Major national and local Jewish organizations united today to urge the President, and Congress to amend the present Displaced Persons Act to correct its “glaring injustices and inequities” and to make it a “true instrument of succor for the victims of Hitler’s war and a genuine program for bringing to our shores the worthiest and best among the displaced persons.”
Letters containing nine proposals for changes in the Act were sent to President Truman, Vice-President-elect Albin W. Barkley, Congressional leaders in both Houses and the chairmen of the Republican and Democratic national committees by the following organizations: American Jewish Committee; American Jewish: Congress; B’nai B’rith; Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society; Independent Order of Brith Sholom; Jewish Labor Committee; Jewish War Veterans; Synagogue Council of America; Union of American Hebrew Congregations; National- Community Relations Advisory Council and 26 local Jewish councils.
The letters, sent from the offices of the NCRAC, coordinating body of the signatory organizations, were especially critical of the provision of the current legislation which restricts eligibility to persons who entered the western zones of Germany and Austria on or before December 22, 1945, inasmuch as many displaced persons entered the zones later. They also urged that the cut-off date” be changed to make eligible for admission all persons who entered the western zones at any time up to January 1, 1949.
Increasing the total number of persons admissible under the act to 400,000 and elimination of the provision charging DP visas against future quotas was another major request contained in the letters, as was a request for “reinforcement of the screening provisions of the act by making ineligible for admission those who advocated or joined in persecutions of racial, religious or ethnic minorities.
The Jewish organizations also asked for “inclusion among eligibles under the act of those displaced persons, otherwise qualified, who may be in other parts of the world than the occupied zones,” with reasonable, percentages being allotted to eligibles in and outside the zones, They also urged “substitution of the principle long established in American immigration law, that a newcomer must provide assurances that he will not become a public charge, for the act’s present requirement that each displaced family shall have assured employment and housing as a condition of their admission.”
Also assailed were the provisions of the legislation which give preference to DP’s originating in areas “annexed by a foreign power” and special privileges to persons of “German ethnic origin.” Finally, the Letters requested elimination of all vocational preferences and asked legalization of the immigration status of DP’s now in the U.S. On the last point the letters suggest that the DP’s status be approved by the Attorney General rather than requiring, as at present, a special act of Congress.
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.
