,
Belgium and Holland, total $8,190,000, or a sum total
of $36,750,000 estimated as needed for this year. In
order to meet these requirements the J. D. C. estimates
that it will receive from 1945 U. J. A. a maximum of
$21,000,000; from Canada $500,000; from South Amer-
ican countries $200,000; from Landsmanschaften in the
United States $300,000; from the South African Jew-
ish War Appeal $1,200,000; from the Intergovernmental
Committee on Refugees an estimated $1,300,000, or a
total of $24,500,000. This would result in a deficit as
of December 31, 1945 of $12,250,000, to which should
be added the deficit of $2,400,000 with which the J.D.C.
entered 1945 or a total deficit of $14,650,000.
For 1946. Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz, European di-
rector of the J. D. C., after taking into consideration
currency stabilization and other factors, states- "There
must be raised at least $50,000,000 or steps will have
to be undertaken to limit our program drastically."
The plight of the J. D. C. is the plight of the Jews
of Europe.