The responsibilities involved in the relief, rehabilitation and resettlement of Europe’s 1,500,000 Jewish survivors which the Joint Distribution Committee is now undertaking are as vast as any encountered in civilized history, former Gov. Herbert H. Lehman stated today at a special conference of the Council of Organizations of the J.D.C. attended by 2,500 persons.
“In a sense the tremendous undertakings assumed by the J.D.C. in behalf of the distressed Jewish men, women and children of Europe is a repetition of what we did after the first World War,” Lehman stated. “But now these tasks must be accomplished on a far greater scale, because the destruction wrought on Jewish life twenty years ago was benign compared to what happened as a result of the deliberate sadism of Hitler and his ruthless gangsters.”
Speaking of Jews in the displaced persons’ camps of Germany and Austria and thousands in other areas, particularly Eastern Europe, Lehman stressed that they “are convinced they have little chance to create a new life in Europe.”
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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.