Dr. Joseph Schwartz, European director of the Joint Distribution Committee, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that, in order to help combat the food shortage in Europe, the J.D.C. was rushing 25,000,000 pounds of meet, fish, dairy products, fruit, vegetables and canned goods to European Jews. They have already received 26,000,000 pounds of food from the J.D.C. since the beginning of the year.
Including food shipments to all parts of the world, the year’s total will be 51,000,000 pounds, costing nearly $9,000,000, already purchased, with a budget of $58,000,000 being spent in Europe.
“Food distribution is one of the major undertakings of the J.D.C. seeking to assist the Jewish survivors of Europe in regaining their health. The food we distributed reached more than 500,000 men, women and children in 13 countries, saving them from starvation,” Dr. Schwartz declared.
Most of the food comes from the United States, Canada, South America, South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark. About 16,000,000 pounds of food, equalling 22,000,000,000 calories, were recently obtained in one gigantic order, costing more than $4,000,000. Huge quantities of food were obtained from surplus United States Army stocks, which recently turned over 3,500,000 pounds of canned fruit to the J.D.C.
The fruit is now on the way to Germany, Austria, Poland and Hungary. Those countries, as well as France, are key centers of J.D.C. distributions. Germany received more than 3,500 tons of food, which has already been given out; Poland, 2,500 tons; Hungary, 2,500; France, 1,700; and Austria, 1,100. In the next few months, Hungary will be the major recipient, getting 4,240 tons. Germany will get 3,000, Poland, 1,700, Austria, 1,400 and France, 834. Countries receiving J.D.C. food include Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Greece, Czechoslovakia and Rumania.
The J.D.C. has also shipped clothing and equipment to Europe in preparation for the distribution of winter supplies. A ship loaded with 200 tons of J.D.C. winter clothing is en route from Bremen to Antwerp, where it will be unloaded and rushed to displaced persons camps in the American zone of Germany. Since the first of the year, the J.D.C. distributed more than 3,250,000 articles of clothing, as well as nearly 400,000 pairs of shoes.
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.
