Disclosing that the number of children born in the Jewish DP camps in Germany and Austria since the end of the war exceeded the number of persons who have emigrated, Dr. Joseph Schwartz, European director of the Joint Distribution Committee, said last night that provision must be made for the immigration to Palestine and elsewhere of 250,000 Jews.
Speaking at a press conference following the closing of a week-long conference here of JDC representatives from 17 countries, Dr. Schwartz stressed that when UNRRA ceases operations at the end of June, the JDC will be forced to assume heavier burdens, particularly in the interim period between the liquidation of UNRRA and the beginning of operations by the projected International Refugee Organization.
The JDC director said that 60 percent of the Jewish population in Europe was directly supported by his organization, but that an effort is now being made to gradually replace relief by reconstruction. He emphasized the importance of swift restitution of Jewish property seized by the Nazis, and demanded that legislation to accomplish this should not only be enacted but implemented.
According to Dr. Schwartz, Jewish relief and reconstruction work should be planned for a three-year emergency period. The plan should be worked out in close cooperation with the governments concerned, and he expressed the hope that the United States military authorities in Germany would help implement the policy of restitution of Jewish property.
Lso Sohwarz, JDC representative in Germany, reported that 130,000 Jewish DP’s in Germany out of a total of 167,000 lived in camps. Their morale was rapidly deteriorating as the prospects for early liberation dimmed, he warned. Joseph Silber, who directs JDC work in Austria, charged the Austrian government with showing little good-will towards Jews, and warned that “all Jews must quit Austria before the ocupation army is withdrawn.” Jacob Trobe, the JDC director in Italy, declared that the poverty of the Italian population and the presence of 2,000,000 unemployed ruled out the possibility of gainful occupation for refugee Jews.
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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.
