JDC Denies Attack by Polish Government; Protests Mound
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supplied, trained and supported
by Polish resistance fighters.
Polish Communist officialdom,
abetted by the state-controlled
press, is demanding that Polish
Jews condemn "ignominious accu-
sations against the Polish nation"
allegedly being made by "Zion-
ists" abroad.
The emphasis has switched from
attacks on so-called "Zionist" ele-
Ments within Poland to include
denunciations of Zionism and Jew-
ish leadership abroad with an im-
plied threat to Polish Jewry to re-
nounce them for their own good.
The change in emphasis, accord-
ing to observers here, stemmed
from the angry protests being
lodged by Jews and non-Jews
throughout the free world and even
in some areas of the Communist
bloc against Poland's anti-Jewish
campaign camouflaged as anti-
Zionist.
These protests and expressions
of revulsion have apparently stung
the Warsaw regime. Some Polish
embassies abroad are refusing to
accept letters and resolutions of
protest for transmission to their
capital, it was learned here.
(In New York, the Joint Dis-
tribution Committee said Tues-
day that "the only truth to the
attack" on the JDC as an instru-
ment of espionage "is that the
Joint Distribution Committee
was asked to terminate its ac-
tivities in Poland at the end of
last year." The statement, made
by Samuel L. Haber, executive
vice-chairman of the JDC, noted
that "the accusations against the
JDC are all the more astound-
ing because of the Polish gov-
ernment's recent acknowledge-
ment of JDC's contributions and
assistance."
(Haber referred to a letter last
August from J. Rutkiewicz, under-
secretary of state in the ministry
of health and social welfare, ex-
Dressing thanks for JDC activities
in Poland which, he said, had
"helped in the vocational retrain-
ing of a part of the Jewish popula-
tion in our country" and "has fa-
cilitated their further independent
work within the framework of our
constantly developing economy."
The letter pointed out that "be-
cause of this situation, I wish to
inform you that we consider the
neriod of the JDC's activity in
Poland, which has lasted until
now, as sufficient because the
goals which have guided them
have been reached."
(Haber pointed out that at that
time JDC was assisting some 14,-
000 Jews out of 20,000 in the coun-
try, at a cost of about $500,000
a year. Despite the feeling that
Jews in Poland still needed assist-
ance, he said, "JDC was left no
option but to terminate its assist-
ance programs in Poland at the
end of 1967."
(The JDC executive stressed
that "JDC, in its work of relief and
rehabilitation of Jewish victims of
war and persecution, has scrupu-
lously refrained at all times from
political activities. It has never
deviated from its principle of ex-
clusive adherence to its humani-
tarian role. Wherever it has car-
ried out its humanitarian pro-
grams, it has continued to guard
zealously its complete independ-
ence from all political movements
general as well as specifically
Jewish," he declared.)
The campaign in the Polish press
seems to have the two-fold pur-
pose of convincing Poland's sur-
viving Jews that they were aban-
doned to their fate by Jewish and
Zionist leaders during the German
occupation in World War II and to
further inflame anti-Jewish feel-
ings among the general population.
The Polish newspaper Kurier
Polski alleged Sunday that Jews
collaborated with the Gestapo
during the war and vied among
each other for Nazi favor. The
Trybuna Mazowiecka claimed
that no more than 1,000 Jews
fought in the Warsaw Ghetto up-
rising in 1943 and that they were
14—Friday, April 5, 1968
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
According to reports from War-
saw Monday, a leading Communist
Party official, Piotr Jaroszewicz,
speaking with apparent approval of
the Politburo of which he is a
deputy member, declared that "in
a violent anti-Polish campaign,
world Zionism is not even hesitat-
ing to mobilize for the struggle
against the people's authorities
certain Polish citizens of Jewish
origin. We are convinced that an
overwhelming majority of them
will declare themselves against
and separate themselves from,
these hostile machinations."
The official's remarks were re-
garded as the strongest anti-Zion-
ist stand taken by an important
party official since the Communist
Party chief, Wladislaw Gomulka,
tried to tone down the anti-Zionist
campaign.
The Polish press, ignoring Go-
mulka's statement that "it would
be a misunderstanding for anybody
to see Zionism as a danger to
Socialism in Poland or to any exist-
ing social-political system," called
on Polish Jews to declare them-
selves against Zionism and loyal
to Poland.
In New York, the Jewish
Labor Committee urged Presi-
dent Johnson Sunday to instruct
the American delegation on the
United Nations Human Rights
Commission to call for an emer-
gency session of that body to
deal with the Polish govern-
ment's campaign against the
Jewish minority.
A telegram to the President des-
cribed the anti-Jewish campaign
conducted by the Communist Party
and the Polish government and ac-
cused the regime of attempting to
"coerce" the Jews "to bear false
witness against what the world
knows are the true conditions in
present-day Poland" and to "falsi-
fy history."
The appeal also was signed by
the Farband Labor Zionist Organi-
zation, the Federation of Jewish
Underground Fighters Against
Nazism, the Katzetler Farband
Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organi-
zation, the Association of New
Americans Organization in Phila-
delphia and the United Jewish Sur-
vivors.
A resolution demanding that the
United States revoke the tariff
privileges now. enjoyed by Poland
under the 'favored nations' clauses
in its trade treaties with the United
States was unanimously adopted
by 400 delegates at an emergency
conference called by the Jewish munist," published an article cri-
Labor Committee.
ticizing "certain Polish circles"
In Toronto, allegations by the for demonstrating anti-Semitism.
state-controlled Polish press that and blaming student unrest in
Jews collaborated with the Nazis Warsaw on the children of Jews.
The Belgrade periodical, receiv-
during World War II were de-
nounced as "a piece of political ed in Washington, carried an ar-
obscenity" Sunday night. The ticle by Oskar Davico, a Jew, who
speaker was former Toronto said he was "revolted by the blind-
Mayor Phillip Givens, who ad- ness in certain Polish circles" in
"proclaiming a few Jews as cul-
dressed 800 persons attending a
rally at the Holy Blossom Tem- prits for everything unpleasant
ple to protest . Poland's current that has happened" rather than
anti-Jewish campaign. The rally trying to grasp the meaning of the
student demonstrations.
was called by the Canadian Jew-
In Tel Aviv, harassed Polish
ish Congress.
Jewry was invited en masse to
Mayor Givens, who visited come and settle in Israel at a
Poland two years ago, said the public rally Tuesday night to pro-
official accusations against Jews test the Polish government's anti-
by Polish political leaders repre- Jewish campaign. The rally spon-
sented "the ultimate lie." Stefan sored by the Israeli executive of
Crajek, president of the Ghetto the World Jewish Congress and
Fighters and Partisans of Israel, the Association of Polish Jews in
said that all Jewish veterans of the Israel, was addressed by Shimon
Polish underground resistance Peres, former deputy defense min-
movement have handed back the ister, and Prof. Arieh Tartakower,
medals awarded to them by Pol- WJC chairman.
and. He said that the anti-Semitic
(Israel's interests in Poland
campaign by the Warsaw regime
have been entrusted to the
has reached a point where the head
care of the Netherlands Em-
of the Polish historical research
bassy in Warsaw, it was
society was dismissed for alleged-
leraned following a meeting
ly "overstressing" the losses suf-
between Israel's Foreign Min-
fered by Jews in the Holocaust.
ister Abba Eban and the for-
eign Minister of Holland, Dr.
The Yugoslavian Communist
Party weekly, "Yugoslav Kum-
Joseph Luns.)
.
Social Worker
There is a monument on Henry Street on
New York's Lower East Side. It is the
Henry Street Settlement House and it is a
monument to the vision and dedication of
a great American woman, Lillian Wald.
Born in 1867, Lillian decided early in
her life that she wanted to help people.
Accordingly, she took nurses' training at
the New York Training School for Nurs-
ing. Appalled by the dreadful conditions
then prevalent among the immigrant pop-
ulation of the Lower East Side, Miss
Wald and another nurse, Mary Brewster,
established a nursing and sanitation serv-
ice for the underprivileged, using their
own apartment as headquarters. This
service grew and ultimately became the
Visiting Nurses' Service, which continues
to furnish assistance to the needy sick in
their homes today.
In 1885 Lillian Wald established the
Henry Street Settlement House —originally
called the Nurses' Settlement—with the
assistance of the well-known philanthro-
pist, Jacob H. Schiff. To this haven for the
bewildered and friendless came streams
of immigrants. To the children she was
mother, friend and defender. Through her
efforts, classes for ungraded children were
first established in the New York City
schools. To the adults, strangers in a new
land, she was friend, counsellor and
teacher, for, in addition to the visiting
nurses' service, Lillian made available
social activities and education.
Lillian Wald's advocacy resulted in the
creation of the Federal Children's Bureau
in 1912, a landmark in social service. Her
70th birthday was celebrated nationally.
Her death, in 1940, evoked tributes from
the leading figures in the United States.
Her life, however, is her true monument.
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