J.D.C. Reports on Relief Sent to Poland; Spent $2,000,000 on Supplies, $500,000 in Cash

The Joint Distribution Committee today took issue with charges made by unnamed “leaders of Jewish communities of Poland,” who, in a statement distributed by the Polish Telegraphic Agency, declared that Polish Jews are receiving only “very small aid from world Jewry.”

Describing the plight of the Jews in Poland as “excruciating,” the statement said that “the help received from the Joint Distribution Committee has not been enough even to wipe off the tears of the Jewish orphans,” and appealed for the immediate sending of funds, clothing and food.

Replying in behalf of the JDC, Moses A. Leavitt, secretary, pointed out that more than $1,000,000 worth of relief goods was made available to the Jews of Poland by the J.D.C. in 1945, in addition to $500,000 transmitted during November and December when transmission of funds from the United States to Poland became possible. One million dollars worth of supplies have also been purchased by the J.D.C. for the Jews of Poland since the beginning of 1946 and these supplies are being sent to Poland as rapidly as shipping and other conditions permit, he said.

“In the first three months of 1946, the J.D.C. has shipped from the United States alone $460, 767 worth of relief supplies,” Mr. Leavitt emphasized. “A typical shipment of these relief supplies, which left New York on March 11, contained the following items: 52,700 pounds of powdered cocoa drink, 5,040 pounds of powdered eggs, 14,500 pounds of tea, 20,000 pounds of coffee, 5,500 dozen pairs men’s wool hose, 1,166 dozen men’s union suits, 2,000 mackinaws, 4,200 man’s sweaters, 2,500 dozen ladies underpants, 1,000 dozen children’s underpants, 10,000 blankets, 25,025 pounds of soap, and 100 sewing machines. A total of 500,000 pounds of matzohs have also been shipped for Passover.

Declaring that the J.D.C. has received acknowledgment from the Central Jewish Committee in Warsaw of funds given it by the Joint Distribution Committee and of large quantities of relief supplies, Mr. Leavitt concluded: “The J.D.C. recognizes that the help it has provided is limited in terms of the need existing among Polish Jewry. But it is shocked to see that no recognition has been made of the substantial assistance it has already furnished. The latest statement made by unnamed Polish representatives can only serve to have a harmful effect on the great fund-raising efforts now being made in the United States to meet not only the needs of Polish Jewry, but the enormous needs of a distressed Jewry throughout Europe and many other parts of the world.”