Plans for aid to Jews in France, Germany, Austria and other European countries during 1955 were made public here today by the Joint Distribution Committee in a report which outlines the situation of the Jews in Europe, and the needs of the Jews there. The JDC also operates in Israel and North Africa.
The JDC’s 1955 budget for France – $1,667,000 – reflects the fact that nearly two-thirds of the Jewish population of continental Western Europe, or nearly 300,000, currently live in France, “JDC provides some 60 percent of the budget of the Fonds Social Juif Unifie, the French fund-raising campaign whose member agencies carry on a wide welfare program on behalf of French Jewry,” the report states. “Some 14,000 men, women and children in France will benefit from JDC’s assistance during the coming year.”
Regarding Germany, the JDC states: “Some 25 percent of the 22,000 Jews at present in Germany receive assistance from JDC welfare, medical, legal, emigration or other services on a more or less continuous basis. These will continue to be the responsibility of the JDC in 1955.” The report points out that JDC’s program in Camp Foehrenwald presents serious problems. Of the more than 1,600 persons in Camp Foehrenwald, about 30 percent have had some kind of TB history or other hospital treatment.
A large percentage of the Foehrenwald residents has been presented and rejected for emigration to the United States of Canada. The JDC has set up a schedule of grants for families with emphasis on those emigrating for South America, where the local Jewish communities are incapable financially of assuming their integration. For those unable to emigrate, and who must remain in Germany, the local authorities have agreed to provide housing in various cities in Western Germany. While the German Government has not yet begun to implement this program, it is expected that the Foehrenwald families will be installed in the communities in 1955 and 1956.
200 FAMILIES TO LEAVE FOEHRENWALD IN 1955
“It is expected that approximately 200 families can be aided to leave Foehrenwald in 1955. In the meantime, JDC must continue with its program of welfare, medical, religious and cultural services in the camp,” the report states. “In other German communities, the JDC must continue aid to the aged where local authorities and restitution grants are insufficient, as well as aid to escapees from Eastern Germany.”
In Austria, the lack of emigration opportunities and the fact that a large part of Austria’s 10,400 Jews is in the older age brackets will make it necessary for the JDC to continue its aid here for some time to come. In the Vienna area, where the Kultusgemeinde currently provides cash aid to 660, some 50 percent of this group is over the age of 60 and an additional 25 percent is classified as permanently unemployable.
The JDC is also aiding a number of refugees in the Vienna area and some 350 in two DP camps – Asten and Glasenbach – in the U.S. Zone, and in the Rothschild Hospital. The JDC must also continue to operate a canteen, now serving 180 persons, or about 7,000 meals monthly, and to give medical and dental services to those clients who do not have access to public facilities.
“Intensified efforts must be made to find additional emigration opportunities from Austria. Permanent arrangements in institutions outside of Austria are being sought for those persons requiring life-time care,” the JDC reports.
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