The 8,000 to 9,000 Jews surviving in Greece are in desperate straits and require immediate assistance from private Jewish relief organizations, Harry Greenstain, deputy director of the welfare division of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, reported today, Mr. Greenstoin spent five weeks in Greece for UNRRA, helping to plan a welfare program there.
During his stay in Athens, he conferred with members of the Jewish community and helped them set up a committee for distribution of funds made available to them by Jewish groups in Egypt and South Africa. Mr. Greenstein has recommended to Joint Distribution Committee headquarters in Rome that a special JDC representative be sent to Greece to provide such assistance for the Jews which is not available from either UNRRA or the Greek government.
While in Athens, he visited an abandoned synagogue where 170 Jews were sleeping on the floor. The were inadequately clothed and needed medical assistance. Greek Jews, Mr. Greenstein said, receive a very small amount of food. They have been allotted some supplementary assistance for children, the sick and the aged.
The basic requirements of the Greek Jews, he stated, are funds from private Jewish relief organizations, which would help them to re-establish themselves in business and become self-sufficient; assistance in rebuilding Jewish institutions and help in arranging the emigration to Palestine of those desiring to go there. He estimated that there are about 500 Jewish or phans for whom Palestine immigration certificates are needed.
The general economic situation in Greece is very bad, with widespread unemployment, Mr. Greenstein disclosed, and until there is some improvement, the Greek Jews, in common with all other Greeks, will find great difficulty in re-establishing normal life.
The UNRRA representative said that most of Greece’s 80,000 Jews have disappeared, having been deported to Poland and other countries by the Germans. In Salonika, for instance, 600 remain of the pre-war Jewish population of about 54,000. In Ualinas 30 remain of 1,800. He said that there is no official anti-Semitism in Greece and confirmed that many Jews were enabled to escape deportation through the aid of non-Jewish friends.
Mr. Greenstein’s reason for coming to Palestine now was to arrange for the sending of Palestine relief and medical teams to Greece. While in Athens he secured permission from the appropriate authorities and approximately 28 Palestinians will shortly leave for Greece to join other voluntary groups which are working with UNRRA.
Mr. Greenstein said that his job in the Middle East was finished and that he was leaving for London shortly, where he will confer with officials of UNRRA’S European Regional Office. While here he has conferred with Jewish Agency leaders.
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.
