Within the ruins of Berlin today, 7,000 German Jews are coming to life out of hiding and concentration camps for the first time in more than thirteen years, Philip Skorneck, Joint Distribution Committee representative in the German capital, reported today at a press conference held here under the auspices of the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York.
Mr. Skorneck, who returned to the United States this week after carrying out relief and rehabilitation activities in Berlin for six months, said that “Berlin’s Jews are engaged in a grim struggle for existence in a cold, roofless, inflation ridden city. Most of the German Jews now living in Berlin are housed in inadequate private dwellings in the community,” the JDC representative continued. “Many of them–beaten and starved and broken by the Nazis–are unable to work. They live on a government dole of 35 marks per person each week or 60 marks ($6.00) a couple. Because it is almost impossible to live on this small amount, especially in view of the sky-rocketing inflation in Berlin, the JDC provides a grant of 100 marks per person each month to several thousand German Jews.”
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.
