JDC is Providing Food, Lodging and Medical Care for 1,200 from Eastern Europe, Mideast

The Joint Distribution Committee is currently taking care of some 1,200 Jewish trans-migrants from Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Living out of suitcases, they wait in Rome, Vienna and Paris for papers that will let them move on to a new life. This was revealed by Samuel L. Haber, JDC executive vice chairman, on his arrival at JDC’s overseas headquarters here after a swing through Iran, Israel and Europe where JDC conducts a wide range of health and welfare operations, with funds from the United Jewish Appeal.

The “refugee in transit” operation is currently costing JDC about $120,000 a month. Mr. Haber said. He pointed out that JDC spends approximately $25 a week for food, lodging, and medical care for each refugee during the period in which the United Hias Service processes his travel papers. Depending on the difficulties which may have to be untangled, this can take up to three months or longer, he said. More than 800 of the 1,200 transients are in Rome, including over 650 Jews from Poland, the JDC executive said. Another 200 are in Vienna, among them a substantial number of Czechs as well as Poles. Over 100–most of whom are recent arrivals from the Middle East–are in Paris. In addition, he noted, there are a few Eastern Europeans who have found their way to Brussels, Antwerp and Stockholm.

Mr. Haber said that, depending on world events, the number of trans-migrants in JDC’s care can fluctuate at any given time from a few hundred to several thousand. “Just before the Six-Day War broke out, the figure was down to some 400 Jews from various East European and Middle Eastern countries.” he said. “But, in the months right after the war, developments like the mass influx of Libyan Jews into Italy sent it up to nearly 2,000. Fortunately, the Libyans as a group proved unusually easy to resettle. But the number sky rocketed again when the Czech Jews came out after the Soviet invasion last August. Since then, nearly 3,000 Czechs have passed through the JDC office in Vienna, in need of help for shorter or longer periods. In the same period, as a result of the anti-Semitic campaign in Poland, the number of Jews coming out of there increased substantially.”

Most of the trans-migrants in Rome and Vienna are on their way to the United States or Canada, Mr. Haber said. “The main cause of the Rome migrations was that many of the men were arbitrarily dismissed from their positions in Poland,” he said. “An unusually large percentage of the group have high professional qualifications. They are university professors, figures in the entertainment world and communications, films and radio. Most of the women have professional training too. They are doctors, teachers, chemists and engineers.”