Support of the Jewish underground fighters in occupied Europe was pledged here today by the 25th annual convention of the International ladies Garment Workers Union in a resolution which also asked immediate aid for refugees and outlined demands for post-war reparations for the Jewish people.
The resolution included the following specific demands: 1) Immediate opening of the doors of the United Nations to Jewish victims of Nazi persecution. 2) Cancellation of the British White Paper on Palestine. 3) Creation of “free ports” in the United States and elsewhere. 4) Enactment of measures which will facilitate the return of exiled Jews to their homes after the war, and speed their rehabilitation. 5) Return to Jews and other persons of property seized from them by the Nazis. 6) Punishment of Nazi war criminals.
Another resolution condemned the anti-Semitism in the Polish armed forces and demanded that all Jews who wish to do so be allowed to transfer from the Polish to the British army. Adolph Held, chairman of the Jewish Labor Committee, reported to the convention on the activities of the underground organizations.
GREEN SAYS A. F. L. WILL DEMAND JEWISH PALESTINE AT PEACE CONFERENCE
Addressing the convention earlier, William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, pledged that the A.F. of L. would fight for a permanent Jewish National Home in Palestine at the peace conference. Strongly condemning the White Paper and demanding free immigration of Jews to Palestine, Mr. Green said that “the American labor movement is embittered and disappointed over England’s treatment of the Palestine problem.”
“Our hearts,” he stated, “bleed when reading of the Nazi atrocities against Jews. We consider the closing of Palestine’s doors to Jewish immigration a great crime. At the peace conference the American Federation of Labor will use its entire power and influence to secure a permanent national home for Jews in Palestine. Though England retreated from her promise to the Jewish people, we believe that Palestine must be a free and independent country. In order to achieve this, we shall fight for the abolition of all immigration restrictions against Jews in Palestine.”
The convention was also addressed by Alexander Kahn, Joseph Baskin and other Jewish labor leaders. Israel Mereminsky, special envoy of the Histadruth in the United States, was invited by the convention to address it in behalf of organized Jewish labor in Palestine.
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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.
