Reporting the receipt of cables indicating that emigration from German-dominated territories was still possible, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society announced today that it was reorganizing its machinery on a wartime basis similar to that during the last war to render aid to Jewish emigrants and refugees.
Plans for registration of refugees in countries adjacent to Poland to bring them into contact with relatives in the United States and South America and to expedite departure from neutral ports of those holding visas for overseas countries are being worked out by HIAS affiliates in Rumania, Latvia, Lithuania, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Cables were received stressing the necessity of immediate action to facilitate emigration. The Hilfsverein der Juden in Deutschland cabled from Berlin: “Continuance of emigration possible and urgency requested. There are many immigrants with valid immigration visas. Passage on neutral lines obtainable against free foreign currency.” The Jewish Kultusgemeinde in Prague cabled: “Continuance of emigration activities unhindered. Creation of further emigration possibilities urgent and indispensable. Spare no effort to help us.”
Abraham Herman, president of HIAS, said that contact with the Berlin and Prague organizations, previously maintained through the HIAS-ICA Emigration Association in Paris, will now be carried on directly from New York. He added that it was likely that through this contact it would become possible to ascertain the whereabouts of relatives in the occupied provinces of Poland and prepare the way for their possible emigration.
The HIAS-ICA cabled that despite difficulties created by the outbreak of hostilities it was maintaining contact with emigrant headquarters and its offices in neutral and friendly countries. Dr. James Bernstein, European commissioner of HIAS and co-director of the HIAS-ICA, visited London on Oct. 2 and conferred with British Jewish leaders regarding problems of emigrant aid during the emergency.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
