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Nazis Killed Nine-tenths of All Jewish Children in Europe, U.J.A. Leader Reports

January 31, 1946
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Only one-tenth of the Jewish children of Europe are alive today and of these more than half are orphans. Mrs. David Mr. Levy, chairman of the national women’s division of the United Jewish Appeal campaign for $100,000,000, reported today following her return to the United States from a month-long study of the conditions and problems confronting the Jewish survivors in Europe.

Nine out of every ten Jewish children perished in Nazi death camps and gas chambers, Mrs. Levy reported. There were an estimated 1,500,000 Jewish children in pre-war Europe. Today there are no more than 150,000. “European Jewry is almost childless,” she emphasized, “and that represents the greatest threat to its future existence. If we save the Jewish children we save the Jewish people for generations to come. If we fail to help adequately we may be faced with the tragic prospect of the disappearance of the Jews of Europe.”

Mrs. Levy offered two “possible solutions” to the problem of the Jewish children in Europe: “(a) They must be helped to emigrate to Palestine and the United States, or (b) the governments concerned must find the means to stabilize the existence of these youngsters and integrate them into the general economic social framework.” She explained that “this has been particularly difficult in France where the Jews are despairing and losing hope of early rehabilitation because of the generally chaotic political and economic conditions.”

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