Jewish Repatriates in Poland Affected by Growing Unemployment

Thousands of Jews repatriated from Russia to Poland have been severely hit by the deepening unemployment situation, though the Polish Government had attempted to stimulate handicraft industries in an attempt to create jobs, it was reported here today from highly reliable sources.

The report said that at first, Polish officials thought that joblessness was only a passing phase in the absorption period for the newly-repatriated Jews. But after many months of aid from ORT and other Jewish organizations, with the sympathetic attitude of the Polish Government, the problem has not lessened. It is likely to increase as hundreds of thousands of workers are dismissed as “redundant and unproductive elements,” including many Jews, the report stated.

Unemployment also will be increased by the expected arrival next month of still more Jewish repatriates from Russia, The best efforts of Jewish organizations and the Communist regime are hampered by the time required for re-training the Jewish newcomers and for establishing new cooperative workshops.

The Polish Government seeks to re-build specifically Jewish light industry and artisan craft cooperatives to provide ready-made clothes, hats, shirts and underwear which the increasingly restive Polish population is demanding. These branches of predominantly Jewish light industry were liquidated during the war and destroyed again, after being rebuilt, during the post-war period in efforts to force all able-bodied workers into heavy industry. During this period, it was called “unpatriotic” to work in crafts or light industry.

The effort to build industrial giants for whose output there was no market at home or abroad ended with the Poznan riots when the Gomulka Government decided to re-build consumer goods industries. This development, followed up by the new ORT vocational training program, was reported a blessing for Jews as well as for a country starved for consumer products. Among those thus being brought back to handicrafts production, are not only Jewish repatriates who had no occupational experience but also Jewish workers who worked in steel industry in the Soviet Union prior to their repatriation to Poland.

One unresolved problem in this program is the shortage of funds needed to reestablish independent artisans both on the part of the Government in developing workshops and on the part of the artisans to buy machinery and raw materials. Some Jewish and even non-Jewish authorities are planning to ask Jewish landsmanchaften and other overseas Jewish groups to provide such equipment and raw materials, the report said.