Assistance in finding new homes for an estimated 500,000 Jewish displaced persons in Europe is sought in a joint memorandum submitted today to the UNRRA Council, which is now meeting in Atlantic City, by the World Congress, the American Jewish Conference and the Board of Deputies of British Jews. The memorandum asks for representation in the administration of UNRRA and for its aid in gaining the cooperation of the United Nations Organization and the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees.
While acknowledging the achievements of UNRRA for the DP’s in the camps in Germany, Austria and Italy, the memorandum asserts that “the most pressing problems confronting the Jewish displaced persons are still far from solution.” The memorandum paints an even darker picture of the Jews in the Western European countries, especially France, Belgium and Holland where many of the surviving Jews are in need yet are as “almost totally deprived of help” because they are still classified as “enemy nationals. We urge the Council to remedy this situation without delay,” says the memorandum.
Inasmuch as “a vast majority” of the 500,000 Jewish displaced persons in Europe prefer, according to the memorandum, to go to Palestine, UNRRA is requested “to enlist the cooperation of the Mandatory Power whose assistance is critical” in the resettlement problem.
Specific suggestions are made in the memorandum with regard to the rehabilitation, education, health and care of the Jewish displaced persons in the camps in Germany, Austria and Italy. Among these recommendations are: 1. Occupational therapy for those in danger of demoralization because of lack of opportunity to apply themselves usefully and productively. 2. Vocational training and educational facilities for the others. 3. Land grants for the establishment of production and agricultural projects with wages paid in “negotiable currency” to the workers. 4. All-Jewish hospitals in as much as “most of the patients dread ministrations by German ‘scientists’.” 5. Employment of Jewish DP’s on UNRRA staff supervising recreational activities. 6. Ease strictures in shipments of supplies to the camp residents.
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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.
