The United States Government was urged tonight to take the initiative in providing sanctuary for refugees from Nazi-occupied countries, in an address delivered by Senate majority leader Alben Barkley at a meeting here called to demand action to rescue Jews and other persecuted peoples in Nazi-held Europe. Sen. Barkley also demanded that Palestine be opened to “as many as the country can safely absorb.”
Religious and labor leaders also heard a report by Dr. Stephen S. Wise on a program for rescue of refugees submitted to the State Department on behalf of the newly formed Joint Emergency Committee for European Jewish Affairs, which represents the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, B’nai B’rith, Jewish Labor Committee, Synagogue Council of America, Agudas Israel, Union of Orthodox Rabbis, and the American Emergency Committee for Zionist Affairs.
Following addresses by Dr. Wise, Rep. Joseph Martin, Republican leader in the House, Brig. Gen. William Arnold, chief of Army chaplains and other public figures and church leaders, the meeting adopted a resolution associating itself with the following proposals made to the State Department:
1. Establishment of sanctuaries in Allied and neutral nations, and Palestine for a substantial number of Jews.
2. Revision of administrative procedure in the United States to permit entrance of thousands of refugees under the present immigration quotas.
3. Setting up of a special inter-governmental agency to carry out the program.
4. Action by the United Nations to organize a system of feeding victims of Nazi oppression unable to leave Europe.
5. Appointment of a commission to assemble evidence for the eventual prosecution of war criminals.
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.
