J.l.c. Seeks United Nations Action on Soviet Deportation of Jews

A delegation of the Jewish Labor Committee today presented United States Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, chief of the American delegation to the United Nations, with a memorandum urging that the United States Government “without delay” bring the matter of the deportation of Jews from Polish and Lithuanian territories annexed by Soviet Russia after World War II, before the United Nations General Assembly.

Simultaneously, Adolph Held, national chairman of the Jewish Labor Committee, today wired President Eisenhower urging that “imperative United States action in the United Nations be taken” to aid those who have been deported or have been marked for deportation to Siberia by the Soviet Union. Mr. Held said that “this is a matter of immediate urgency.”

The memorandum to Mr. Lodge said “it is incumbent upon the Government of the United States to immediately bring before the United Nations without delay the following actions:

“1. A resolution ordering the Soviet Union to cease and desist from any further deportations of Jews and other nationals from the above mentioned territories an flexed by the Soviet Union after World War II and to permit those now deported to return to their homes. 2. Send UN observers to ascertain the intensity of the deportations and to report back to the General Assembly.”

The JLC memorandum stated that “compounding their brutality in repressing the revolt for freedom of the Hungarian peoples, the Soviets have simultaneously renewed mass deportations begun by Stalin after World War II. Hundreds of thousands of Jews perished in the same Siberian outposts to which Jews are now being sent. The future of those being deported is either suicide before deportation or death after in the cold darkness of Siberia.

“The conscience of the free world can no longer tolerate, remain mute, or condone by inaction, either mass murders or mass deportations perpetrated by governments.” the JLC said.