An appeal to Jewish civilians to stay away from resorts selected by the Army as Redistribution Centers for servicemen returning from overseas, was made public here today by the Committee for Army and Navy Religious Activities of the Jewish National Welfare Board.
The appeal asks civilians not to spend their winter vacations in Miami, Florida; Lake Placid, N.Y.; Atlantic City, N.J.; Hot Springs, Arkansas; Asheville, N.C.; and Santa Monica, California. It points out that these resort communities have been selected by the Army as Redistribution Centers because of their climate and hotel facilities, and that to these centers are now coming in vastly increasing numbers the wounded, the sick, the fatigued, the over-strained from the thick of overseas battle conditions. “These men and their families from whom they have been separated, sometimes for several years, deserve every consideration, every facility that may be available,” the appeal emphasizes.
The appeal was issued as result of information reaching central Jewish organizations in New York that because of the fact that civilian vacationists are crowding resort communities, servicemen are unable to get rooms for their families who wish to be with them. They are unable to get seats in movies, to find medium priced restaurants which are not crowded with vacationists. Even a bus ride means they must stand.
“All this,” one report says, “is creating great resentment on the part of the service men against civilians who in their minds appear to have so little realization of what they have been through, and with whom they cannot compete in buying even the normal necessities of day-to-day living. This resentment is directed especially against those groups in the population which have flocked to these resorts and whose holiday mood contrasts so vividly with the recent harrowing experiences of the men who have returned.
“Because this situation is creating serious tensions, and because of the disturbing reports that have been pouring in from these resort areas, a movement has been started throughout the country for civilians to stay away from these redistribution and rehabilitation centers. Surely to stay away from these places is little enough to ask of ourselves at a time like this,” the report concludes.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
