Investigation Establishes Actual Situation of Polish Jews in Russia

Large shipments of food and clothing sent from the United States and other foreign countries for distribution among Polish refugees in Russia are now piled up here awaiting transportation to their destination. Thousands of individual parcels addressed to Polish Jews in Russia are among the shipments awaiting transportation, priority for which must be given to war materials.

It has been established beyond any doubt that all individual parcels addressed to Polish Jews in Russia eventually reach their destination. Not a single shipment sent by welfare groups has been lost. Individual standard parcels are also being sent from Teheran to Polish Jews in Russia at a cost of twenty-eight dollars in foreign currency, which also covers the Russian custom duty. Such individual packages of food and clothing are of great help to the refugees in the various parts of the U.S.S.R.

An investigation into the actual situation of the Jewish refugees from Poland scattered throughout Asiatic Russia has now established the fact that the majority of the Jews from Poland in Turkestan, Kazakstan and Uzbekistan consist of aged men, women and children. Only five percent of all the Polish Jews in Russia are fit for work in the collective farms and in factories. They, therefore, depend on relief to a much larger extent than Poles, who have taken to agricultural work, since many of them were agricultural laborers at home before the outbreak of the war.

REFUGEES RECEIVE A POUND OF BREAD DAILY; SHORTAGE HAMPERS DISTRIBUTION

The Polish relief authorities in Russia, some of whom have discriminated against Jews in distributing food and other relief received from abroad, are now carrying out their duties in a more satisfactory manner. But Polish Relief Headquarters does not have sufficient food and clothing to help every needy refugee from Poland. Whereas Russian citizens receive bread only when they work, refugees from Poland receive about a pound of bread daily whether they are working or idle. This is in accordance with the provisions of the Polish-Russian pact. Local Soviet authorities in various districts tried to refuse to give bread to the refugees, but the Moscow authorities ordered them to abide by the pact. However, since there is a general bread scarcity in Russia, it is obvious that this also affects the distribution of bread to the refugees from Poland.

The Jewish refugees from the Baltic countries and from Bessarabia are classified by the Russian authorities as full-fledged Russian citizens and cannot receive any foreign relief. They are established together with other evacuated Russian refugees on land and in industrial enterprises. They also receive no part of the medical aid sent by the Joint Distribution Committee from the United States which is being distributed among Polish refugees without any discrimination whatsoever.

More medical and other relief for Polish Jews in Russia is urgently needed since there is no hope at present that Polish Jews will be enabled to leave Russia, the investigation established. Jews serving in the Polish Army in Russia were permitted to leave together with their families as part of the Polish armed forces, which were dispatched to the Near East. They were not included, however, in many of the transports which left. Today there are no more units of the Polish army in Russia and no evacuation of civilian Polish citizens is likely. The only civilian Jews who have been promised exit visas by the Russian authorities are twenty-two Polish rabbis.