The American Jewish Conference, the World Jewish Congress and the Board of Deputies of British Jews have submitted a joint memorandum to the Council of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, which opened its final session here today to decide on the liquidation of the organization. The memorandum urges:
1. During the transfer of the functions of UNRRA to the International Relief Organization, care should be taken that the displaced Jews should not suffer.
2. Since the majority of the displaced Jews are not repatriable, as attested by the report of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine, UNRRA should, in the execution of its transition program, be mindful of the fact that the future of these Jews lies in resettlement rather than in repatriation, and should undertake whatever resettlement assistance is possible for them.
3. The UNRRA Council should appeal to the Allied Control Council in the former satellite countries for permission to minister to the needs of the victims of persecution in those areas, in accordance with an earlier resolution adopted by the Council.
The Jewish organizations point out in their memorandum that nothing has been done to implement the last resolution, except a limited program in Hungary involving the expenditure of four million dollars. Recalling several earlier memoranda to the Council on the same subject, the document presented by the Jewish organizations “earnestly requests” the UNRRA to begin relief work immediately in the en-satellite countries.
The memorandum emphasizes that there are about 10,000 Jewish DP’s in Hungary, 15,000 in Rumania, a few thousand in Bulgaria and also many who are not technically displaced persons, but should come under that category since they are totally uprooted and homeless, having been displaced within their own countries.
The Jewish organizations also renewed their demand for the admission of their representatives to the sessions of the UNRRA Council as observers, pointing out that “this is of special importance during the forthcoming transition period, particularly because the displaced Jews form a very large part of the total of displaced persons who are to be resettled.”
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