Dr. Joseph Schwartz Returns to Europe; Will Direct Aid for Jews in Hungary, Rumania

Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz, European chairman of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, left the United States by clipper this week for London to resume direction of the J.D.C.’s European activities, it was announced today. He had been in this country since the end of August, consulting with J.D.C. officers and executives regarding immediate and post-war plans for the rescue, relief and rehabilitation of Jews in Europe.

Dr. Schwartz, who throughout the war has supervised J.D.C.’s overseas rescue and emergency relief operations, will go to Switzerland from London. There he will confer with Saly Mayer, J.D.C.’s Swiss representative who has been the liaison for the rescue and relief program in occupied Europe since 1939. Under the direction of Dr. Schwartz and Saly Mayer, the J.D.C. will give priority to the rescue of thousands of Jews who remain trapped by the Nazis in Hungary. Emphasis will also be placed on the bringing of additional relief to Rumania’s 270,000 Jews of whom 200,000 are destitute. It is estimated that $1,000,000 will be required to provide emergency relief in this country where, although anti-Semitic regulations have been revoked, no steps have been taken to restore homes, jobs or property.

Under Dr. Schwartz’s direction this summer, and in cooperation with the War Refugee Board and Jewish Agency, the J.D.C. arranged for the largest single rescue operation of the war — the evacuation of 8,000 Hungarian and Rumanian Jews to Palestine, for which the J.D.C. allocated $3,000,000. During the first ten months of 1944 the J.D.C. appropriated a total of $17,952,114. Based on Dr. Schwartz’s report detailing the increased relief and rescue opportunities in Hungary and Rumania, as well as those countries recently liberated, J.D.C. officials anticipate an appropriation of $20,000,000 before the year ends.