There are no more than 55,000 Jews in Poland, H.M. Caiserman, representative of the Canadian Jewish Congress asserted today upon arriving from Warsaw. A large percentage of them are determined to leave the country, he added.
More than 25,000 Jews have left Poland since its liberation, mainly because they were Zionists, Caiserman said. The fear of anti-Semitic attacks was only a secondary reason, he added. Despite sincere efforts by the government to combat anti-Semitism, “the virus with which 80 percent of the population is affected will not be driven out for many years,” he emphasized.
Caiserman visited twenty Jewish communities in various parts of Poland and in Upper Silesia. He lauded the relief work of the Joint Distribution Committee, and stressed that “without the aid of the J.D.C. the remnants of the Jews in Poland would have perished.” Shipments of clothing and food sent by the J.D.C. and by the Canadian Jewish Congress proved to be most useful, he said, adding that further supplies of clothing, medicaments and equipment for dentists and for artisans are urgently needed.
(The Joint Distribution Committee today reported that a total of 50,000,000 zlotys have thus far been transmitted to Jews in Poland. These funds have been turned over to the Central Jewish Committee and to organizations sponsored or cooperating with it. At the same time the Warsaw office of the J.D.C. has informed its headquarters here that six transports of food, clothing and medicaments have arrived in Poland and their distribution has been arranged with the Central Jewish Committee.)
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
