Jewish Women Stage First Hunger Demonstration in Paris

The first organized hunger demonstration in Nazi occupied Paris took place yesterday, when 150 Jewish women with children in their arms stormed the relief offices of the Coordination Committee on rue’de la Bienfaisance, protesting against the inadequate relief given by the Paris municipality to Jewish women whose husbands have been interned in labor camps as aliens.

Shouting “we are starving”, “our children did not have sufficient nourishment for the last three months”, the women invaded the offices, demolished the furniture, smashed the windows and attacked the employees. The police arrived and ejected the demonstrators from the building, but violent scenes continued later on in the street. Finally the police are reported to have used force to disperse the women.

With relief from abroad restricted, the Coordination Committee, composed of all Jewish charitable societies, is depending for its funds chiefly on the Paris municipality. The Paris press today reporting the demonstration explains that the municipal authorities and the Jewish relief societies offered the women a dole of seven francs a day for each adult and five francs for each child. The women, however, rejected the offer, the newspapers assert.